I think someone posted above that asking a question inAIS to change to “Blinn only”. Your student can try but there is no guarantee if there will be any change of progress.
Thank you for your thoughts. He wants to be a Mechanical Engineer. I worry that he may not know enough about mechanical engineering to actually know that for sure yet. I think he knows enough, but I am not sure. It could be that some other engineering discipline suits him.
If he stays with the Mechanical Engineering track, he may not get that major at TAMU. I would guess that less than 20% of TAMU first year engineering students end up with 3.75+ GPA. I would love to know the actual number. I think I can come up with an idea of that number from that TAMU data table from 2020.
I have read that GPA, personal essay and capacity are the drivers for holistic ETAM selection. The student is responsible for the GPA and the essay. TAMU is responsible for capacity. TAMU could hire more faculty for the popular engineering majors to create more capacity. I imagine that would be expensive. Maybe A&M could charge more per hour for the engineering majors since hiring that faculty is probably expensive since engineers are highly compensated.
As far as being driven, he is plenty driven. Sometimes too driven in my opinion. He loves A&M, but I don’t think he would select a major he didn’t want just to be an Aggie. If I were him, it would be easy. I would select TAMU knowing that I’d need to, excuse the expression, bust my a$$ to get that 3.75+. As my friend who is an engineer told my son, “get it done – go all in!”.
I will definitely let him decide. He knows that this is his baby. That is very important. I feel like if I push him toward one school he will push away from that. So, I’m walking a tight rope. I wish I could be a little more frank with him, but to do so would probably backfire. I guess this is all part of letting go as they become more independent. I’m just telling him he has lots of good choices. I think at some point he will ask what I would do if I were him. I’m going to try to dodge that question knowing that I really, really want to answer it very directly. 
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One good thing about ETAM, the freshman really are exposed to different types of Engineering, which helps those ‘on the fence’ decide what concentrations to pursue.
A&M already charges different rates, for different majors. You can see this in the Tuition Calculator (below).
Personally, I hope they don’t hire more professors, allow even more students into the program.
I’m married to an Aggie, we have many Aggie relatives and friends. No one we know-former students, parents of current students-is on board with the huge ‘25 by 25’ push. It isn’t putting an equal emphasis on all other majors, it’s potentially ‘watering down’ the Eng program.
Quality over Quantity anyday!
The university is ginormous. Infrastructure can’t keep up-on campus or locally in B/CS.
Bigger isn’t always better
Off my soapbox😅 My Aggie has LOVED her 4 years at TAMU, excelled academically, made lifelong friends and will bleed maroon forever. It was the right choice for her. That being said, she most likely would’ve had equally great experiences at other schools, as well.
You might want to set a deadline with your son, for him to make his decision. Hopefully he’s got housing squared away at all schools, some schools have admitted students days (A&M does not), he’ll need to register for New Student registration, go thru dorm selection, etc. The longer he waits, he could miss out on things for incoming students.
And yes, this parenting gig is TOUGH!
Keep us posted!
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@95Ag27 Its ok for an entering freshman student (who is a senior now and who has been accepted for the fall) to take a summer class at a community college - it doesn’t turn them into a transfer student. Its up to the student to make sure its the right class to take. My son took tx gov the summer before freshman year.
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R2027,
Our daughter also selected TEAM and waitlist. From you post above, we are a little confused as it looks like you said the advisor said she would be approved for TEAM if she got the offer in January. Are you worried that now she won’t get either because she selected both? We are in the same boat. Thanks.
@bhebert449 don’t be surprised if advisors suggest 12-13 hours for fall freshman year, especially taking 8 week math courses at Blinn. Those 8 week courses are fast paced.
Mays always advises their incoming freshman to take 12 hours in the fall, and those aren’t even Mays core curriculum classes. They want their students to be involved on campus AND start out strong academically.
Entering as TEAM, your student will need to make A’s and maybe a few B’s, to fulfill their agreement.
I definitely wouldn’t encourage 15 hours.
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@Steve6 Here are the spring 22 etam statistics. If it is not readable, it is on reddit
If someone could come up with an algorithm to predict a freshman engineers gpa, they would be very popular!!
Etam results vary so many ways - kids at the top of the class from competitive schools might not do well, and kids from relatively uncompetitive schools, didnt study in hs, do great, and every possible scenario in-between. My son was the later. In hs, took ap calc ab, phys 1,2,C, ap chem (ap score of 2?, eeks), programming. Hit the ground running, especially chem, and got a 4.0 at the end of the year. No tutors. Classes are not curved down, typically straight scale, and some are curved up. Big dif between 89 and 90 as far as gpa so always shoot for the high A
Thank you for some great advice. The 25 by 25 is off-putting. I agree that it might water down the program. I especially agree with quality over quantity. The Top 10% auto-admit probably creates a lot of administrative headaches for TAMU as well.
I will give him a deadline. His mom and I are thinking April 1. We still have three visits to do. Two in the Northeast and one to UT Dallas which offers direct admit to Mechanical Engineering (and they offered a pretty good merit award).
He and I are actually leaving Friday to go to RPI. The low on Friday is 4 degrees! I want him to understand what he’s getting into.
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Where on Reddit? Thanks!!!
Hey there,
The advisor said they wouldn’t have offered if she wasn’t eligible for TEAM. My concern has been that although TEAM was a choice given to her in the three buttons, that when they reviewed her having so many dc hours, it wouldn’t actually be an option. That’s why we originally chose both.
I googled etam results spring 2022 to find it. They dont appear on any tamu site, someone requested it from tamu I believe
https://www.reddit.com/r/aggies/comments/x8ldl4/spring_2022_etam_results/
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Are full admissions still being offered? I’m applying for economics and I haven’t heard of anyone personally getting in.
Thanks. That’s great data.
Your other posts say you applied for Engineering.
Did you receive offers for Wait List and/or Blinn TEAM?
I actually went ahead and changed my first choice major to economics before I heard anything from engineering. I realized that I would enjoy economics more and it could still be suitable for what I want to do in the future and is way less competitive
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2nd qtr, 1280 SAT and you weren’t offered Wait List/TEAM option…hopefully I’m wrong, but I’d be prepared for PSA offer.
Everything at TAMU is competitive…
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As long as I’d be able to go to a campus like Corpus Christi, I think I’d be willing to do PSA.
It just wouldn’t really make much sense to me because I know someone who had a 1170 SAT and a 3.7 who got in for Blinn with computer science as his first choice. Regardless, I hope I hear back somewhat soon.
Are they still indeed sending out offers of full admission, though? Or is it by now just purely alternative pathways?
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If you do get PSA, I got it last year and chose Corpus (love it!). I can answer any questions you have about the program.
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@noah_h i feel certain your friend didn’t submit the 1170? Did he get into straight Blinn College or was he offered TEAB? He definitely didn’t get into CompSci, as every incoming freshman enters as General Engineering, then goes thru ETAM.
Here’s the link for PSA. Corpus Christi is a fantastic campus! Just be aware that major choices are limited, so make sure there’s something you’d be okay with (and not every major offered at each PSA campus).
You should get some sort of decision on or near March 1, hopefully.
https://admissions.tamu.edu/apply/freshman/program-for-system-admission
He was admitted into TEAB—sorry, I should’ve clarified. I think he did submit his SAT score. He was in the top 24%, though. Meaning he was about… 20-30 spots ahead of me out of a class of ~800.
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