My D is undecided between Texas Tech and Texas A&M and was wondering if anyone had input. She has a full-ride scholarship to Texas Tech for undergrad, and a $10,000/year scholarship to TAMU. She is accepted into engineering at both schools. She is accepted into honors at both schools (Engineering Honors at TAMU).
She is majoring in engineering, but is on a Pre-Med track because medical school is what she wants to pursue.
Anything about Pre-Med life at TTU vs TAMU would be super helpful, especially considering she is engineering which takes a lot of time and is difficult. Please help us decide, and thank you!
What is the intended engineering major?
Note that TAMU has secondary admission to major (ETAM) for engineering students. The automatic admission threshold is 3.75 college GPA, but some majors are so popular that it is unlikely that students below the automatic admission threshold will be admitted.
While a pre-med will want to keep a 3.75 college GPA anyway, falling below that at TAMU could be a double blow in making both medical school admission and getting into one’s desired engineering major (if it is one of the more popular ones) unlikely.
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Yes definitely something to consider. Intended eng major is chemical. So pretty competitive. Also, TAMU just doesn’t seem to have the ample medical opportunities TTU offers.
Full ride is also attractive, especially if expensive medical school is in the future.
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Haha yes, a debt-free undergrad is very attractive to us.
Not sure if this is a true statement - you might reach out to each.
But if this is true - between full ride and this, you sort of answered your own question.
Medical schools won’t care which you choose - if your concern is reputation or ranking.
Also, TAMU just doesn’t seem to have the ample medical opportunities TTU offers.
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My daughter is an electrical engineering sophomore at TTU with 27,500 a year from Tech. She is loving the ECE department and has a fabulous internship this summer at Texas Instruments. Tech’s Honor college is the perfect fit for a pre med. It helps get all the shadowing, research, MD mentor, etc for medical school. In addition your daughter will have a better chance of having a higher GPA at Tech’s engineering than TAMU
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My thoughts exactly as I read more articles from medical admissions boards. Also I’ve been looking at shadowing/volunteering opportunities in College Station, and there definitely doesn’t seem to be as much. Thank you!
This is my D’s situation exactly. Is yours National Merit? Thank you for all the info!
She missed NMF by 2 questions in Texas. But she got 9K from Presidential and 18.5k from engineering that stacked. She is loving her experience at Tech, found her true tribe (nerdy, black t-shirt wearing kids), D has not had a problem keeping the 3.5 GPA/ 15 hours a semester ( has 3.9 currently).
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Does she struggle finding a balance between course load and free time? I hear that medical school volunteering requires a lot of free time, but engineering requires a lot of studying.
Texas A&M has the 8th highest number of applications to medical school.
It was a copy paste from the original post but it didn’t show up properly. Hence I bolded it to try and note it was OPs words.
I was saying if TTU is cheaper and in post 3 the OP made that statement you are referencing.
So based on those two things that OP noted that it seems like they already had the answer.
Chem E is one of the harder engineering majors. I’d make sure your kid is in a very supportive environment and the fit is good. TTU seems to check a lot of boxes for your daughter.
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The engineering labs (she has to take 4 for EE) suck up tons of time. But she usually puts her head down on m-f and studies, so she can have fun on Saturday and be lazy on Sunday.
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wow - my kid went to the wrong school - he’s busting tail 6.5 days a week. Maybe taking off half Saturday.
You got lucky!!!
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Sounds like TTU Honors is your answer: better environment for PreMed, full ride 
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Which school did yours at?