What are the requirements to get admitted to both and what do they look for in applicants? Also I’ve heard that University Honors is much harder to gain admission into and you are required to live in the honors dorms? Is that true?
@KohliTheBeast Howdy.
TAMU engineering honors
University honors… deadline already past. So if you have applied then you would be put though hostilic review. In engineering you compete against a small pool of honors candidates, but for university honors, you compete against nearly every student in the university so it tends to be harder to get admitted.
University honors requires living in the honors dorm.
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Freshmen admitted to the University Honors Program are required to live in the Honors Housing Community and participate in the Honors First Year Experience course (UGST 181)
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I’m a junior so I won’t be applying for next fall. If University honors is generally harder to be admitted to, what are the general stats of those accepted? Do they focus on SAT/ACT, rank, ECs?
My son is a junior in both honors programs. He has been pretty underwhelmed, so I wouldn’t stress out too much about them. At graduation, Latin Honors – Summa Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, and Cum Laude will mean a lot more on your transcript. http://registrar.tamu.edu/Graduation-Degree-Programs/Graduation-Diplomas/Graduation-with-Honors
Although honors courses are not supposed to be harder, my son had an engineering class where the professor raised the grading curve for honors students. For regular students, “extra credit” exam problems raised the score. For honors students, the curve was set to include the "extra credit problems. For example. successfully solving a ten-point extra-credit problem would raise an 85 to a 95. For the honors students the same 95 would be scored 95 out of 110 points, an 86. With this happening on every test, the decision to take the honors section turned what would have been an A in a core engineering class into a B, and that’s what the transcript shows.
Other honors classes have not been as egregious, but most have meant more work.
@Beaudreau I’m not so worried about the classes as much as I am about getting into the program. What were your son’s stats? I’m trying to get an idea of what you need to be at to get into University Honors.
@KohliTheBeast - He was a National Merit Finalist, passed 15 AP exams, had a 2320 on his SAT (old test), and a 3.8 GPA unweighted.
@KohliTheBeast, They seem to change entry requirements to the EHP each year. When my son applied (Class of 2019), they were admitted based on class rank and your Math score from SAT or ACT. I think he also had to submit a short essay. As @Beaudreau mentions, my son has also not been impressed with the program. Seems unorganized with ongoing requirements a moving target. Lots of busy work – attend meetings telling you how to register, attend socials, attend presentations. Today, in the midst of preparing for 5 finals, he had to go help freshman prepare for finals for 4 hours. None showed, but he had to stay. He has not experienced many grade advantages either – sometimes even a disadvantage. While my son is just a sophomore, there are more advantages further down the line – research, etc. – so I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from applying.
@lee6666 huh interesting. It seem like TAMU really needs to focus on quality rather than quantity in their engineering department. this 25x25 approach doesn’t seem like its going to be that great.
@KohliTheBeast - The new engineering admission procedure that you will go through (separate from U admissions) should significantly improve the profile of admitted students. I am looking forward to seeing the statistics for the 2016 engineering admissions.
And just because my son was underwhelmed by the TAMU honors programs does not mean that he is unhappy with his engineering education. He is getting a great education at TAMU, was excited to get his class ring (he’s a senior in class standing, with another year to go in engineering) and is already looking at graduate school at some of the top engineering colleges in the country, including TAMU.
@Beaudreau I was wondering if your son had any problems enrolling in the classes he wanted and how big his class sizes have been? Did he find that the engineering honors allowed him smaller class sizes and better professors? What other benefits if any did he get from engineering honors? My son just got accepted into engineering honors for the fall and is nervous about comments on the forum about kids not being able to graduate in 4 years because they couldn’t get the classes they needed and not happy with the instruction they got in huge class sizes. Any comments much appreciated, thanks kindly.
@pbleigh - my son had 50 credits transferring in between his AP classes and his overseas German classes, so I’m not sure how comparable his experience has been. He was a junior after first semester, so honors priority registration did not mean much. And with the credits, he should be able to easily graduate in four years with two minors: German and History.
Freshman year, he took his AP calculus credits and started with Calc III. He did not take AP physics in HS (AP Chem instead) so he did take the two freshman physics classes in large lecture halls. FWIW, he took the Don’t Panic track from Professor Erukhimova, and really liked it. He preferred learning concepts and deriving formulas. Dr. Erukhimova remains one of his favorite teachers so far at A&M. So far, all of his lab classes (including honors sections) have been disorganized, with a lot of work, and little understanding of what the instructor expects.
My impression as a parent is that his two younger brothers get more attention in a more organized manner in their engineering programs. Son #2 is a sophomore at Miami (Ohio), studying Biomedical Engineering with a mechanical engineering minor. He also had a lot of AP credits, but will still need to take 17-19 credits a semester to graduate on time. Miami only has freshman university honors, no department honors. My son did get invited to join Miami’s Lockheed Martin Leadership institute starting this year. They did take about 20 out of 600 freshman engineering students. Miami does not award PhDs, so the focus is much more on teaching than at most other engineering schools. USNews ranks Miami 2nd overall in undergraduate focus. It feels much more like a traditional four-year liberal arts schoo.
My youngest son just finished his first semester at Iowa State in Materials Engineering. So far he loves it there. ISU is considered a second tier school after TAMU, but it also very large with many of the same issues to contend with. My impression is that ISU is very well organized. They have only freshman university honors, which he has liked a lot.
For expected time to graduate, the ASEE web site has a wealth of information. Here’s a link to TAMU’s average program length by major: http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/6978/screen/23?school_name=Texas+A%26M+University You can compare this to other colleges by changing schools, which will take you to the same page. TAMU averages between 4.5 and 5.1 years depending on major.
@Beaudreau Thank you very much. My son will have 40+ AP credits including Biology, Chemistry, Physics C, BC Calculus, English and US History. He has been told most kids elect not to take all the credit because they want to make sure they get at least a 3.5 to select the engineering major of their choice. However, you must take 2 science classes at A&M to satisfy the entry requirements into engineering so that means he will have to at least retake one of them. He has been told Physics has so much work it would be a benefit to place out of the first two freshman year classes but that would leave him taking later Physics classes in his freshman year when his GPA is so important. Did your son have any difficulties starting in Calc III? What is the significance of Don’t Panic Physics; I take it there is another choice? Thanks kindly
@pbleigh - go to Texas A & M reddit site and search for engineering hours/class recommendations from current Engineering Honors students
pbleigh – my junior daughter, also in honors engineering, has not had a lot of difficulty getting the classes she has needed. She will also graduate next year in four years with a Mathematics minor (not hard as most engineering students can get that with one additional class) and with a Project Management certification (four extra classes.) Engineering honors did allow her to register early, which was helpful for getting the class schedule she wanted but she has friends who are also graduating in four years who are not in the honors programs. She also took the Physics C credit for Physics 208 and was really glad she did. Good luck and Gig’em
@pbleigh - He got As in both Calc III and IV.