UT Regular Engineering vs. TAMU Engineering Honors

I recently got accepted to UT regular engineering, however I did not make it to Engineering Honors in UT. I got into Engineering Honors in TAMU, however. I started this thread to figure out which choice is more beneficial: regular engineering in UT or honors engineering at TAMU? I am really confused which one to choose…can anyone share their thoughts? I’d really appreciate it.

Same here, got into Honors at A&M Engineering and few other schools. Didn’t get into UT Honors but Admitted into Mechanical Engineering,Wondering what pros and cons. My best friend got into Honors Plan II for pre-Med at UT. Excited for him.

Go to UT! you can still apply the engineering honors after you enter UT, and also got kick out from Honors if you can’t maintain your gpa above 3.5. My son was ECE honor freshman, but lost it because the gpa. He graduated last May, and have a great job as a device support engineer in Houston.

Honors or no-honors ? It really doesn’t that matter at UT Austin. You still can have great professors.BTW, you still can apply after you have your gpa above 3.5. The honor dorm is differen, very quiet , but not everyone live there.

From my son’s experience, After you enter UT engineering programs, you better build a good relationship with professors or TA, especially during junior or senior year. You need recommendations for jobs after you graduated. My son didn’t think about that before he graduate. It was very nice the UT professors helped him even they didn’t
remenber who he was. also If you want to graduate within 4 year, find a study group, partners, TA or professors to help. My son was able to graduate half year early but he choose to stay to have some more challenge courses he liked. Everyone in UT engineering program are smart like you too.

My son got into Engineering Honors at TAMU for CS and CS in the College of Science at UT but no honors so far-still under review. I wonder if it’s worth going to TAMU because of the honors program if there’s a good chance one could lose it over GPA?

No, your son has same situation as my daughter, but she will pick UT CS even she couldn’t get in to honor program at UT. UT computer Science program is pretty good , especially for finding jobs.

@COMom09 I wish my daughter could get in to honors program because the honor doms. My son lived there for 4 years and he liked. Very quiet, and nice!

@COMom09 @coolplant thanks for your responses! I had a question: what if you intend to pursue a integrated masters degree with bachelors? Can regular engineering students do that or do the honors kids only have that option? Also, do honors kids get more career and internship opportunities? I got into ECE too and I’m still debeting between two amazing options! It’s hard for me to narrow it down to one!

My son, a sophomore, is getting his engineering degree at UT. He isn’t in honors and this past fall he got an internship for this coming summer. Most of his friends, some in honors, some not, also all got offers for internships. Most of them got more then one offer.

First, congratulation you got accepted into ECE. My son told me the ECE honor classes does not really matter. Only math has honor classes, others all the same. You choice the programs you want to study; ECE has 9 programs to choice which are pretty nice. If you want to pursue advance degree, you need to have your gpa and gre good, no matter you are in honor programs or not. UT Austin graduate school is very hard to get in. My son has gre score 328, but he didn’t apply for any graduate school because he found a job he likes. He didn’t do any internship during summer time( he was lazy…), but I will recommend you do it if you can find any. City of Austin always has internship for high/college students. The company he works at engineering department has more UT ECE students than other schools, two from UH but has master degree. BTW, after my son graduated from school 6 moths, ECE department called him to see if he needed any jobs assistance. He didn’t need it because he already has a job he enjoined. I don’t mean the TAMU not good. My daughter applied it too and got in the engineering honor program, but I think she will choice UT CS base on the information we know.

I think it depends on the reasons you want the honors program. My son is most interested due to the separate quieter dorms and smaller class sizes. Last year my friend’s son faced this same choice and decided to go to TAMU honors and is loving it. Also as someone who worked in technical recruiting for a major corporation here in Texas - we loved kids from both schools and indeed it seems half the company is alumni of one and the other half from the other. You will have great career options from either. Engineering education is pretty much the same theories and books wherever you go - it is the rest of the experience that you need to look at for the best fit for you…costs, campus, sports, class size etc.

Another thing to consider besides the academics is the fit of the school. Besides being in Texas, both have a very different feel.

Thanks, everyone! This is helping me narrow down which option I should choose. @Cgaope I appreciate the idea of having quieter dorms for the honors community. Since I was admitted as a regular engineering student, I would like to know your feedback on which dorm rooms are the best for engineering regular at UT (I am a girl if that helps). @confused6789 I appreciate your response. Can you please elaborate on the different feel in both universities? @coolplant I have also heard that regular UT kids usually get ‘lost’ in classes of 400 students or more. Is that true, or are regular class sizes much smaller? What about engineering honors class sizes?

@ilovefood01

Setting: UT is in the heart of Austin while A&M is in a college town.
Politics: UT is more liberal and A&M is more conservative.
Sports: A&M is arguable more into football than UT is.

I am in the same boat as you and UT with no honors has already beat out A&M.

@ilovefood01 I’m sorry that I don’t know enough about the dorms to give advice there.

@ilovefood01 The classes used to big at some courses at the first year, but after you start to take your technical cores, the class will become smaller, some might under 20. It really depend on what course you take. For the honor classes, they are smaller, some might only 20s. You will get some informations about your college 4 year plan and other infor during orientation. Don’t worry, you should be fine, just relax.

@ilovefood01UT ECE has BSEE/MSE Integrated Program, just go to their website you can find it. Another way to get accepted into UT graduate school is issue a good research paper and that was one of my son’s friend did. All the ECE students are required to finish a research project before graduate. They are in your 4 year plan schedule. They are fun and sponsored by either school or companies. Some students got hired by those company after they graduate.

Both colleges are top ranked engineering schools. One says “Honors” on the degree. That’s something you can put on a resume. Ultimately, it comes down to preference. You’re in the engineering program at both schools. Now, if A&M is offering a scholarship to go with the honors program, I would pounce on that!

I think you need to take everything into consideration before you make decisions. Not everyone likes to go to UT. UT and A&M are both good schools. About the scholarship, I don’t know how A&M works. In 2013, My son got into UT ECE honors and got the 20k (5k each year for 4 year)scholarship, but he lost it after his gpa fell below 3.5. Las year, only 200 ECE students graduated, 5 with highest honors, 10 with high honors, and 16 with honors.