I’m currently a High School Senior and applying for TAMU. I’m curious about what others might think of my odds of getting in are. My SAT is 1220 (M 610/R 610) and GPA is 3.55 (school does not offer class rank). I know my grades are a little low and I don’t want to make excuses, but being a military child can be tough with moving. I have a Fair amount of extracurriculars with 4 years of Cross country, Track, JROTC, 2 years of Swim, and 2 years of NHS. In addition, I’ve earned Eagle Scout (I don’t want to sound like a braggart, but since it was a question on the application I figured I’d mention it) and currently work year-round at my local Rec center. I’m really hoping to get admitted so I can join the Corp of Cadets and peruse a Computer Science degree. I know that I shouldn’t stop crossing my fingers, but I really want to know if there is a real chance of me getting in. Much thanks to everyone.
Its not awful. You can always attend a CC for two years and then transfer in. The class quality is the same at both institutions.
1220 is very low for engineering and A&M does not consider your GPA at all for admissions. Since your high school does not rank, A&M will use your GPA along with your school’s grading profile that they send with you transcript and they will assign you a quartile rank: First Quarter, Second Quarter, etc. What have they assigned you? It will be on your AIS.
Your math sub score does not show a strong readiness for engineering calculus. If you did receive full admissions to general engineering, staying in would be difficult. Students have only 4 semesters to satisfactorily complete the general engineering courses. Math or physics weeds out a lot of students.
That said, A&M has partnered with several community colleges and have developed engineering academies as well as two engineering academies are admission decisions.
Applicants that are not offered admission to College Station or Galveston can be offered Blinn Engineering Academy or Mc Allen Engineering Academy. Other applicants apply directly to Blinn Brenham Engineering Academy as a back up or one of the others. Students then go on to finish their degree at College Station. Here is a list about the program and the partnering community colleges https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/academies/index.html
The above advice from steffenberr is wrong and meaningless for transferring into Texas A&M. This past transfer cycle, Computer Science took 5 transfer students. There is a cap on seats in the competitive majors. For those that try to transfer, the must follow the Transfer Course Sheet. http://admissions.tamu.edu/admissions-staging/media/Main/pdfs-transfer2018/ENG18-ComputerSci.pdf
Current students in general engineering at A&M that are applying to a major have priority (Spring and Fall). Internal transfers have next priority and transfer students are last priority. Competition is fierce to transfer in to a competitive major at A&M.
@Thelma2 @steffenberr
I of course respect your views and don’t wish to argue, but I don’t see how a 1220 SAT is only up to the standards of a CC. I understand that engineering is a more rigorous program but with a quick google search showing me the average A&M admission SAT score being 1250, I am a little surprised to hear that a 1220 is very low. My documents are still in processing, so I am still eagerly waiting for my assigned ranking. Thank you both for your opinions thus far.
I think that what they are saying @Pololive5 is that most of the admits to the engineering program at TAMU are significantly higher than those scores. Not that your scores are only up to CC standards. But they are not up to TAMU admissions standards. To put it in perspective - University of Houston posts requirements for engineering that are more than the university’s admission standards. Even with a top 25% ranking - your SAT scores are below Houston’s engineering requirements.
Class Rank
Top 25% SAT 1270 and 630 or ACT 27/54 (English and reading combined)
26—50% SAT 1320 and 630 or ACT 28/54
51—75% SAT 1400 and 630 or ACT 31/54
All Others SAT 1420 and 630 or ACT 32/54
http://www.uh.edu/undergraduate-admissions/apply/freshmen-special-major-requirements.pdf
Additionally @Pololive5 the “average” score you are seeing listed online is averaged over all of the different admission decisions, Full Admissions, Blinn Team, Blinn Team Engineering Academy, Engineering at Galveston and Gateway to Success. If they took only the average of full admissions to College Station campus, and not combined with all of the pathway admissions to A&M College Station, the “average” SAT score would be much higher.
@Thelma2 hmmm maybe the process is different in Texas but I did meet many people who transferred from Austin CC to Texas A&M
In engineering, computer science or business @steffenberr? Those majors seem to have a very limited transfer availability. Now I know someone who got PSA - so he opted to take a gap year of sorts in south America and study Spanish and take a semester in college in Uruguay and then a semester and summer sessions back in the states. An academic advisor on campus said that he shouldn’t have trouble transferring in with good grade in his major (Ag Communication) - I don’t think it will hurt that he will be bilingual again (He started school in Argentina - but lost it in junior high when he moved back to the states).
@steffenberr the major matters at A&M. Impacted majors that take very few transfers due to space constraints, like Mays Business School and the most popular of the engineering majors (Aero, Mech, CompSci, Comp engineering, Petro, etc) have very few seats for transfers. Mays takes 100 a year. In Engineering, it depends on the specific major. All freshmen are in general engineering. The engineering freshman class is usually around 4800 students. In April of their freshman year, they apply to a specific major. These students get priority for a spot. Then there are the sophomore students who didn’t qualify to get into a major in the prior semester, so they get next priority, students already in a major but may decide that major isn’t a fit and will apply to change majors internally. They get next priority. Then, if there are any spots vacant in that major, transfer applicants are considered and the most competitive one’s win, so to speak. Two or three years ago, Petroleum took 0. This year, CompSci took 5 transfers.
Most majors have transfer course sheets that should be followed if an applicant doesn’t want their app thrown out. The transfer course sheets tell an applicant exactly what they need to have completed to be considered.
Yes, it is possible for a student to attend a community college and get into engineering. But the chances are few and far between. Go read the transfer threads and the 3.8 gpa’s being denied. It’s not merely taking two years of classes and transferring into engineering.