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Gpa: 3.2
Rank: 76/423 top 18
Test score: ACT 26 (eng 21, reading 21, math 31, science 29)
AP cpurses: English 3, world history, US history, Government, physics, calculas
Extracurricular: Im on the varsity baseball team. Im in the band, jazz band as well, and im first chair alto sax
Volunteer hours: 50
Employment: ive been an umpire for our little league for four years
I want to major in aerospace engineering, just nervous I wont get in because of my low Gpa.
Any thoughts or comments?
to be auto admitted to A&M you need to be in the top 10% of your high school class you are outside of that in the top 17.9%
If you are outside of the top 10%, but inside the top 25% (11% to 25% which you are) then you need a 30 ACT score and you have a 26
There are provisions for individual review you can try that or you can try one of the other alternative admissions programs like Blinn Team, Galveston (offered for engineering), Aggie Gateway, Other System Schools Transfer, or the Blinn-Bryan Engineering Transfer
They list out engineering specifically for being admitted, but for some reason they have basically the same admissions standards as regular admissions, but with the caveat that you might not get into a specific major
But of course they do not list anything out for specific majors which is pretty much useless and in the past they had more specific (and tougher) admissions for Engineering and for Business and some other colleges and schools within the university
A&M has really screwed up their admissions (and is heading to screwing up the university itself) with john not-so-sharp as chancellor and I would advise you that unless you really have your heart set in being an Aggie you should probably look around at a number of other engineering programs
For one (not to discourage you from trying you should) I do not think your current metrics will get you in
Also if you are just choosing A&M because it has a really good engineering program, but you are not set on being an Aggie well you will probably actually enjoy your time elsewhere as much or more than A&M and probably get as good or better of an education since those places are not trying to become the University of Phoenix @ A&M Engineering
College Station does have a great "college town" experience, but the reality is unless you are admitted directly through an individual review (looks doubtful at this point, but you should try why not) the REALITY is if you are going to "Blinn team", Blinn-Bryan, Galveston or one of the other A&M System schools in the transfer program well you have pretty much blown your first year (more than likely TWO years) at least when most people get to meet new people and start their "college feel/experience" off on the right foot and go through "fish school" and start making friends (when most people are all new and looking to all make new friends)
So unless you try the Aggie Gateway and get in through it you are going to spend time in Bryan, Brenham, Galveston or at a community college or at another A&M System campus for two years
I am sure some will disagree, but this is how A&M is ruining their university at a rapid pace they are so set on cranking out "more good Ags" that they have ruined the experience for a significant number of those students just so they can somehow get them enrolled while keeping them out of the reported freshman class metrics that play into a number of rankings systems
If they really feel it is their "mission" to take all of these students they should simply lower their admissions standards, hire more faculty and accept what comes in the rankings for doing so
Instead they have created a large number of convoluted jokes to try and move people in as transfers while pretending those students will have the same experience as students that started immediately in College Station from day one
I would say with your metrics that UT Austin is not an option
You listed Aerospace engineering specifically which limits you in Texas because there are so few of those programs in Texas.....the ABET accredited undergrad Aerospace programs are A&M, UT Austin and UTA
Since I do not see it likely that you would be admitted to UT Austin and A&M even with alternative admissions seems unassured that leaves UTA for that specific field of study
So from there you need to branch out and look at Materials, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Electrical, Computer and even other areas and you will probably need to look at the departments of those schools and the faculty interest in those departments and decide if you feel you might be able to interact with those faculty members
You have to make planes and rockets out of something (materials), you have to control them (electrical and Computer) and you have to engineer the systems (Mechanical) and on and on so Aerospace as a major is not the only way to go to work in that field out of college especially as an undergrad and you may well find that if you contact and connect with a faculty member or two at some other university you might be able to impress them enough that eventually you work in their lab and you make industry contacts that way and gain experience and possibly an internship
It just so happens that Texas has recently released a report specifically on Aerospace engineering research conducted at Texas public universities
There is that report so you can read through it and get an idea of the broad number of majors and faculty at various universities that are working on Aerospace research and it might help you make a choice or decide who to contact of A&M does not work out for you
The high quality engineering programs in Texas are Texas Tech, Lamar, A&M-Kingsville, UTD, UTA, UTSA, Texas State, UH and UTEP
of those for "campus life/college experience" (if that matters to you which if it doesn't go for one of the A&M alternate admissions programs and that is that) I would say the order is Texas Tech and then Texas State for larger universities
I can't comment much on the campus life at Lamar or Kingsville and then there is UTA, UTD, UTSA and UTEP and UH
I am not sure your metrics would get you into UTD as well so that is probably not an option.....UTA, UTSA and UTEP all suffer from much less of a college life even though UTA is trying to rectify that as is UTD and I am not sure UTSA or UTEP really are so unless you are from one of those cities or live near them I would say choose elsewhere if "college experience/campus life" matters to you......which if it does not again hell just put up with the A&M alternate admissions nonsense if you can get in that way..UH....well it is in a not so nice area of a large metro area and they are working on campus life so if you do not mind that large metro area it is an option
A number other schools have some engineering like Corpus, Angelo State, Midwestern, and UT-RGV, but all those programs are either very new, very limited (one or two majors), going through a lot of transition or all of the above.....north Texas state has some engineering as well, but don't do that to yourself choose Texas State, Texas Tech or even UTA over that for a number of reasons
the Lamar and A&M Kingsville programs are established and well respected perhaps others can answer on their overall experience at those two schools and Corpus has good programs as well, but they are limited
if the "College Station" degree is a goal then you could always try Corpus or Kingsville and see how it goes and transfer
and one other thing as I read through the horrid A&M admissions site.....the (PSA) program which is the one that allows you to spend time at another A&M System school and then transfer to College Station if you meet the requirements after you have completed the core of classes.....well even though it is listed specifically under the "admitted for engineering" link if you click on that link and you read through it there are specific A&M College Station Colleges that are listed as participants and the College of Engineering is NOT listed as one of the participants so you will need to check and see if it is even possible to do the (PSA) program for engineering or if you have to do "Blinn Team" or "Gateway" or "Galveston"
What a terrible joke this has become for A&M they really need to fire not-so-sharp and get a real chancellor that will run the system and leave College Station alone and they really need to ditch the Blinn stupidity or they need to lower admissions and accept the consequences of that
Sorry for the A&M commentary, but it needs to be said often and it applies to you specifically because you are the one that has to try and wade through that morass of nonsense and stupidity to see if you can ever actually get to College Station and get the degree you want from College Station and at this point I would say the odds are long, but you need to move NOW to apply to any and all of the transfer programs that you might be interested in
And for those that might wish to take up for john not-so-sharp all you really need to know about his failures is listen to him testify to the Texas Senate Higher Ed Committee recently when he tells them that he was surprised to find out that his efforts to increase enrollment dramatically at College Station resulted in LESS state funding for College Station.....that tells you exactly what he knows about running a university system and really he is not running a university system he is ignoring the system and micro-managing College Station to the detriment of College Station and the other system schools
You do need to have other schools in mind besides A&M and you also need to be getting your application in to A&M ASAP (like before October 15th) for regular admissions to the College of Engineering (I see this as doubtful) and for all of the nonsense alternative enrollment programs since many of those nonsense alternative programs DO give some priority to those that apply earlier and or they give a quicker reply for those that have applied before a specific deadline
Last edited by TexasVines; 10-03-2016 at 04:41 AM..
Aerospace engineering is one of the more demanding degrees; but usually only the top graduates actually get positions in the aerospace industry. For non-aero positions, mechanical is probably a better choice.
Unless you are completely nailing all your math and science courses in high school, you are likely to struggle in engineering.
If you are specifically wanting to go to A&M for the college experience, then definitely continue on that path. You will find that nowhere else.
But if not, then as TexasVines pointed out there are a lot of valid alternatives even here in Texas. In general, you don't need a specific aerospace engineering degree if you want to work in aerospace. You just need to go to a school with a respected program. Elaborating on one example - Lamar is a lame college experience, but their engineering department is actually quite respected. There are a ton of Lamar graduates in aerospace in Clear Lake (ie NASA JSC) in highly influential positions. Lamar doesn't offer aerospace engineering, either.
If you are specifically wanting to go to A&M for the college experience, then definitely continue on that path. You will find that nowhere else.
You can get "the college experience" a lot of places; though you can't get the "A&M college experience" except there.
But you need to understand that I knew a lot of people with >1400 SATs (back in the 80s, when it was a 1600 point scale) that scuffled pretty hard in engineering school.
Don't know what his GPA & test scores were, but my brother's grandson went to UTSA and pulled a 4.0, which got him into the UT at Austin school of Engineering. He graduated with close to a 4.0 (if not right on that number) and earned a Civil Engineering degree. He got a decent job with a firm in Dallas that started him at $80,000 entry salary.
So the same route would certainly get the OP in A&M. Very good school, but with some "different" traditions to be sure.
(I say that with some jest - brother's granddaughter is an A&M grad. My granddaughter attends Texas Tech).
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