Mechanical Engineering: TAMU vs UT- Austin

KF7LCE
Tue, 22 Mar 2016 21:34:13 +0000

Yeah, I don’t know if UT does it but A&M has the entry to your major system. Mechanical is the most competitive program here - if I remember right, they only accepted 25% of the freshman that applied last year and the average GPA of the students that got in was a 3.8. One B in a calc or physics class first semester could shut you out of that major. If you are set on doing mechanical, I’d avoid A&M for that reason. Of course, if UT make you do the same thing then it’s a wash.

The school really sells that “family feel” and the Aggie network, but in my experience those things just aren’t true. A&M is a huge flagship state school, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it comes with the downsides you’d expect. In most of the classes, you sit in a lecture hall of 200 people while the professor reads off the powerpoint through a microphone. It thins out once you get to upper level, but even junior or senior engineering classes can have 50-60 students in them. I didn’t think I’d mind that before I went off to college, but it gets pretty old after a while, and I’ve found that the small 20 student courses have been my favorites. If I had to do it again, I’d definitely go to a smaller school. As far as social life at a 60,000 student campus, there’s plenty of people to meet here and always things to do, but from what I’ve seen most students tend to stick with the folks they know from high school or church. It can be tough to find a social circle after freshman year. It’s not like high school where you are around the same 50 or so people every day for the next four years - if you don’t get started early and make an effort to meet people outside of class, it’s easy to become just another face in the crowd here.

As far as the Aggie Network, I’ve never heard of someone being hired just because they went here. A&M engineering is respected and definitely well-recruited - a degree from here probably won’t shut any doors on you. But an Aggie ring isn’t an automatic job offer like the school sometimes makes it out to be.

And in short - if you’re depending on 3.5 GPA scholarships to pay for A&M, I’d consider going somewhere else.