I 100% agree with you and the ETAM process. It is not smart to expect a 17 or 18 year old to know what they want to do. These kids know they want to be engineers but there is a huge chance that they may change the particular field of engineering they want after learning a little more.
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That’s not really what ETAM does though. If that was the intent then there are many other ways to accomplish it. You have to have a 3.75 to have your choice which is far higher than most schools with similar programs (typically it is a 3.0).
What this is about is A&M wants to have a diversity of engineering specialties that it offers and thus forces kids who are good but not great students to have to change into a specialty that isn’t their first choice. The other way to approach it would be to simply expand the areas that most students are looking for like Comp Sci, Biomedical, and Mechanical. That’s what other schools do. What A&M does is actually pretty gross. You have a kid that really wants to go to A&M and major in Mechanical for instance. They work really hard their Freshman year and get a 3.4 and get denied for Mechanical in ETAM so they have to change to Electrical or Industrial or something even though that wasn’t what they wanted to do. They are already a year in and have spent $30k or so at that point so their options are very limited, they can technically transfer but that’s a difficult choice.
What really sucks is it impacts kids who A&M claims to want to help the most more than anyone. A 1st Gen kid from a small or underperforming school likely has no idea how the ETAM game works or what they are walking in to. It’s not the kids from the elite schools getting hammered in ETAM, they just retake Calculus with a light load and make sure to get their grades. The 1st Gen kid is more likely to just sign up for 15 hours plus and push themselves right out of the gate having no clue how hard it will be. After they make a 2.5 first Semester they are screwed, they will have to take whatever Engineering major is available even if it isn’t what they wanted.
The other workaround is to have people declare their specific major out of High School and get admitted to that major directly with a more liberal policy of transferring to other majors in Engineering later on. That has flaws as well but it’s better than the current system.
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Mine is not engineering but my younger two will be so am learning from y’all.
Why exactly does A&M even need or have ETAM? Is it shown to have some benefit to student success? Doesn’t UT and other schools admit directly to major and it seem to work out.
Maybe this is idealistic, but would be great if they could do something similar to the business school where everyone is general and then gets to choose after the first year or two rather than have to “compete” then they get the best of both worlds.
I hear a lot of people getting turned off by ETAM and choosing other schools who have direct admit to major.
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The problem they have is that if they did that half the kids would do Comp Sci/Comp Engineering and about 1/3rd would do Bio or Mech. Then the other majors would be choked out. Business doesn’t have that problem nearly as much as you don’t have so much focus on a few specific majors and they are more evenly spread naturally.
So the solution is to either admit by specific major or simply expand and contract the majors based on demand. Politically though ETAM is more expedient and they have fig leaf excuses like “X percent of students get their first or second choice” but don’t mention that it is because if a kid has a 3.0 after Freshman year they know it is pointless to put down Comp Sci or Bio or Mech so they are self selecting out. After all if you know you aren’t getting in to one of those majors you are better off placing a major you have a better chance of accepting you first.
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My daughter was also invited and we signed up but she was waitlisted bc already full. But from what I know - it’s sent out to all those students who have submitted an application.
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The National Scholars recruiting office confirmed to us that NMSF are guaranteed their first choice major in the College of Engineering “if they complete the first-year curriculum requirements”.
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Dear Parents!
So our D25 submitted her Texas A&M application via Common App (Engg Major) on Sep 14th. Our School does not rank and I believe we have till Dec 15th for the SRAR. I see that her application says “Incomplete” under “Required Docs” due to SRAR and Class rank.
Question is-- Though we submitted on Sep 14th, is not finishing the SRAR holding up her admission review? I somehow thought the grades we entered in Common App profile would be used.. Ugh! I am going to fill SRAR now, but just wondering if we missed a crucial step.
Please advice
Thanks!
In general students can finish SRAR during summer prior to senior year in high school. It is a one hour process any reason for the delay?
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Yes the SRAR must be completed and linked for her app to be complete and reviewed so have her get that completed asap. The SRAR is what they use in place of a transcript to determine rank. TAMU doesn’t use courses and grades from the common app–mine didn’t even have to enter any courses on the common app except for senior year.
Good luck!
Thank you @Bb49 & @FriscoDad for your responses. The delay is more due to our ignorance of not knowing that SRAR is needed.. Will finish SRAR asap and link it to application.
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WOKE UP TO 7 TABS!! HOLISTIC REVIEW!!! 
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Woke up to 7 tabs from Holistic Review. 1st choice Mays!
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Major and stats?
Nutrition; top 15%, 1410 SAT
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Student at a 1,000 student college prep private school.
Applied 8/9
SAT 1370 (680 verbal and 690 math)
3.7 UW 3.81 weighted
1st Qtr assigned by A&M
School allows APs beginning Jr year and only a limited amount
Activities/Resume seem to be pretty good with jobs and leadership
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Holistic Review, 7 tabs today! Engineering Review.
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Congratulations. We are anxiously waiting our holistic review.
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For those looking for an Top 10% engineering timeline here you go:
Applied w/ Apply Texas and Transcript snail mailed 8/1
Received e-mail and AIS/Howdy access 8/6
SRAR linked and Fee paid 8/6
All green checks 8/7
7 Tabs in Howdy and major changed to engineering review 8/8
University admittance 9/12
Acceptance packet arrived 9/27
Major changed to General Engineering 10/2
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Daughter’s major changed to General engineering this morning!
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