I'd like to get some thoughts on my son's upcoming application to the A&M College of Engineering in August 2026. Both his parents graduated from A&M and he was brought up as an Aggie. He's all in and A&M as his first choice. He's also applying to Michigan, Georgia Tech, Florida, Georgia, Bama and Auburn. But his #1 is A&M. I understand that getting into A&M is not as easy as it was for those of us in the 90s, but I understand that the College of Engineering is exceptionally difficult. He is finishing his Junior year at a small Christian private school in Texas. He will not be in the top 10% of his class, which class size is around 55 students. He'll prob be 6th or around that. He takes all honors and AP classes, has a GPA of 4.6, Summa Cum Laude. Got a 1420 SAT (1440 superscore) and 35 on ACT. Counselor at his school told him getting in without being top 10% is going to be challenging. He would prefer not going Blinn team, which I do understand is a solid option but I digress. Just trying to get an idea if A&M is a solid option, or should we start planning on other options. I'm usually on the premium board and ticket exchange, but recently discovered this forum so I thought I'd ask around. Thanks for any help. - Gig 'Em Dave '97

I have a Mechanical Engineering major (junior), and, as I understand it, there is 1) getting admitted to A&M, and then there is 2) getting into the College of Engineering. Obviously, being in the top 10% of his class makes #1 a non-issue, but even if he were in the top 10% it would be no guarantee he'd get into engineering.

Those things said, unless things have changed, this is how I think it works:
When the student applies to A&M, he will fill out the STARS (Self-reported Transcript and Academic Record System) - this was the SRAR when our Aggie-children applied. The student fills in their high school courses, if they are honors/AP/dual credit, etc. and what the cumulative GPA is, and if it is weighted or unweighted. Hopefully, his high school counselor will help with this. This platform basically takes all the GPAs in all the various weightings that different high schools use and makes them comparable. When your student has his transcript sent, his school will also send a school profile. This might provide some comfort. Our children also attended a small private school and many students outside of the top 10% have been admitted to A&M each year. The school profile is "good," I think.

Once a student is admitted to the university, then the application is reviewed by the College of Engineering. The admissions essays may be important, but I think engineering mostly wants to see that the applicant has taken (and performed well) in calculus. This is where his math SAT score and the math ACT score will come in handy. I don't think engineering is too picky past that because they have the ETAM process after the first year. Engineering will be picky then.

Finally, College Confidential has a thread dedicated to each admission cycle, and the people there are pretty knowledgeable (more knowledgeable than I) about the "chances": https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/texas-a-m-class-of-2031-applicants/3702846

daveydave said:

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I'd like to get some thoughts on my son's upcoming application to the A&M College of Engineering in August 2026. Both his parents graduated from A&M and he was brought up as an Aggie. He's all in and A&M as his first choice. He's also applying to Michigan, Georgia Tech, Florida, Georgia, Bama and Auburn. But his #1 is A&M. I understand that getting into A&M is not as easy as it was for those of us in the 90s, but I understand that the College of Engineering is exceptionally difficult. He is finishing his Junior year at a small Christian private school in Texas. He will not be in the top 10% of his class, which class size is around 55 students. He'll prob be 6th or around that. He takes all honors and AP classes, has a GPA of 4.6, Summa Cum Laude. Got a 1420 SAT (1440 superscore) and 35 on ACT. Counselor at his school told him getting in without being top 10% is going to be challenging. He would prefer not going Blinn team, which I do understand is a solid option but I digress. Just trying to get an idea if A&M is a solid option, or should we start planning on other options. I'm usually on the premium board and ticket exchange, but recently discovered this forum so I thought I'd ask around. Thanks for any help. - Gig 'Em Dave '97

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So, just a heads-up: Michigan and Georgia Tech both admit by major. Your son has great academic metrics, but how well does his application "point" to that major?

Bama should be a safety school, while Auburn should be considered a high match school. For the rest, since you're an out-of-state applicant, I would consider them to be low-match schools.

As for TAMU, the academic metrics sound good, and they have a solid SAT score. I would definitely look to max out your math and physics to further demonstrate your academic readiness.

For other families who are in similar positions, I plead with you to have your kids max out their math and physics by taking Calc BC and AP Physics C if your school offers them. If your student is struggling, PAY for a MATH coach. I don't know how many families I run into where their student wants to pursue engineering, yet they're struggling with Pre-calculus or Algebra II. By "struggling," I mean your student is having difficulty maintaining an "A" average. I doubt your son is in the position, but just a word of advice to others.

double b said:

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daveydave said:

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I'd like to get some thoughts on my son's upcoming application to the A&M College of Engineering in August 2026. Both his parents graduated from A&M and he was brought up as an Aggie. He's all in and A&M as his first choice. He's also applying to Michigan, Georgia Tech, Florida, Georgia, Bama and Auburn. But his #1 is A&M. I understand that getting into A&M is not as easy as it was for those of us in the 90s, but I understand that the College of Engineering is exceptionally difficult. He is finishing his Junior year at a small Christian private school in Texas. He will not be in the top 10% of his class, which class size is around 55 students. He'll prob be 6th or around that. He takes all honors and AP classes, has a GPA of 4.6, Summa Cum Laude. Got a 1420 SAT (1440 superscore) and 35 on ACT. Counselor at his school told him getting in without being top 10% is going to be challenging. He would prefer not going Blinn team, which I do understand is a solid option but I digress. Just trying to get an idea if A&M is a solid option, or should we start planning on other options. I'm usually on the premium board and ticket exchange, but recently discovered this forum so I thought I'd ask around. Thanks for any help. - Gig 'Em Dave '97

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So, just a heads-up: Michigan and Georgia Tech both admit by major. Your son has great academic metrics, but how well does his application "point" to that major?

Bama should be a safety school, while Auburn should be considered a high match school. For the rest, since you're an out-of-state applicant, I would consider them to be low-match schools.

As for TAMU, the academic metrics sound good, and they have a solid SAT score. I would definitely look to max out your math and physics to further demonstrate your academic readiness.

For other families who are in similar positions, I plead with you to have your kids max out their math and physics by taking Calc BC and AP Physics C if your school offers them. If your student is struggling, PAY for a MATH coach. I don't know how many families I run into where their student wants to pursue engineering, yet they're struggling with Pre-calculus or Algebra II. By "struggling," I mean your student is having difficulty maintaining an "A" average. I doubt your son is in the position, but just a word of advice to others.

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Doubleb with the great advice as always!

Have to agree on Georgia Tech and likely Florida. Florida has a new bill that is looking to pass that will make it so that 95% of students have to be Florida residents. If that goes through it's going to be EXTREMELY difficult to get in OOS. GT already has kids that get into MIT and don't get into GT though generally it is not "quite" that bad. Michigan isn't far behind, they have about 50% OOS students but it's really pricey OOS and generally harder to get into than A&M. Auburn, NC State, and Virginia Tech are all good possible options for OOS and very good engineering schools though they don't give much merit (Auburn gives the most).

The greater point though is that "pointy" issue. They want to see a compulsion towards being an engineer. That means taking the most Calc and Physics you can. It's nice if you took AP English and that helps with getting into the college but not engineering. That means writing a great essay that shows why you want to be an engineer. That also means having activities and awards in STEM or engineering related things whether it be Robotics, writing Apps or other programming work, rocketry, math competitions, or just building things. They want to see that you understand what engineering is and they want to see that you have tried to explore it some. Schools didn't used to put so much emphasis on this in the past but now it's standard, especially at a competitive engineering school with so many applicants with extremely high GPA's, high SAT's, and lots of APs and DC.

While some of that is frustrating it is because engineering is an absolute grind and commitment yet a ton of kids want to do it because they like the idea of making good money and having better job security. The reality is though if you don't love it or at least have an affinity for it you are unlikely to succeed. I know my son is taking Statics and Diff EQ right now and studying at least 30 hours a week outside of class learning formulas that look like Sanskrit to me and it's rough but he loves to build stuff and he knows that is the price you have to pay so he is pushing through. It takes more than being smart, esp at a good engineering school where EVERYONE is smart, you have to work your tail off and really want to do it or else you will be miserable and likely not succeed. Schools have limited spots and they want to make sure you don't get into the classes and transfer out or flunk out as much as they can.

I've had my diatribes here about ETAM but the general concept isn't bad it just needs modification. Mainly that only NM can get a pass from it, there is no "intent" towards a type of engineering so they don't filter based on that but rather treat all engineers the same to keep it balanced instead of having a kid who wants to do Mech E treated the same as someone who wants to do Civil on the front end when the back end result is dramatically different, and finally having the 3.75 qualifier for auto. The system makes great students hesitate to come to A&M and misleads other students who don't understand just how competitive ETAM is so they end up a year and a half into college realizing they have to pick another major. That's not a good system. Still the idea of having separate admissions for engineering is smart as is having kids at least explore other engineering disciplines before committing in many cases being healthy. Just needs refinement.

I gotta believe your kid has a solid chance as long as you follow the previous advice and load up on the hardest math and science courses his school offers. I have a son in a very similar position (private Christian school, small graduating class, etc.) and he is loading up his senior year with AP Calc BC, AP Statistics and AP Chemistry. He didn't have an option of taking physics past regular AP Physics, which he is finishing now as a Junior. Seems like your kids SAT is right in the range of non 10% engineering admits.

At Auburn, based on his scores he'd be an automatic Academic Presidential Scholarship recipient which corresponds to $17000/year for 4 years (assuming he holds a cumulative 3.0 yearly average). This brings to price down roughly to A&M's levels. https://auburn.edu/administration/finaid/apply/first-year-students.php . Get your application in there early - and you'll hear back early. Wait too lang and those scholarships might not be available (there are finite number scholarships and some of the late appliers got lower amounts)

My daughter just finished her junior year at Auburn as a mechanical engineering student and loves it there. It's a nice campus, nice people, and remind me of the A&M days in the 90s. She was accepted as A&M Engineering as well, but they pissed her off slow rolling the acceptance letters til like March (she applied in Sept). Also, at A&M you're not guaranteed your major of choice til after freshman year where you gotta rank which engineering majors you would be willing to accept. At many other schools, when you apply to be a mechanical engineer in high school...and that's what you get...no more of the applying to specific department bs. Just something to think about.

edit to say my daughter had good scores, but not as high as yours (33 ACT, 1360 SAT, 4.4 gpa, top 11-25% class rank) and was accepted into A&M Engineering