Anyone have any input on the 'better' program? My high school senior is likely headed to TAMU next year and is trying to figure which program might be a better fit for him.

We're also trying to find something definitive on whether either program requires living in specific dorms (or if it's just optional). During a campus visit and dorm tour, my son was told Engineering LLC was only in Dunn but there are multiple indications online that Engineering Honors (ECOS?) is in Mosher and even a reference to Aston as part of the Engineering LLC.

University Honors requires students to live in Lechner/Mosher/ and one other dorm I can't remember. I highly recommend freshman live in an honors group. It significantly reduces the chance of being paired with a roommate that parties his way to academic probation his first semester. Also easy to form groups for homework and studying. Being surrounded by geniuses is good for future networking and also refining any studying deficiencies that may have been acceptable in high school, but need to improve for college. I'd recommend it if your kid isn't 100% sure he wants to do engineering.

You can do both, so start out with both if he has the opportunity.

Make sure engineering honors allows you to register for classes early or provides guaranteed access to smaller classes with better professors. Honors used to "basically" guarantee that your professor was a native English speaker (can be a huge benefit) and there were 40 kids in class instead of 300. Both programs allow your kid to take honors classes. This is the second biggest benefit after early registration, and very important for the first 2 years.

I believe it's correct that Engineering honors is only in Dunn, HOWEVER those are kids that are engineering honors only, and not university honors. The university honors kids overlap a lot, and they live in Mosher/Lechner. There might even be more of them there than in Dunn.

As far as which to live, Mosher/Lechner is going to be the more nerdy place. If your kid's friends are in math team/band/orchestra, that's the place for him. If your kid's best friends are in athletics, live in Dunn. He will fit in better there.

Not a popular opinion, but I don't think university or engineering honors matters after the first 2 years unless you're applying for prestigious law or medical schools. Upperclassmen can usually get the classes they want, classes are already smaller, and research is more valued in academia than industry. Engineering employers rank by GPA and internships more than research conducted with a professor.

Disclaimer - my experiences are from decades ago, so discount anything I have said if someone with more recent experience disagrees.

Thanks for the feedback. My understanding is that Engineering Honors does provide early registration which I agree is one of the main benefits.

My son seems most interested in living in one of the northside modular dorms which may rule out any of the LLCs except for Lechner. I recall the price difference between Commons and Modular dorms to be significantly more than it is now but that was many years ago.

I'm in a similar situation with my son who is a Junior.

Have been hearing that Engineering Honors but not University Honors is the better path but appreciate insights as well. He's got strong study habits and is a worker who takes school very seriously but he's not really a nerd at heart (loves football, fishing, mountain biking, country dancing with his girlfriend, etc). Also does Robotics and he loves Engineering and Medicine.and is planning on Biomed Eng. It sounds like Dunn could be a great fit for him. He's likely to be social but not a Frat guy and while he had some interest in the Corps he worries it would be too much of a distraction from academics (Dad and Grandad were CT's). He's got the right profile for Honors grade and activity wise. I like the idea of not having to go into a bunch of classes with 300 kids and a Prof that doesn't speak English and I'm sure there are some other benefits.

Really appreciate any more info.

In addition to early registration, Engineering Honors also has their own career fairs which is nice given how large the big one is.