Bandit99 said:

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My son graduated from High School last May, and accepted the PSA offer from A&M. He started at Tarleton last fall as a Sports Management major(wants to get into coaching). He has made the requisite grades to stay in the PSA program, but decided to drop out of the program to stay at Tarleton for the duration. From what we have been told, 80% of students who start in the PSA program opt to stay at the program school versus transferring to College Station. This is one way the system schools are growing at a fast rate, so the system plan is working.

Honestly, what little time I have spent around Tarleton has been great. It feels very similar to the A&M of the mid-90's, though still smaller.

In our experience, I'm glad that he had the option to transfer to A&M and got the opportunity to take a closer look at the school prior to fully enrolling. He loves Stephenville and Tarleton, and ended up in the right situation for him. I honestly think he would have been overwhelmed socially and academically in College Station.

Plus, he was originally headed to Tech which made me want to vomit!

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This is what happened with my stepdaughter. She was initially heartbroken by the PSA offer and was counting the days until she could transfer, but once she settled in at Tarleton, she loved it and didn't want to leave. It worked out well; she's happy and thriving, and it's saving us a lot of money.

It's not hard to find your way into A&M. Go to Blinn for a yr

My son also received the PSA. He wants to do something in engineering, but not exactly sure what yet. The only major offered under engineering on the psa site is ocean engineering, which he definitely does not want to do.Ha! Since all engineering classes start the same for all freshman, should he just take this offer and then when he transfers to CS in a year, try to get into the major he wants? I'm so confused by how all this works. Then you have the engineering academy which seems like a back door into the engineering program, without having to apply and fight for acceptance. From what I understand all engineering students have to apply to their desired major anyway through the entrance to major program. Thx for any advice you can give!!

hollyekaiser said:

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My son also received the PSA. He wants to do something in engineering, but not exactly sure what yet. The only major offered under engineering on the psa site is ocean engineering, which he definitely does not want to do.Ha! Since all engineering classes start the same for all freshman, should he just take this offer and then when he transfers to CS in a year, try to get into the major he wants? I'm so confused by how all this works. Then you have the engineering academy which seems like a back door into the engineering program, without having to apply and fight for acceptance. From what I understand all engineering students have to apply to their desired major anyway through the entrance to major program. Thx for any advice you can give!!

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My understanding is that if he wants to do engineering, he needs to do engineering academy or TAMU Galeveston

hollyekaiser said:

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My son also received the PSA. He wants to do something in engineering, but not exactly sure what yet. The only major offered under engineering on the psa site is ocean engineering, which he definitely does not want to do.Ha! Since all engineering classes start the same for all freshman, should he just take this offer and then when he transfers to CS in a year, try to get into the major he wants? I'm so confused by how all this works. Then you have the engineering academy which seems like a back door into the engineering program, without having to apply and fight for acceptance. From what I understand all engineering students have to apply to their desired major anyway through the entrance to major program. Thx for any advice you can give!!

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Go to TAMUG and start in Maritime systems engineering. Transfer to college station. Simple as.

Sea Speed said:

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hollyekaiser said:

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My son also received the PSA. He wants to do something in engineering, but not exactly sure what yet. The only major offered under engineering on the psa site is ocean engineering, which he definitely does not want to do.Ha! Since all engineering classes start the same for all freshman, should he just take this offer and then when he transfers to CS in a year, try to get into the major he wants? I'm so confused by how all this works. Then you have the engineering academy which seems like a back door into the engineering program, without having to apply and fight for acceptance. From what I understand all engineering students have to apply to their desired major anyway through the entrance to major program. Thx for any advice you can give!!

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Go to TAMUG and start in Maritime systems engineering. Transfer to college station. Simple as.

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This is misrepresentation of the path and possibility - and dangerous oversimplification of the process.

This is the path to CS in engineering from the TAMU site. And the Entry-to-a-Major is very competitive for engineering (and all the maritime engineering stuff is engineering TECHNOLOGY which isn't the same as engineering)

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First Year Undergraduate Curriculum

Undergraduate students at Texas A&M Galveston have two pathway options for admission to the College of Engineering: Direct Admission for students who wish to complete their Bachelor of Science in ocean engineering (only available on the Galveston campus). Admission to General Engineering, which allows students to start their studies in Galveston with the option to either complete their degree in Galveston or transition later to the main campus through the Entry-to-a-Major process.

I guess it was a lot different when I was there. I don't even see Maritime systems engineering on their site anymore so I guess they don't offer it anymore but that is what I started in and from what I recall was actually engineering and not technology.

Guess I should have brushed up on what it's like now vs when I was there before I spoke with authority, and for that I apologize.

La Fours said:

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It is possible, my son was PSA for Engineering. Just not every system school has engineering or even the engineering major you might want. My son applied for industrial engineering, and when he chose Tarleton for his system school, he was put in their industrial technology major.

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A&M is pushing Industrial Engineering hard. The other kids laugh at it because it's easy and not really engineering, but I'm told the market for them is solid. I hear most kids who don't get their choice of engineering discipline fall back to it.

ID = Industrial Distribution, and is not the same as industrial engineering.

La Fours said:

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ID = Industrial Distribution, and is not the same as industrial engineering.

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This. When I've gone back to A&M for recruiting for my company, we were allowed to consider Industrial Engineering majors but NOT Industrial Distribution majors.

SwigAg11 said:

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La Fours said:

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ID = Industrial Distribution, and is not the same as industrial engineering.

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This. When I've gone back to A&M for recruiting for my company, we were allowed to consider Industrial Engineering majors but NOT Industrial Distribution majors.

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Yep, industrial distribution is basically supply chain with freshman engineering classes.

Which supply chain is a great field to be in where one can have a very successful career [/disclaimer that I was not ID nor was anyone in my family; have just seen it with friends and children of friends]

DannyDuberstein said:

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Which supply chain is a great field to be in where one can have a very successful career [/disclaimer that I was not ID nor was anyone in my family; have just seen it with friends and children of friends]

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No doubt, I just wouldn't hire an ID major for an engineering position.

Right, nor would you hire a doctor, accountant, or anything else for an engineering position. It's apples and oranges .

DannyDuberstein said:

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Right, nor would you hire a doctor, accountant, or anything else for an engineering position. It's apples and oranges .

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It's a little misleading because ID does fall under the college of engineering.

Edit: Or at least it did when I was there. They may have changed it by now.

ID is still under the college of engineering.

HossAg said:

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DannyDuberstein said:

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Right, nor would you hire a doctor, accountant, or anything else for an engineering position. It's apples and oranges .

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It's a little misleading because ID does fall under the college of engineering.

Edit: Or at least it did when I was there. They may have changed it by now.

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Yes, it does. Similarly, Ag Systems Management (fka Mechanized Agriculture) is run by the Biological and Agricultural Engineering department, but AGSM like ID isn't an ABET accredited degree program. They are kind of technical degrees run by engineering departments because of the overlap in curriculum, but they are not engineering degrees that set you up for Professional Engineering registration.

I will add that some of these technical degrees like ID and AGSM are really good because they usually include some business courses. One of my female friends back in the early-90s graduated with an ID degrees and went to work for Grainger. She was making serious money until she decided to be a SAHM.

Three boys at TAMU main campus. All went to small Catholic HS. All plus 4.0 GPA, AP scholars, Eagle Scouts, Sports, volunteer hours, etc. None got accepted straight in. One got Blinn Team. One went to Blinn and straight up transferred. One went to Galveston for a year.

Totally sucks if you don't go to public school and are a white male. Boys had classmates that they ranked ahead of that were females or "ethnic" that got in...

Oh well I am happy that is behind them.