No, most any school does not. Right or wrong, kids want big time athletics, Greek life, clubs, vibrant campus life. Thus why well rounded kids from affluent suburbs seek admission to large neighboring state schools like LSU, Arkansas, Ou. Every other public outside of tech and TSU still largely carry to commuter label and are largely looked down upon in the those communities.

That is true. But it's also true that t.u. In particular has done a very good job at building a university system that targets the kids who don't care about that. Schools like UTSA and UTEP are decent schools known for turning out hard workers at an affordable price, and UTD is obviously very well known for having an excellent college in several different fields. A&M would be well served in developing our system accordingly.

Ellis Wyatt said:

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Yesterday said:

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Ellis Wyatt said:

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TommyBrady said:

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Build more satellite campuses is an idea but kids don't want to go to school in Kingsville tx they wanna go to Texas A&M at College Station cuz its awesome. If they can't get in they go to OU or Arkansas or Ole Miss or Tech any low admission standard school that has big football.

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It's ok to tell kids NO. Devaluing degrees is bad for alumni and doesn't actually help those actively in school, either.

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Texas A&M has never been harder to get into and the degree is worth more now(a real major) than at anytime in the last 40 years.

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What is the current acceptance rate? Last I saw, it was over 60%. That's not "hard to get into," so I've obviously missed something.

John Sharp has been terrible for Texas A&M.

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The acceptance rate is highly inflated due to top 10% where most kids who are top 10% apply to A&M even if it's not their target school.

I do no believe you're correct in any of that.

Can't disagree with you there at all.

Oh I'm 100% right. That's why schools like the ones I've mentioned have such a high percentage of Texans. Check any admission thread in its existence on this platform, it's always A&M then a bunch of other OOS SEC options, never A&M then UH, UTSA, UTD, SFU, SHSU. It is a problem in the affluent suburbs which are most likely to donate to NIL. I am not denying that You can get a great education and go off to grad school from any of the in state satellites.

I keep hearing A&M is harder to get into than ever before but genuinely curious what stats support that? Simply using # of applicants isn't valid support.

bushytailed said:

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TAMUS is currently in talks to acquire Univ. of Houston - Victoria. Sharp recently announced it at an Aggie Mom event.

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I am not a fan of this move. I have a MBA from UH System (UHV) and that school has always been closely aligned with the University of Houston in fulfillment of the UH mission. Which is to deliver an education to non-traditional students, namely post graduate professionals, and commuter students that are older and already started their careers. This college mostly focused on education, business (accounting) and health care. UHV belongs in the UH System

33% bigger in a decade? That's a lot. Probably a good decision to pause a bit.

Stonegateag85 said:

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Oh I'm 100% right. That's why schools like the ones I've mentioned have such a high percentage of Texans. Check any admission thread in its existence on this platform, it's always A&M then a bunch of other OOS SEC options, never A&M then UH, UTSA, UTD, SFU, SHSU. It is a problem in the affluent suburbs which are most likely to donate to NIL. I am not denying that You can get a great education and go off to grad school from any of the in state satellites.

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Texags threads are self selecting.

And the point is more tier 1 schools in Texas. We don't have any. They could be developed. They would attract many students.

LMCane said:

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as we can see from this thread...

why did A&M have a campus in QATAR which is a strong ally of Iran

when there are not even enough spaces in TEXAS?!?1

WTF is going on?

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And the nookyuler engineering program helped Iran get the bomb!

AgGrad99 said:

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Icecream_Ag said:

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aggiehawg said:

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Man, I started A&M in fall of '76. I think the total # of students back then was about 27,000 undergrad.

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I think SHSU just hit 20k for the first time last year that's a bit under double from when I started.

TAMU in that same period has gone from 35K to 70K+.

So either late genx and early geny are part rabbit, or there is a serious issue with college admissions

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We have two flagship public schools in a State of 33,000,000 people....and we have the top 10% rule.

That is the problem.

Esp considering the disparity between High Schools

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Didn't we get rid of the 10% rule or am I imagining that?

Nope. Still present

Would be interested in some further data. Applications ~ 70,000; acceptance ~ 17,000; but what about enrollment? How many kids apply, get accepted and don't enroll? Just more curious than anything.

If engineering and Mays are really about 2 to 5% acceptance rate?, How does that play into 60% acceptance rate for the university? And if top 10% is automatic acceptance, but it's so selective for business or engineering, then the vast majority of those accepted are in Degrees other than those two colleges?

Kind of a Segway discussion, but my daughter's high school requires a 99% GPA to make the top 10%. The valedictorian had a 105% this year. The pressure to get into a state, flagship, public university, and get close to the major you desire, has become insanely competitive and unhealthy.

Self selecting or not, those are the students we want and those are the students we are bleeding from the state because of the lack of in state options. UT Dallas is a tier 1 research university, UTD struggles to attract the applicants I'm talking about. The tier 1 designation is a small part of the equation to applicants.

oldag941 said:

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Would be interested in some further data. Applications ~ 70,000; acceptance ~ 17,000; but what about enrollment? How many kids apply, get accepted and don't enroll? Just more curious than anything.

If engineering and Mays are really about 2 to 5% acceptance rate?, How does that play into 60% acceptance rate for the university? And if top 10% is automatic acceptance, but it's so selective for business or engineering, then the vast majority of those accepted are in Degrees other than those two colleges?

Kind of a Segway discussion, but my daughter's high school requires a 99% GPA to make the top 10%. The valedictorian had a 105% this year. The pressure to get into a state, flagship, public university, and get close to the major you desire, has become insanely competitive and unhealthy.

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My take on this is forty years out of date, but I suspect it has only gotten worse over time.

When I enrolled as a freshman, my major was ELEL - Electrical Engineering Lower Level. Only after completing some math and physics classes with satisfactory grade could you apply to "upper level" and have the actual major of ELEN.

All of those who did not get through were able to switch majors but were still enrolled students. I don't know how it works today, if there are extra requirements to even be admitted an engineering program as a freshman

At the time, the department had two academic advisors. One might actually try to help you. The other decided his sole purpose in life was to scare freshman out of the program, often with great success. Anyone who was an EE major in the 80s knows exactly what I am talking about.

Ellis Wyatt said:

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oldag941 said:

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60% seems off. As a parent of a high school junior, the stories I hear are insane on how difficult minister in as a good student. If a large % of the fish class is too 10% auto-admit, how does that impact that 60%? Also, the stats are showing mays or engineering is close to too 5% of graduating class to get in. Sometimes smaller than that.

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Mays acceptance =/= TAMU acceptance. Of course certain schools are very difficult to get into. McCombs is very difficult to get into also, and has been for decades.

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The issue is the 10% rule. Good students in academically competitive schools have harder time getting in to A&M because of that.

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All of those who did not get through were able to switch majors but were still enrolled students. I don't know how it works today, if there are extra requirements to even be admitted an engineering program as a freshman

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College of Engineering and College of Business have additional application steps to be accepted as freshmen in those colleges.

I remember the Cass of '91 was the largest incoming freshman class in the nation at over 7,000 students. I can't even fathom having incoming freshmen class 2 to 3 times bigger.

akm91 said:

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Quote:

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All of those who did not get through were able to switch majors but were still enrolled students. I don't know how it works today, if there are extra requirements to even be admitted an engineering program as a freshman

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College of Engineering and College of Business have additional application steps to be accepted as freshmen in those colleges.

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I don't recall needing to go through any extra application process, just gain admittance and pick a major. But like I said, it has been a few years.

I'm sure they still have the weed-out classes.

aggiehawg said:

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Man, I started A&M in fall of '76. I think the total # of students back then was about 27,000 undergrad.

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I started in the spring of '76 and my memory is the same, just under 30,000. I also recall that, at least to me, it was more or less staffed to handle about half that number of students. Often I stood in line for many many hours to get the simplest things done.

Agree with you, us old Ags didn't have to do that. But my junior had additional steps he needed to do after being accepted to A&M to get into Engineering.

Our high school falls out where you need a 98% or 99% to make the top 10% class standing. Last year. The valedictorian had 105%. tu has already gotten an approved "carve out" to go down to top 6% or so for auto-admit. Simple math. Too much demand and too little supply. A&M will follow, probably during this legislative session considering the recent enrollment cap decision. So if A&M goes to roughly a top 6%, like tu, our high school students will have to achieve over 100% GPA for auto-admit. That's military academy and Ivy league stuff. Insane.

Stonegateag85 said:

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Self selecting or not, those are the students we want and those are the students we are bleeding from the state because of the lack of in state options. UT Dallas is a tier 1 research university, UTD struggles to attract the applicants I'm talking about. The tier 1 designation is a small part of the equation to applicants.

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Terms. By tier 1 I (and I think the popular conception) is a large university offering the traditionally "complete" (athletics, greeks, on campus life) undergraduate experience. We need 5-6 of them, not 2.

aggiehawg said:

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cecil77 said:

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Texas needs more tier 1 universities.

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Such as? Tech has struggled for years to get the lowest scientific research designation.

So besides Rice, U of H? DallasUT?

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Tough question. The obvious choice would be Tech, but they are out in west Texas, far from the bulk of the population. The leadership at Texas State needs to work hard at shedding the party school image and they might make a run at it. UTD is pretty narrowly focused - not sure if they can pull it off.

By the way, I enrolled in '90. I had what used to be calculated as a 3.2 GPA in high school. Not only does the 35,000 to 73,000 campus enrollment change the experience (arguably better or worse), but the pool of students (from 3.2 GPAs being the norm to now 100%....or 4.0 GPAs) changes dramatically and will impact the student experience. I guess the discussion is more around the quality of education. Similar to Michigan, Virginia, UNC, etc. Top tier state schools. Example is UVA since '90 has gone from 12,000 undergrads enrolled to 18,000. Smaller increase in numbers but 50% increase compared to A&M 100+% increase.

It's a little different in engineering now. Everyone enters as general engineering students. You apply to up to 3 (in order of preference) different majors in spring semester of your freshmen year.

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By the way, I enrolled in '90. I had what used to be calculated as a 3.2 GPA in high school. Not only does the 35,000 to 73,000 campus enrollment change the experience (arguably better or worse), but the pool of students (from 3.2 GPAs being the norm to now 100%....or 4.0 GPAs) changes dramatically and will impact the student experience.

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It was already over 40K enrollment by the late 80's.

Tier 1 or "flagship". Don't know the true term or definition but frequently A&M and t.u. are the two that "qualify". I know they are trying to spread some of this out but it's within the same A&M and t.u. systems. Not outside. Examples are new law school for A&M. Dental school for A&M. Veterinarian school at WTAM. Lots of money into UTD in Richardson. But doesn't sound like any movement towards other additional flagship. Probably a lot of that is due to the funding system that obviously favors A&M and t.u. over any other public institutions.

You are correct. Seems went from 36k to 41k from '86 to '90.

infinity ag said:

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So no more diploma mill?

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This is a fallacy. A&M is much harder to get into now then it was in our day.

akm91 said:

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It's a little different in engineering now. Everyone enters as general engineering students. You apply to up to 3 (in order of preference) different majors in spring semester of your freshmen year.

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Yikes, I don't like that. I get that the freshman curriculum is largely the same for most engineering majors, but even as a high school student I was fairly clear on which engineering path I wanted to follow. I almost think I'd rather go to another school where I could get on and stay on my preferred path as long as I made my grades.

I remember when I went to school. Everything after this time in A&M history is just a diploma mill /s

"Hospitality, Hotel Mgmt, and tourism
Urban Planning"

These two actually prepare people for jobs that exist in the real world. I would not cut them. The rest are fair game IMO.

Did the Texas A&M veterinary schools paws enrollment?