Texas A&M’s College of Engineering offers more than 20 degrees. In order to get into one of those, first-year students must follow a general engineering curriculum and apply using the Entry to a Major, or ETAM, process.

For the 2024 spring cycle, 2,416 students, or 74.4%, of eligible student applicants were placed in their first-choice major and 2,859 — 88.0% — of eligible applicants were placed in their first or second choice major. 100% of the 3,249 eligible applicants were offered a major.

Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Harry Hogan, Ph.D., said demand for A&M’s graduates continues to be robust across all majors.  

“There are fluctuations due to economic and market factors, and this varies for different degree programs over time,” Hogan said. “We expect graduates from all our majors will continue to find exciting opportunities to help solve the many technical challenges facing our world.”

Hogan said the engineering department’s goal is to help students explore all 22 of B.S. degree programs to discover those that will best help them achieve their long-term career goals. 

“Students make informed decisions and apply to multiple majors, recognizing that there is always more than one pathway to success,” Hogan said. “Students are placed in a major based on their application materials and academic record in college. This matching process has helped achieve improvements in retention and graduation rates, and we strive to continue positive trends.”

Electronic systems engineering technology junior Nayab Warach said he believes the first-year engineering program is doing the best they can. 

“First-year advisors deal with so many different students that sometimes they give unreliable advice, causing students to mistrust them,” Warach said. “One such example is the infamous ‘science waiver,’ or what qualifies as your required two science courses for ETAM and if AP credit do or do not count.”

Warach said students are encouraged to “game the system” by both upperclassmen and advisors.

“With auto admission requiring a 3.75 GPA, freshmen engineers are taking courses they already have AP credit in to earn an easy A, finding the easiest core curriculum courses to pad their GPA or limiting their involvement with anything except their studies,” Warach said.

Warach says he has heard different proposals to improve the ETAM process from fellow students. 

“A solution I’ve seen thrown around is to get rid of ETAM auto admission — require all applicants to undergo a holistic review regardless of GPA — and I think it has merit,” Warach said. “Of course, would most students want this? Probably not. Texas A&M can’t just admit less students, as that goes against our mission as a public university. Hiring more faculty? I think everyone wishes we can do that, but something has to change”

Despite some of the challenges faced by enrollees of the program, Warach feels supported as an engineering student.

“The advisors in my current department, the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution, are extremely helpful,” Warach said. “The faculty genuinely cares about us, and this can be true of first-year engineering too, but I think many students are afraid to reach out to faculty and just talk.”

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article did not attribute proposals to change ETAM to students. The College of Engineering clarified their position in a statement, saying “We do not offer ‘science waivers’ and AP credit cannot be used to satisfy ETAM eligibility requirements. All ETAM requirements are defined online at https://tx.ag/etam … The College of Engineering is NOT considering getting rid of the “Automatic Entry” pathway to a student’s first-choice major.”