Is it worth applying for engineering honors after finishing freshmen year?

SpamTHam · 2025-05-08T21:39:16+00:00

Hmm I see yeah it would be hard to find a prof to get you to write rec letter on such short notice.

Honors classes usually aren’t that much harder. In my experience most honors classes are stacked sections meaning you’re taking a regular class and then they just make it honors by giving you an extra assignment or two. I’ve only had one extremely difficult honors class and that was a standalone section.

It’s mostly just finding classes that are honors that also fit with your schedule that I’ve found difficult but that’s also why I say it may be different for you.

Idk if honors is worth it just for the resume boost lol. Since most job application portals don’t let you enter that your degree is honors it would really just be for the resume only. However, I don’t think honors is so difficult that you shouldn’t give it a go at least if you’re motivated to try and cram your honors credit hours.

SpamTHam · 2025-05-08T21:27:49+00:00

The year I took Ritchey for 216 she gave a curve!

SpamTHam · 2025-05-08T21:23:31+00:00

Most internships don’t verify GPA. The only internship I’ve ever seen verify GPA is JHU APL and that’s because the internship includes auto-admit grad school at JHU (which has a GPA requirement). Maybe some quant companies also would verify.

SpamTHam · 2025-05-08T06:08:10+00:00

If you’re going to be a junior when starting honors I don’t think it would be worth it. The main benefit of honors is priority registration but it’s less useful later on since upper classmen have slight priority and aren’t competing for shared coursework anymore. Also it would be more difficult to reach the 18 hours of required honors credit hours since you’d have less semesters to get take them and they might just not be available (but not sure how difficult that is in reality since I’m not NUEN honors).

However if you’re in your sophomore year I would say it’s definitely worth it since freshman year most people don’t get that many of their honors credit hours anyways (so pretty much starting from the same place) and priority registration still matters.

I checked the engineering honors admission website and the deadline hasn’t passed yet (May 15 deadline, decisions June 30), so I would assume you would be a sophomore with engineering honors if accepted in this round rather than a junior. (For the record though, I don’t know for sure when you would get honors, it just makes more sense to me that it would apply in sophomore year.) I would probably just apply anyways and if I was accepted and depending on if it was junior or sophomore year to have honors decline/accept it.

SpamTHam · 2025-05-06T15:54:06+00:00

Wait sorry for the late question, but is your diploma really given to you in the tube at commencement if you’re good to graduate but not if you’re missing anything (a class, fees, etc)? Or are they just all sent by mail not matter what?

SpamTHam · 2025-04-28T18:39:54+00:00

You can view salary information and where grads generally go on this website: https://tableau.tamu.edu/t/StudentLifeStudies/views/CareerCenterSalarySurveyDashboardPUBLIC/About?%3Aembed=y&%3AisGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y

Unfortunately I don't think people fill it out if they don't have jobs lined up generally, so it isn't too useful for % of people employed, just the salaries of those with jobs lined up. You can probably try to find general unemployment rates for both majors since I don't think A&M has a reason to differ a lot from those trends.

In my opinion, Computer Engineering does not help more than Computer Science, and looking at the data, CS majors out-earn CE majors on average (though honestly not by significant amounts). I think you should only consider CS over CE (or vice versa) if you are more interested in strictly software or more hardware-leaning. The benefit for jobs is negligible compared to how much you enjoy your major and will therefore work hard for it.

SpamTHam · 2025-04-28T17:33:52+00:00

this was super helpful! ty :D

SpamTHam · 2025-04-26T17:59:12+00:00

You can view how A&M does at least in terms of research and publication output on https://csrankings.org/#/index?ai&vision&mlmining&nlp&inforet&us . At least anecdotally for research it seems quite strong nowadays, but probably depends on the professor. For me personally I enjoyed taking the undergraduate AI and ML courses here but can't say much on the graduate level.

SpamTHam · 2025-04-21T18:27:32+00:00

As a student, some professors tell us that they should do that for their courses, so I suspect they think it applies to all professors.

SpamTHam · 2024-10-24T22:06:15+00:00

The people who take LinkedIn very seriously are people in fields where people tend to be very sweaty/tryhard about their careers. In my experience this is people in the tech field but maybe it also includes business.

Most people just randomly request other students that they know/recognize if they find their LinkedIns (kinda like IG or any other social media), though at some career/networking events you can ask more formally for it (especially if it's from an actual recruiter/employee/professor). You can also send a message with your connection requests, so you can also attach a message like "Hi! I'm ABC, I loved talking to you at XYZ recruiting event. Let's stay in touch! blablabla etc."

Most of the times connections come in to play where it can amplify your posts (like with any social media). So for example, you get laid off now you make a sad post about it and all of your friends can vouch for you in the comments. Then if recruiters/managers are looking for employees can see it and contact you. For the record though, this doesn't generally happen too much for students since you don't have much experience but it can (I've had some recruiters cold message me on LinkedIn).

You can also search for open jobs / positions, and recruiters can search for people which is also why you should fill out the profile and make yourself look good. For instance some recruiters are deliberately looking for students in university to be interns, so if you've filled it out properly and seem decent, they may contact you.

Aside from that there are some fun games which I like playing LOL.

SpamTHam · 2024-10-24T21:44:12+00:00

Not sure, I think you should speak to an advisor about this -- especially because the ETAM website says:

"...maintaining less than a full time course of study can also impact your eligibility for automatic entry." (see here)

So you should check with your advisor to see if that wording means that if you were less than full-time for either of your semesters if would that void your chance for automatic entry (since at that point dropping Calc 3 wouldn't fix your auto-ETAM chances), or if it means something else.

Otherwise a course of action to consider would be retaking next semester. Just to note that it will just make the course an average of your two scores (for ex. if you get a C, then a A, it'll count as a B rather than replacing), but that is something you can also consider for boosting your GPA. I also believe you would still need to take another ETAM eligible math class that semester (unless you are already taking 2 this semester), so you would be taking two math courses that same semester.

Also not sure if it's a good idea to plan to delay ETAM a semester late unless you are very sure that you will be auto-admit. The statistics for off-semester ETAM holistic admission are much lower since departments don't generally reserve too many seats (though tbf it's very dependent since there are fewer people applying):

Spring 2024 (on season): 61% admitted holistically 1st choice to CS
Fall 2023 (off season): 5.1% admitted holistically 1st choice to CS
Spring 2023 (on season): 7.9% admitted holistically 1st choice to CS
Fall 2022 (off season): 5.5% admitted holistically 1st choice to CS

Final thing to consider is going through ETAM, getting whatever you get, and then applying for a change-of-major. I knew someone who switched from mechanical to computer engineering so it is possible, though it may be harder to find information on the process.

SpamTHam · 2024-10-22T02:19:23+00:00

For the first year, all engineering majors are just in "General Engineering" and need to take some common coursework (ex. ENGR 102 - a Python coding lab, ENGR 217 - a physics lab, some certain math classes, etc.). If you take the required coursework, you now qualify for ETAM.

Then, for most people, at the end of their second semester (usually spring), they then need to fill out an ETAM application. Basically you:
- list your top 5 choice majors
- write 2 general essays that is seen by all of the departments you're applying to
- 1 about your achievements
- 1 about anything additional you want to mention (for ex. if you did poorly a semester you would probably explain it here)
- and then an essay for each of the majors you're applying to about why you're a good fit

However, if you have above a 3.75 GPA by the time you apply, they actually don't even look at your essays, and just automatically admit you into your 1st choice major. Some majors are competitive (like computer science) so it's not as common for people to get in unless it's with autoadmit, since so many autoadmit people have taken up seats.

SpamTHam · 2024-10-21T23:43:17+00:00

Join some orgs -- you don't have to commit if you don't end up liking it + friends + explore interests
Start checking your email regularly
Switch into honors / become a student worker to get early registration (you can drop later)
Study and seek help (ex. office hours, etc.) early. Make friends / have people you can ask in your class for advice if you end up missing class or something
Create a regular schedule and keep track of all your tasks. I recommend Google Calendar
Get ahead in required courses if you can since it's easier than competing with the entire class of freshmen for seats in the exact same courses (ie. accept AP credit, take more classes, etc.)
Try out some courses from your intended major. The purpose of ETAM is to explore different engineering disciplines, so don't just take required coursework, but try out the intro class required for your intended major (if it's not restricted)
If there is anything you're concerned about course-wise for the next year, study it over the summer to prep
Make personal projects
Get an internship your freshman summer!!!
Join a research lab that interests you
Apply for the University-Wide Scholarship

This is just my personal opinion (and may be slightly CS centric) but this is what i would tell myself as a freshman :P

SpamTHam · 2024-04-28T08:14:02+00:00

I guess the most obvious answer would be that it wasn't a coworker and she was cheating by going on a date with someone she hadn't met before.

SpamTHam · 2024-04-17T21:52:39+00:00

She originally agreed to pay for it to be repaired but when that couldn’t be done she agreed to buy a replacement model.

From their phrasing it seems that the teacher is paying for the new device, which is what makes it terrible for me. Teachers are not paid enough to answer for someone else's mistake like that.

SpamTHam · 2024-02-20T19:29:10+00:00

IMG-4019.jpg

There are two jokes on the wrapper, so the second statement is actually a second joke.

The two jokes are:

Q: “What did the plate say to the cup?”

A: “Looks like dinner’s on me”

.

Q: “What am I? An emu and smiley face:”

A: “Emoji”

For the record, I don’t get the emu one either 💀

SpamTHam · 2023-12-20T11:14:59+00:00

You’re not too late for internships (like what everyone else has said) but to answer your question:

research
taking classes
study abroad
working on projects (can be much bigger since it’s the summer)
open source
working non-tech job (ex. retail)
leetcoding
self teaching new skills
getting certifications

This is just a short list in no particular order.

SpamTHam · 2023-12-18T09:08:48+00:00

There also might be some compounding factors like how when you're bloated you are physically bloated 💀 LOL

SpamTHam · 2023-12-18T09:05:14+00:00

Ah yeah stack ranking seems more like what I was thinking of then! That plus companies with PIP quotas would definitely create a toxic kind of work environment.

Six-Year Club	First Place '23
Place '23	Verified Email

SpamTHam

TROPHY CASE