I'm still a Junior in high school so I'm early on this, but I'm wondering if/how the process for application for the college of engineering differs from the main application process I've seen on the website. There's a lot of information on the A&M site and it's difficult to really figure some stuff out at times. Any help/advise would be appreciated. Thank you.

I forgot to add that I'm going to be graduating high school with an Associate's degree that hopefully has all the requirements I've seen that transfer students need to get into the college of engineering, but I'm unsure if that actually changes the application process or not.

The application process is slightly different in that your application will go through two reviews, one for Texas A&M and one for engineering. There is no extra work on the application side; it is just extra work for the university.

As for applying, I believe you would still apply as a freshman because the credits were earned while in high school. I am not entirely sure, though, and I would encourage you to contact the engineering recruiters at engineering-recruiters@tamu.edu.

The key is they are looking for things that show you are specifically prepared and interested in becoming an engineer and can point to examples.

Obvious are GPA/Scores/Rank but the real thing they want is rigor in STEM. Are you maxing out your Math and Science classes and how did you do? What other things have you done that are STEM related? Robotics is always the thing people point to but there are plenty of others. Math competitions, science competitions, finding ways to get involved in research. There are other types of clubs or jobs you can get involved with as well. For instance over the Summer don't just go work at a restaurant, try and get a job working in a shop that does fabrication or maybe an auto mechanic. Be willing to start out at the bottom and work and learn. A&M's engineering is also programming heavy so take a Coursera or something in Python or if you are interested in Comp Sci/Eng try and learn how to build computers or do some programming.

The kids who normally have trouble have very good grades and solid scores but not elite and all of their EC's are generic. Played a sport or were in the band. Were in NHS. Did some other non STEM related service. All of those are nice but they don't have anything to do with Engineering. You don't need to have crazy stuff but you do need to show that you understand what being an engineer means and show a compulsion besides, "Being an engineer sounds cool and they make good money so I think I will be an engineer. I made good grades so that should be enough." that many applications imply.