ESP Membership

Selection Criteria
Only high-achieving students are accepted. High school seniors must score a minimum of 1350 on the SAT or 31 on the ACT, be in the top 10 percent of their graduating class and receive all As and Bs in their math and science courses.

Current Texas A&M students must be engineering majors with a grade point ratio of at least 3.6. Transfer students are considered on a individual basis.

Honors Courses
ESP students are free to choose the honors courses they take. Usually they take courses that fit into their degree programs.

To complete the ESP program, students are required to take 18 honors hours, including the two required seminar courses, and including the independent study/undergraduate research credits, if these are taken as honors hours.

Seminars
Each ESP student takes a one-hour seminar in the spring of the sophomore year and another one-hour seminar in the fall of the junior year. Most students tell us the seminars are their favorite part of the ESP experience.

In the first seminar, ENGR 281, ESP hosts outstanding visitors from industry, government or academia--leaders such as oil company presidents, space center directors or engineering firm owners. After their discussion, our visitors stay to have lunch and talk with the students. Each student attends two seminar sessions per semester.

In the second seminar, ENGR 381, ESP focuses on activities and research in each engineering major at Texas A&M. Visiting authorities discuss topics such as these: after-graduation opportunities, whether or not to attend graduate school, how to give technical presentations, how to write abstracts and how to write resumes. ESP students also enjoy pizza lunches with graduate students and meet with faculty members to learn more about graduate school and research. Finally, each ESP student is required to give a 10-minute technical presentation, either as an individual or as part of a team.

Independent Study / Undergraduate Research
This three-hour course is usually treated as a technical elective in each student's degree program. Not infrequently, the student's research project results in a scholarly article published in an academic journal.

As a way of meeting and exceeding this required study, many ESP students participate in the highly touted University Fellows Program, a year-long research program.

High Standards of Achievement
To remain in ESP, students must maintain a 3.5 grade point ratio through graduation. The average GPR is 3.64. To date, more than 400 Engineering Scholars have proudly earned the elite designation of "Engineering Scholars Program" on their transcripts.