franknd, I reached out to the Office of the Commandant at A&M with that very question and here is what I was told:
1. The student would be considered a civilian during his/her PSA year at a satellite campus (Corpus Christi; San Antonio; etc . . . ) but did have the option of joining the ROTC program at that campus for freshman year. His/her ROTC credits could then be transferred to College Station the following year;
2. Assuming a student successfully completes his/her PSA year and transfer process, he/she is guaranteed a spot in the Corps sophomore year. He/she would have to go through the freshman Corps experience during his/her sophomore year, but would be considered fully "caught up" by junior year and still able to graduate with his/her class as if he/she had started out in the Corps at College Station during freshman year;
The three downsides I see are as follows:
a. If a student just barely misses the GPA requirement during his/her PSA year, then he/she is likely stuck at the A&M satellite campus for 4 years and will miss out on the Corps experience;
b. By going this route, the student will miss out on the camaraderie of going through the freshman Corps experience with the rest of his/her graduating class;
c. There is the whole nightmare of transferring any ROTC Scholarships to the satellite school during freshman year and then to A&M during sophomore year;
Right now, my son is leaning towards taking the "bird in hand" approach of going to Norwich or the Citadel (or to VA Tech if he gets in) where he knows he will be in the Corps during his freshman year no matter what. He is intrigued enough by the A&M PSA option, however, to still be considering it, which is why we would be very interested in hearing from someone who has taken that route.