What do you mean by "symmetric" for a third order tensor? A second order tensor would be represented (in a given coordinate system) by a 3 by 3 matrix (or 4 by 4 if you are counting time) and it would be symmetric if and only if [itex]A_{ij}= A_{ji}[/itex]. But a third order tensor would be represented by a "3 by 3 by 3" array, [itex]A_{ijk}[/itex]. And then we can have several different kinds of "symmetry":
[itex]A_{ijk}= A_{jik}[/itex], or [itex]A_{ijk}= A_{ikj}[/itex], or [itex]A_{ijk}= A_{kji}[/itex]. You could even have a kind of symmetry by "rotating" the indices: [itex]A_{ijk}= A_{kij}= A_{jki}[/itex].