<p>Every single student needs ONE place on his/her list that meets these four criteria:</p>
<p>1) Admission is flat-out guaranteed based on grades and/or exam scores. Notice that I wrote flat-out guaranteed. Not “pretty much guaranteed” or even “everyone from our school who has ever applied there with grades/scores like yours got in”. TAMU meets this standard for your son. What about the other Texas publics? What about a community college that has transfer agreements with the Texas publics?</p>
<p>2) Your family can pay the full cost of attendance (COA) with nothing more than guaranteed state aid, FAFSA-based federal aid, and aid guaranteed by the college/university itself based on the student’s grades/scores. Can you pay the full OOS cost of U VA for all four years? Yes, it is pretty generous with aid for OOS students, but that doesn’t mean it will be in your son’s case.</p>
<p>3) The major is offered (or in the case of a rare major, a close equivalent).</p>
<p>4) The student will be happy to attend if come April 1 there are no other affordable options on the table.</p>
<p>Right now your kid doesn’t want to attend TAMU. If he doesn’t get in anywhere at all that your family can afford, what is he going to do come September 2013? Ask him what his back-up plan is. TAMU may not look so bad after all.</p>
<p>He qualifies for guaranteed admission and serious merit-based aid (up to and including true full-rides) at a number of schools. They may not offer his specific major, but he can see what he could cobble together from their engineering schools. Show him this thread, and have him follow the various links. He might find a viable rock-bottom safety that isn’t TAMU: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html</a></p>