Demographics
State/Location of residency: Texas
Highschool: IB level offers many APs and very competitive (5.6 for top 10%)
Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): South Asian
**Intended Major(s):CS, CE
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.63/4
Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.78/5
Class Rank: School doesnt rank but ranked by A&M for top quarter
ACT/SAT Scores: 1410(highest score) 690(highest esrb score) 740(highest Math Score) super score 1430
Coursework
French 1
ALG 1
AP CSP
ADV BIO
Debate 1
Eng 1
French 2
Piano 1
ADV W Geo
Geometry
ALG 2
AP CS
AP W Hist
Adv Chem
Adv Eng 2
Adv French 3
Piano 2
Robotics
AP Phys 1
AP USH
Dig Elec
Eng 3
Piano 3
Adv Pre Calc
Robotics
CS 3
Senior Year:
AP Phy C
AP Calc BC
AP Stats
AP Macro
Piano 4
Robotics 2
English 4
IB CS 4 HL
Awards
Excellence Award: 10,11
AP scholar awards, with honor and distinction
French honor society
Extracurriculars
Robotics FTC team captain 12th grade
robotics club website committee 11th grade
game development club president and founder
AI Project video
planning on hosting district wide hackathon later this year
ai club member
created a beta robot which can go and clean beaches.
engineering internship
Essays/LORs/Other
average to above average
Schools
Applied to texas a&m a month back, but still have not gotten a decision bunch of my friends are kinda getting worried. Please chance me for a&m engineering. I accidently sent my ap scores some time back.
My ap scores:
AP phys:3
AP CSA: 3
APUSH: 2
AP world his: 5
AP CSA took again 11th grade: 3
@taipenx SAT is good/could be higher, A&M doesn’t super score.
AP scores aren’t great.
There’s a dedicated A&M Engineering thread.
Hoping @FriscoDad can send you the link for it.
You have a shot but you’ll be competing with everyone else in the 1st year Engineering group so you may not be able to choose your major.
Your profile would interest some private colleges - can your parents afford their EFC OR do you need merit or financial aid? If you run the NPC on UTD, TXTech, Southwestern, Lehigh, Trinity CT, St Louis University, what results do you get?
my high school does not rank if the student is not in top 10% but A&M ranked me in the top quarter. At my high school to be 30th percentile you have to have a perfect 4.0 unweighted gpa.
cost is not an issue but I have already gotten into UTD for Computer Science. I really want to go to a&m and have done a bunch of demonstrated interest over the last year as well such as attend online meetings and a few campus tours.
I had a C in pre-calculus (average was a B at my school) and in APUSH so I am worried that that may cause issues getting admitted. That is mostly the reason I am taking calculus BC to show calculus readiness.
Texas A&M has secondary admission (ETAM) for engineering majors. You need a 3.75 college GPA to automatically get your choice of major. Getting into computer science is highly unlikely for those who have college GPA below that, since the automatic admits are likely to fill up all of the space.
Congratulations on getting into UTD for CS! Did you get into the Honors college too?
Granted, it’s quite different from TAMU (urban, nerdier, not a big deal for athletics) though probably better for CS strictly speaking. Clearly they knew how to evaluate your C in Precalculus and your overall profile, ie., your HS context.
Typically large universities don’t factor demonstrated interest much into the decision. According to their CDS, applicant’s interest is considered but is neither “important” nor “very important”.
Why TAMU? Indeed, depending on what you admire and feel makes it a great fit, we may be able to find universities that share some characteristics with it as a way to guarantee you a university that’s a good fit - Ole Miss? Alabama?
Are you sure you want to risk being placed in an Engineering major you’re not interested in due to A&M’s secondary process?
Very, very high chance you will not get CS at the end of Freshman year. Just by the numbers, there is not a ton of space and many want that major. If you know any kids from your school who are there currently, reach out to them at the holiday break. Get info on what the school is like today, not a few years ago. You can always go up for games and visit your friends.
If I get into A&M I am planning on taking calculus and physics again without transferring ap credits given that i do well on the BC AP exam. That would be a GPA boost if I just retake those courses. I think the etam process is a problem for later, I kinda just want to get into a&m engineering.
You absolutely can’t count on this being an advantage, just a “not lost from the get-go”: Most students in the sequence will be doing the same as what you plan on doing and the college class is typically harder (although your HS being highly competitive should prepare you well).
It’s a really personal choice: You need to think about what you’ll do if your choices are, say, Industrial Distribution or Agricultural Engineering. Will being at TAMU be worth not being able to choose your major? If the university experience and name matter to you more than what you study, you’re good - your odds of getting into Engineering are relatively good since you’re taking BC and are top 25%. If studying CS or CE matters to you then you need to consider other possibilities carefully.
What do you like about TAMU?
Applying to 1-2 other universities that share its salient characteristics would certainly be a more certain way for you to get what you want, v. An imperfect fit at UTD.
@taipenx i hope you’ve put down housing deposit at UTD, to be safe. It could easily be January or February before you hear back from A&M, and dorm choices will be SLIM by that time (A&M dorm selection is based off time stamp Housing deposit is paid).
ETAM is very real. If you’re set-in-stone on CompSci, I’d take the UTD offer. If you’re open to other, less popular types of Engineering, then you’ll be okay. Look into TEAB pathway to admission.
I visited TAMU’s campus and compared to UTD, A&M’s was much better. I know a lot of seniors in robotics club who went to TAMU last year and have had a really good experience so far. Comparing UTD’s engineering program and A&M’s engineering program, A&M’s is also much better.
I suggest you research TEAB (Texas A&M Engineering at Blinn)- a pathway into A&M, which is considered full admission (students able to live on campus, have a Sport Pass).
If you don’t get admitted directly into General Engineering, you’d be a candidate for TEAB offer.
Did you get into the Honors college too?