<p>Application in August 13, still waiting to see that transcript was received..</p>
<p>Private school, does not rank
GPA 4.03
Average 96.03
SAT CR and Math 1230
ACT 28
Lots of AP/Dual credit classes</p>
<p>Wants to major in Health or Science for Pre-Nursing.
What do you think???</p>
<p>I am going to be completely honest with you. There is no way to realistically chance people. You will find bits of info that encourage and bits of info that discourage. We were in your shoes one year ago today and waited until February for an answer. There are people with lower stats than your daughter that will get admitted. There are people with higher stats that won’t. My daughter was ultimately admitted to the Blinn TEAM program. She missed academic admit by mere points on SAT and ACT but felt so confident that she would be a shoo-in for review that she didn’t retake either test. I am sure you want numbers, so here they are:</p>
<p>high school doesn’t rank (and had 28 seniors, so top ten admit was 3 people!)
GPA 4.0
SAT 1280
ACT 29
graduated with an International Baccalaureate Diploma and 34 hours of college credit, 200+ hours of community service, manager of varsity basketball team, marching band, school newspaper editor.</p>
<p>The major makes no difference. Freshman application is to the university first, then the student is placed in a college. If neither of the college choices are available, they will put her in General Studies. My hope for you is good news and soon - checking Howdy becomes an addiction. Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>Hey Thanks!
My daughter is already signed up to retake ACT and SAT. We signed up for like 5 prospective student things, tours, etc. I know God is in control of all things…so I’m praying this is His will…
Thanks!</p>
<p>It really does seem “random”. I think a lot of the kids with lower stats get in because they are first-generation college or they claim to be a minority (I say claim because in our area there is a LOT of fraud that goes on in this area). This makes it so hard to guess on admissions for “regular” kids with good stats. </p>
<p>Many of DS1’s friends did Blinn Team. They had decent gpa’s, but attended a stellar HS so they were well below the top 10%. It didn’t matter. They all got into TAMU after 1-2 years of Blinn. They lived with TAMU kids and attended all the sporting events. My view of Blinn Team has greatly improved. One piece of advice: some of the academic counseling is VERY poor. I know 2 Blinn Team kids who had to stay longer because of mistakes/misunderstandings of the courses they needed to take to move into their desired TAMU major. I think as a parent you should try to help your student read the required courses and maybe get more than one counselor to agree that the student’s courses are appropriate!</p>
<p>I went to A&M back when all you needed was 1100 (before “recentering” of the SAT) and got early admission during Junior year…wish it was that easy now! My daughter is retaking ACT in 2 weeks to hopefully boost it a little. I’ve looked at a bunch of Blinn team stuff…the worse part seems that you get notified so late that oncampus housing is full.</p>
<p>aggie88, DS1 lived at Traditions (private dorm) freshman year which is a great location for both campuses (his roommate was Blinn Team). You can ride a bike across the street to TAMU and there’s a Blinn bus stop on the corner. If you book by late spring/early summer they’ll be offering incentives. The all-you-can-eat-anytime meal plan is a good deal and if she wants to stay on campus all day they’ll make her a sack lunch she can pick up on her way out in the morning.</p>
<p>We spent Monday on campus doing the Residence Hall tour, meeting with the College of Science, and attending a Prospective Student Session. I wish we had gone to this session before submitting the application and the essays! The admission guy said what they really want to see in the essays, especially for reveiw admits. ACT on Saturday praying for 2 more points to be automatic admit!</p>
<p>aggie88, What did he say they look for the most? DS2 will be applying and is NOT likely to be admitted, so any tips would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>We did a day of touring too, and I agree, the introductory session was very useful/informative in regards to admissions.</p>
<p>What I got out of it that I can remember was:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Make your essays tell something about yourself that is not inherently obvious from the rest of your application. Don’t just rehash all of your accomplishments and awards that you’ve already listed. It’s your opportunity to cover information about yourself that can’t just be “ticked in a box”.</p></li>
<li><p>Do NOT just “answer the question” - paint a picture about yourself.</p></li>
<li><p>Tell something about yourself that is going to SET YOU APART from every other applicant. There are going to be a lot of common themes among applicants, just by virtue of the fact that most of them are around the same age, and are about at the same point on their road in life. What is cool about YOU? What makes YOU different than the other guy?</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t make the point of your essay to impress the reader with big words, flowery speech or some esoteric idea - BE REAL, BE YOURSELF and BE OPEN. That doesn’t mean not to pay attention to spelling, grammar and punctuation - it just means that the point is for the reader to actually learn something real about you.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Other useful application information that I remember:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>List EVERYTHING, but don’t “double dip”. Give it some thought, and decide which hours you will report under school activities, and which hours you will report under service/volunteer hours. Don’t list the same hours or particular service twice. The point is they want to know how you spend your time outside of your schoolwork.</p></li>
<li><p>By listing everything that means, for example, time spent on the band bus going to and from the football game.</p></li>
<li><p>On summer activity listings - you want to paint a good picture of what your summer looked like - show the productive things you did. If you went to summer school, if you had a job, if you participated in a volunteer activity, if you had summer band, summer football, summer mission trip - you want to show what good things you did over the summer, and that you didn’t spend every waking moment playing video games or catching rays.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Those are the main things I remember.</p>
<p>At the Prospective Student Session, the admission guy said…for the top 10 and academic admits, as long as they meet the criteria and the TX uniform admission policy, they don’t need to do anything extra but apply and do two essays. For the review admits, he stressed take your time on the application, and all three essays. Include a lot about yourself in the essays. Don’t put for essay c “I really want to go to A&M” 
Two and only two letters of recommendation will be read…he said to get the letters from the teachers, and read them to see which ones paint you in the best light. Only mail the best two. Include every leadership/activity/service thing you can think of. Attending on campus events will add to your application. They use all of this a a"tie-breaker" in choosing between similar review admits…</p>
<p>Thanks! I don’t think he has much chance for regular admission, but hoping for Blinn Team! He’s retook the ACT, but he needs a 3 point increase which is very unlikely.</p>
<p>We weren’t planning on getting recommendations as I had heard that they really aren’t considered at all. Also, at our school the letters go directly from the teachers to the school so there’d be no way to pick & choose. We have to supply addressed envelopes with the request forms.</p>
<p>aggie88, good additions. YES, I remember the same being covered.</p>
<p>I had forgotten about the letters of recommendation, because they’re not needed for auto admits. They’ll be needed for scholarship applications I would expect. But yes, if you submit more than 2, he said they will only read TWO and will select them at RANDOM - so pick and send the ones you like the best.</p>
<p>I would be surprised if letters of recommendation “are not considered at all”. This is not the impression I got from the session I sat in.</p>
<p>I was told by an admissions rep (but years ago with my older son) that it’s assumed everyone can find someone to write a nice letter. Again, old information so perhaps no longer true. </p>
<p>Either way, if applying for scholarships it’s probably worthwhile.</p>
<p>I remember at the sessions that we attended they did consider letters of recommendation for review admits. D was an auto admit but she had a couple of friends that were review admits. The one that got in had recommendation letters that were excellent and got in with 2 less points and lower class rank then the student that only sent one recommendation letter.</p>
<p>Allthisisnewtome,</p>
<p>I think it might be required for scholarship applications, actually.</p>
<p>cromette, </p>
<p>Good point, but S2 will be lucky to get in with his low rank (decent test scores). I’d just like them to accept him. I wouldn’t dream of asking for a scholarship :-).</p>
<p>Did I see you say you were thinking of Blinn? If it doesn’t work out, that might be a good option. Also, if it’s possible, tell him to do LOTS of community service. That might be a way to pull some community scholarships - PLUS, it’s just good. My D2 had GREAT academics and got very little money - but we saw people that had the academics AND a ton of community service get a lot more.</p>