I know that all applicants beginning fall of 2016 will go into holistic review for admittance into engineering. With that said we needs to decide if he should take the new SAT or retake the ACT to raise his scores or will his current stats be enough to gain admittance into engineering at the College Station campus.
GPA: Unweighted: 3.7 Weighted: 4.7
SAT (CR+M): (690CR 620M) 1310 / (OLD TEST)
ACT: 31 (33E 29M 30R 31S)
Class Rank Top 18% (104/565)
EC’s/Extras: Eagle Scout at 14, Attended National BS Jamboree, Marching Band 4 years, Jazz Band, NHS, Member of Boy Scout Adventuring Crew, High Adventure Camp in CO for 2 summers, Hundreds of hours of volunteer work, numerous mission trips, ISM mentoring program, 3 years of PLTW engineering classes including AERO
Major of choice: AERO or MECH
Wants to be a member of the Corps and in Marching Band
His writing scores on the SAT (530) and ACT (17) are low. He has sloppy handwriting and his CR on the SAT and English and Reading scores on the ACT show he is good in those areas but not sure how much they will look at those low numbers.
He will also apply at UT, Oklahoma State, University of Oklahoma and Iowa State but A&M is his first choice. Does he take the test one more time or sit pat?
I would say he need to raise his math score, above a 30 for his ACT and a 650 for his SAT, to at least be competitive. This year after the auto admissions closed and the rest of the spots were put on holistic review, it became really competitive. Two of my good friends were denied, and they were top 10%. They also had below 650 math scores though. It just seemed to be a pattern of the people who got in had over a 650 math score on their SAT.
@justanotherjose You think that even though a 29 on ACT Math equates to a 650-660 on SAT Math? The mean ACT Math score for incoming Freshman into the engineering school for fall 2015 was a 29 and the rest of his ACT scores are well above mean, except for writing. I guess it won’t hurt to take it again he just really doesn’t want to.
What were your friends total SAT (CR+M) and are they TX residents? If top 10% they should have been auto admits.
@TxSker The auto admit process for engineers lasted for the first 85% of applicants. The remaining 15% of spots were judged holistically. They were top 10% in a large high school, not even low top 10%. High top 10%, around 4%. I don’t remember their total SAT’s but I think they where in the range of 1650-1950.
This website only goes to 2009 but it seems as if the average was around a 660 in 2009. His overall ACT was really good and probably puts him really close I think. I just believe if it was a little closer he would be much more competitive.
Forget UT. If you are not in auto admit numbers, your son will not get into engineering at UT. With that class rank and scores, he will be denied holistically. My son was near top 10%, 2210 SAT, 1430 M+CR, National Merit commended, 4 PLTW engineering classes, current internship at Lockheed Martin 8 hrs a week that will go through every summer he is in college, and was offered waitlist, CAP and PACE thru UT.
Your son will get into Iowa State, Oklahoma State (middle daughter attends there-great school. College Station bigger than Stilly) and OU.
TAMU is a BIG maybe for engineering.
@Thelma2 That’s what I thought about UT but he still wants to apply just to see. I guess I don’t see why he is a big maybe for TAMU engineering. He meets the threshold for academic admit and his scores are at or above mean for the engineering admits in 2015. Can you explain where you think his deficiencies are?
@TxSker While 1310 qualifies for academic admit it will not get him into engineering. Beginning fall of 2017, all applicants will undergo the holistic review process, even auto and academic admits. http://engineering.tamu.edu/easa/areas/recruitment/admissions. top 18% and barely over the threshold for academic admit are not strong numbers when compared with the applicants he will be up against. They are not terrible stats, just not stellar. He should still apply. If he didn’t get full A&M for engineering, he is a good candidate for Engineering at Galveston, and Engineering academies at Blinn.
@Thelma2 He won’t be submitting his SAT but his ACT with the 31 Composite which is a 1360-1390 SAT according to the conversion tables. He will most likely be taking the ACT again in June to see if he can raise his score to a 32-33 range. Would that be sufficient?
What can you tell me about OSU? Is your daughter in the engineering school there? We visited and he liked it he would just prefer A&M.
If he can get in the 33 range for ACT, that would be very helpful. His class rank will be a ding against him because that will be taken into account holistically, against higher scoring applicants. It is just going to be very competitive now among everyone. My son is also a band geek. 4 years on drumline.
My daughter is in Ag Science at OSU. It is a great school with TONS of school spirit. While I understand Tamu is the first choice, OSU is a similar style school. The drawbacks are tons of wind ( forever chapped lips) buy an umbrella geered for high winds, and the earthquakes that rattle you awake. And if you don’t find country towns quaint, stilly is a long drive home to visit (275 miles for us one way)
@lessonwitch2 Its a maybe to admission to Dwight Look. He is an academic admit to the university. If he isn’t accepted into Dwight Look at the College Station campus I don’t think he would be interested in the Blinn or Galveston programs but he could change his mind.
Yes, I meant Dwight look. that quote was from their admissions page. i knew that stats were gonna go higher, but I didn’t think high enough that a 31 doesn’t look good. I was just surprised at how high the stats are now.
I second Iowa State for engineering. We had a great visit there for son number three. The campus is beautiful and they have great engineering facilities and a very large career fair. OOS tuition is relatively low at $20,000.
And, they use a formula for admissions. https://www.admissions.iastate.edu/freshman/requirements.php
If your score is 245 or greater, you are in and you will know in a week or so after applying online. Applications open in July and my son’s admission letter was dated July 21. He was thrilled to have an acceptance from a good school in his pocket that early. It really took the pressure off.
BTW, his older brother is finishing up his second year at TAMU and doing well. Son number three wanted to go somewhere else and we did not want to pay OOS tuition, so it’s worked out so far.
@Beaudreau Thanks for the information. Looks like he’s really close just needs to raise the ACT to a 32-33 which is doable for him. It will be nice to have OSU and ISU and safety schools as well. Kind of hard to go wrong with any of his choices really.
@lessonwitch2 I was speaking about TXSKer being accepted into Dwight Look College of Engineering, not just being accepted into TAMU.
With the holistic approach for engineering, it is going to be much more competitive. That said, auto/academic admits may still have an advantage.
You should apply for engineering, if that is really where you want to be. Best case scenario, you get full admissions to engineering at College Station. If you are auto/academic admit, you will likely find out relatively soon of your offer, so apply as early as possible.
My son waited until mid-October, when marching band competitions were over, when he had all of his rec letters from his engineering internship in order. Don’t do that. Just get the apply Tx app done asap. Upload the other stuff by Dec. 1. My son received his acceptance within 2 weeks.
With TAMU rolling admissions, the auto/academic admits find out sooner than the UT auto admits, where acceptances come in waves. My niece was an auto admit to UT, (Notified in September I think) but did not find out her major of ChemE until January.
The worst that can happen is you are offered an alternative route, which is not a bad thing at all. Like UT, I do not believe any in state student is outright rejected for admissions. While some may be rejected to College Station, they are offered Gateway Summer, program for system admissions (PSA) Blinn Team, and engineering candidates are offered Engineering at Galveston or Blinn Engineering Academies.
Galveston is the only A&M campus that is a branch and offers the aggie ring and other perks.
