Applied 9/27- all documents in with 2 LOR from Aggies
Major: Interdisciplinary math and science/College of Education
Rank: 21.5%
GPA: 3.87
SAT: 1280
ECs: Drill Team (including leadership), High School Leadership Program at school, NHS, National Charity League and active in church. Had summer job during past two summers in addition to going on mission trips.
Hoping to be an Aggie! Chance me please, Full or Team possible?
Howdy!
I think that you have a great chance to either be a full time Aggie or on Blinn-TEAM. Stay positive! Take a few deep breaths every time you start to stress, the wait can be long.
I have 2 Aggie daughters. My oldest daughter was a full TAMU admit after review, HS Senior 2012, Aggie Class of '16. My youngest daughter is currently a Freshman on Blinn-TEAM, she was a HS Senior 2017 (TAMU holistic review), and will be Aggie Class of '21. WHOOP!!
Info on my Aggie '16: I can’t remember her unweighted gpa but it was pretty good, her weighted gpa was above 5, and she had several AP and dual classes; her class rank was 27% at an extremely competitive HS (in the top hand full of HS for TX, nationally ranked), her SAT was a little higher than yours; she had similar ECs to yours including a leadership position, NHS, Summer jobs and mission trips. She submitted her application in Oct and got her admissions decision in early Feb. She had a wonderful Aggie experience for all 4 years! She was selected to be a Peer Undergraduate Mentor, which was quite an honor. She had a study abroad experience and she was graduated from TAMU Cum Laude with a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies and now teaches 3rd grade in a great school district in TX. This school district was her first choice and she was offered this job on her FIRST job interview! That shows the value of an Aggie education and the Aggie network!
Info on my Aggie '21: her unweighted gpa was 3.5, her weighted was higher, in the high 4s, but I can’t remember the exact number; she had one Dual Credit English. Her class rank was 53%. Her SAT was 1250 which is the average for her HS. (This school always has at least half of the NMSF for the entire district. The average SAT score at this school is more than 200 points higher than this ISD average and more than 300 points higher than the State of TX average). She had 2 great LORs, one from her HS Chemistry teacher (male Aggie) and one from her HS English teacher (female Longhorn). Her ECs were a HS team 4 years (JV plus 3 years Varsity) with no leadership position and also a competitive team outside of school, making for very LONG days but she learned great time management skills and resiliency. Although she was eligible for NHS, she did not join as she did not think that she had the time for the volunteer portion of NHS. I was told by her sister that her essays were good (I wasn’t allowed to read them). I think that her essays also covered her ability to manage her time and included her experience and recovery from a serious concussion in 8th grade and how that affected her health and grades in the 9th and 10th grades.She submitted her application during the Thanksgiving holidays of her Senior year.
Even though she had attended Aggie games a few times, I really wanted her to make sure that she wanted TAMU for herself and not just because her sister was an Aggie. We scheduled an official TAMU visit in September of her HS year on a day when TAMU classes were in session. We contacted the English Department and booked an advisory session and she was allowed to sit in on an English Honors seminar. She LOVED the seminar and probably this influenced her original choice of Major. She originally wanted to be an English Major, (her SAT score would have allowed her to be in English Honors IF she had been in the top 25% of her HS), but she doesn’t think that she wants to teach and will probably graduate with a different major, something in Liberal Arts, who knows?
The HS allowed 2 excused days for college visits. The EC wasn’t very happy that she missed something for this college visit, I had to really jump through hoops to make sure that she wasn’t penalized for missing that day. But I think that this official visit showed TAMU that she was very interested and it gave her the opportunity to really see herself attending TAMU. While having lunch on campus on that trip, she thanked me for setting up the visit and said that she felt very comfortable on the TAMU campus, she felt like she fit in.
She was initially very disappointed to be offered Blinn-TEAM, mainly because her sister had been a full admit after review. Thank goodness her sister didn’t tease her. Her offer came in on Feb. 14, 2017. After realizing that only one of her teammates had been offered full TAMU admit (but really wanted to go to UT) and only one teammate was offered full admit to UT (and this girl was in the top 10%, but REALLY wanted to go to Brown), the rest of her teammates and were either CAP for the UT system or did not apply to UT/TAMU, or wanted OOS or smaller schools. I don’t know their SAT/ACT scores or class ranks of these students.
One girl with leadership on the EC team (whose family were Aggies for at least a couple of generations) was denied admissions, so she is going to Blinn College and plans to transfer asap. They set up her “plan B” by signing up for an apartment near the TAMU campus in January, well before the denial of admission was received. I admire their forward thinking.
Most of the students from her HS who wanted to be Aggies were PSA and are going elsewhere while planning to transfer asap. At least one son of a friend is TAMU Galveston for Engineering. We don’t know anyone else who is Blinn-TEAM from her HS. It is a huge school so there are probably other Freshman Blinn-TEAMer,s we just don’t know them personally.
The admission results for her HS friends put everything into perspective for my daughter and she became very grateful to be an Aggie through Blinn-TEAM! I am so grateful that someone on the review committee looked beyond her low class rank and saw something that earned her a spot on Blinn-TEAM. She is actually quite a rarity as 99% of TAMU are from the top 50% of their HS class.
Of course, we would have loved for her to be a full admit Aggie, but as a Blinn-TEAMer, she has opportunity to be a full Aggie, except that she can’t play a sport LOL! She is fully immersed in the Aggie traditions and CStat experiences, she loves going to the games and tail gating and has joined a fun campus group. She went through Greek recruitment and was selected by her first choice house, the same one as her sister. It is not a problem to be on Blinn-TEAM while going through the recruitment process. A lot of the girls who went through recruitment this year and the big sisters, etc. are/were Blinn-TEAMers as evidently a lot of the top 10% don’t go Greek. She lives in an apartment just off campus so that she has more personal space because she really needs her sleep due to remaining effects of the concussion and she is a picky eater and wanted her own kitchen. She has dining dollars so that she can eat on the TAMU campus when she wants. She rides the bus to from the TAMU campus to the Blinn campus on 2 days of the week for her classes there. NO ONE CARES that she is a Blinn-TEAMer and not a “full admit”. Her grades are currently straight A’s, she has made a lot of new friends and she is SO happy to be an Aggie and can’t imagine going to any other school!!
Plan A is always to be a full admit. I would call Blinn-TEAM plan A- since a student still has the opportunity to fully enjoy the Aggie experience in CStat. Plan B would be Blinn College, live in CStat and transfer to TAMU asap. If you really want to be an Aggie, then why go somewhere else outside of CStat and transfer in when you can live in CStat and start living the Aggie life?
If you haven’t booked an official visit, do so. And if you get offered anything less than Blinn-TEAM, appeal the decision. It can’t hurt and it might help. At least they will know that you really want to be an Aggie.
Stay positive. 
ENJOY YOUR HS SENIOR YEAR!! It will go by so very quickly!!. Try to find something to enjoy about every single day, even if it is a small thing. And let us know what happens. I wish you much luck.
You have an opportunity to re-test and potentially move to the auto admit category. You can do so by ACT, SAT or the on-campus ACT testing (given more frequently at TAMU but only counts for TAMU). Your chances for admission are truly on the fence with your current stats - and yet 80 more points & you’re in. If you really want your best chance, retest. IF it is lower, they ignore it so you have nothing to lose.
Wonderful information! Thank you so much for the useful detail! I love the Aggie connection of families and how supportive everyone is! If you don’t mind my asking, does the Blinn bus go to the apartment and if so, which one is it?
Thank you. I am actually retesting tomorrow for SAT. Hoping for 80 more points!!
@cstaattopoflist: Hang in there! I’ll say a special prayer for you tomorrow. Eat a good dinner, get plenty of sleep, eat before your test and stay hydrated if possible. Make sure that your calculator works,and your pencils are sharp, take plenty of deep breaths and don’t stress.
Your class rank is in the Academic admit range and you are so close for the SAT score with your previous test. So based on my girls’ experiences, you have a better than average chance for Blinn-TEAM (you have the same SAT score as D#2) and a decent chance at a full admission! Increasing your SAT score 80 points would make you an academic admit, but even a small increase would be good. But don’t stress.
In answer to your question about the bus to Blinn, no, it doesn’t stop near her apartment. But since she lives so near the TAMU campus, (it is an apartment in the Northgate area), she only has a very short walk to catch that bus when it is on the TAMU campus. I don’t know much about the bus route but I think that there are stops on the way to Blinn that are near other residence areas. My daughter just wanted to live as close to campus as possible without living in a campus dorm.
Like @AGmomX2 mentioned, if you have the time to go to TAMU before the deadline, check on taking the ACT there. It sounds like a great opportunity, I wish that we had known about that test last year!
Maybe you can also schedule an official visit after the on campus ACT and a meeting with someone in your Major department and sit in on a class. But I realize that time is short and you are probably very busy during football season!
Hang in there! Let us know how it goes!
@AggieMomAgain and @AGmomx2,
Thank you for your help and information. I took SAT again Saturday and praying for auto admit. ACT not my test (have taken it 3 times) or I would take it in CStat. Hoping to be a part of this awesome Aggie family!
@AggieMomAgain @AGmomx2
Thanks again for your help. New SAT score wasn’t higher than 1280 so will have to wait (and pray)!
Hey girl! Take a deep breath! I just got accepted today and I think my case says a lot about holistic review, because it’s just that. I got full admit with a 1290/27 and a 4.0. I’m like 25/65 in my class. I know a lot of people are going to emphasize test scores/class rank, but I think a sold Rec and killer essays go a longggg way! Good luck, I know you’ll end up where you’re supposed to be
Gigs
Thanks for all your help! Was accepted to Blinn Team yesterday :). Excited to be an Aggie!
@cstattopoflist : WHOOP!! CONGRATULATIONS!!
Check out my CC thread: TAMU Blinn-TEAM Fall 2017 : parent perspective
Have a wonderful time as an AGGIE in AGGIELAND! 
Congrats! What major, if I may ask? My daughter is still waiting to hear and it’s already mid Feb.
She was Interdisciplinary Studies- math and science, but it changed to General Studies for Blinn Team.
@kmcpty Most review applicants do hear back in February for A&M.