Any current scholars out there? I would love to know your thoughts on the benefits of this scholarship. What are the extras like summer internships, the Italy trip, etc. ?
It’s too early for us to have experienced what all the benefits will be, but the Italy trip was amazing. The kids have remained good friends, and some plan on living together next year. My student had a mentor (upperclassman) the first month or so who answered questions and offered advice.
@chercheur , my daughter has been been invited to interview for the Brockman and Brown scholarships. We are trying to compare them both to better understand the differences besides just the 5 year vs 4 year scholarship benefit. You seem to know about both; what are your thoughts?
Congratulations, @TXRunningMom! That’s quite an accomplishment! Well done to her AND you!
I think your daughter will have an idea which program she prefers after she interviews. The 5th year is a major plus or minus for Brockman, depending on her plans. Brockman was new last year. You may want to message some of the posters on last year’s thread and get their thoughts.
I’m no expert on either, but I’ve been following your other thread with interest as I remember how exciting and nerve-racking it was last year! My student handled the whole thing much better than I did :))
She only has good options, so there’s no bad choice 
@chercheur , I sent you a message.
Wow, I thought the Brown invitations weren’t coming out till mid-December.
@4402ch , I know, right? It seems like TAMU is doing everything early this year while UT is really late!
My son is a sophomore biomedical engineering Brown Scholar. He did not go on the Italy trip as he had planned on a semester in Germany which he will be doing this next semester. He is also applying for a summer internship for this summer. There are 10 spots at the Houston Medical Center reserved for Brown Scholars. The Brown Scholarship is such an amazing opportunity. I don’t know much about the Brockman but it sounds fairly similar. Can you only apply to one or the other? If so, I might look at the number of applicants for each and how many are awarded to get an idea of the odds of getting it. Either one would be great!
Hi, @rosegeo! Glad to read your son is doing well!
For those who already received invitations for the Brown Scholarship, had you uploaded letters of recommendation to the portal ahead of time? I see that the FAQ encourages that, but last year if I remember correctly they wanted you to wait until they asked you for the letters and then they would send the recommenders a link to upload.
@4402ch , my daughter didn’t know anything about the reference letters until she got an invitation to interview. In the email, they asked her to have her references email them directly to the lady who sent the email.
Ok, thank you, that’s helpful to know!
Has anyone received a Texas A&M Brown Scholarship invitation?
Yes. My daughter received the invitation.
@AggieMom68 , when is her interview? Good luck to her!
They said they will inform us on January. Letter mentioned that only 6-7 kids out of the 12 interviewed wi be offered a scholarship. Best wishes to all!
Please excuse my typos. My phone has a mind of its own and autocorrects everything ?
@AggieMom68 , I think they need to update that letter because my daughter had her interview yesterday. There were 15 kids there and they all got the same language in their letters too about only 12 kids to be interviewed, etc. ! I think maybe they are using a form letter from years ago! Mr. Brown said he gives out about 39 scholarships but that number is very flexible. If he wants to give out 60, he would do that. It just depends on the kids he interviews that year. All the kids there yesterday were engineering majors. He said he likes to group the interviews based on their majors because he likes to talk about engineering and he doesn’t want to bore the business majors! He gave a talk in the beginning for about an hour with all the parents and students. Then, there were 4 people interviewing one kid at a time. At the end of the interview, Mr. Brown met personally with the kid and parents. I’ve read about the infamous “Mr. Brown” on College Confidential. He truly is amazing and any kid chosen to be a Brown Scholar will receive care, support, and guidance that a price tag can not be given. A Brown scholar has so many intangible perks beyond receiving money for school. We were already sold on TAMU but after he talked, we were all ready to rush out and buy TAMU sweatshirts for the whole family! Good luck to your daughter!
@TXRunningMom Did your daughter receive the Presidential Endowment Scholarship? I was under the impression that to be up for the Brown scholarship, you must be nominated for the Presidents as well.
I had not heard a word as to interviews for Galen Brown until your post.
Thank you for any info.
@TXRunningMom I’m a little surprised that DS didn’t at least get an interview being NMS and #1 in his class as well as engineering major. I know it doesn’t guarantee him the scholarship, but figured he would at least get an interview. Hmmm