Hey there! It seems that different information floats around everywhere. We were recently told by a student that engineering departmental scholarships are not renewable, meaning that they are not for four years, and they do not count toward the out-of-state waiver, even if they are competitive. However, in speaking to people at financial aid a couple of months ago, we were told that these could stack up to reach the $4000 waiver amount. Does anyone have experience with this? I know everything is different this year than it was last year, but maybe someone can tell me if they received any departmental scholarships in previous years and if they were for 4 years or just one? Hoping my question made sense!
I can’t speak to the out-of-state waiver issue but my daughter has an engineering department scholarship and she has to reapply each year for it. She also has a four-year university merit scholarship which renews as long as she keeps her grades up.
My son received engineering dept scholarship for 2016-2017 school year. How does he reapply for 2017-2018?
@NETarrantMom Could you please assist K5hacker? Glad someone is so knowledgeable about these things, and I’m interested as well! @K5hacker and NETarrantMom, do y’all happen to know if the scholarships your kids received were competitive? I’m trying to find out if the departmental awards we’re waiting on will be able to count toward the OOS waiver, should my son receive anything.
My son(engineering) and daughter(education) both received dept scholarships and I do not think they were competitive. Its my understanding most everyone gets some sort of dept scholarships. Some majors of course receive more than others. Also they were applied to their accts in August.
That is actually what I am so afraid of. With us being so close to the waiver requirement, we were hoping that the departmental scholarships were competitive and could at least provide $250. I guess we will just have to wait and see! And we went to Aggieland Saturday yesterday, and it was amazing. Keeping our fingers crossed!
In my experience it is not the norm to get dept scholarships - the exception to that is some honors students (almost all BHP students get a scholarship for example) but of course that is a high concentration of all high stats kids & for some majors, resumes are considered for membership. All merit based scholarships are competitive here - there is no automatic scholarships like some colleges have that you just look your stats up on a chart.To be fair, you have no idea that your student is ‘competing’ since there isn’t ‘rounds of qualifying’ it is just awarded or not awarded. You never know which scholarships your student was being considered for, just whether you have one pop up on the financial aid page. For the waiver, the key is OOS students have to compete with in-state, that is the essential part- the rules for the waiver are state-wide for public colleges, not specific for TAMU only.
As far as getting another scholarship your student has to complete the continuing student scholarship application to be eligible each year if it is NOT a multiple year scholarship - it was due Feb 1 .If it is a renewable one, it will be added to your financial portal if the criteria for renewal (if any) is met- you don’t need to do anything- it appears over the summer. If you don’t know, check the letter from last year’s award - it will say the term. You can also check with your student’s major to see if they have an additional scholarship application on a different timeline. Some do, some do not have additional applications. Mine applied every year for continuing student scholarships (it is available over Christmas break) several thousands of students apply - it is very competitive,
@AGmomx2 Again, thank you for taking the time to be so thorough. Actually, my son is an incoming freshman. OOS. So far, awarded $3750 in competitive scholarships, a painful 6% away from the $4000 and we were told to wait to see if he receives anything from the engineering department. My worry, aside from getting nothing at all, is that he might get something from the department but it not be competitive. Of course, any merit is nice and greatly appreciated, but we will have to, very reluctantly, go to our backup plan if the last $250 doesn’t come through in one way or another as a competitive scholarship. Sorry if I confused you and you thought we were current students. If only!!!
The second part was directed at #2 question above 
@AGmomx2 Whoops!! Tired brain! Sorry!! Thought maybe you weren’t sure of our story and got us mixed up.