Hello, I’m currently home schooled and I’m to apply to Texas A&M in my junior year with an SAT of 1300 what are my chances? can I get an automatic Academic admit? (GPA: 3.87)
Is that 3.87 weighted or unweighted?
Even if they counted you as top quarter, you wouldn’t make it with a 1300 SAT. It is clearly stated on the admissions website that the requirements are
Composite 1360+
Minnimums
Reading 660+
Math 620+
Two of my homeschooled children have been admitted to Texas A&M.
Both scored high enough on the SAT to be Academic Admits using the old SAT.
http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/admitted
For documentation I created transcripts with all their coursework and grades. Here is a link describing what homeschoolers need. See Additional Required Documents #3.
http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/apply#req
My children both completed the Required Coursework for Admission.
http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/coursework
If you can’t meet the required coursework you can try for an exemption since homeschool is treated as a private school.
http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/TexasUAP
With both children, I made sure to visit our nearest Prospective Student Center so they knew about us.
http://admissions.tamu.edu/advisors
And both children did A&M visits. One of them did a spend the night with the Corps, but opted not to be in the Corps.
It really helps if you have visited because this shows high interest. If you really cannot visit then do do do try to get to your Regional Prospective Student Center because that can count as a visit.
For us, we bet everything on SAT scores and since my kids did well it worked.
Hope this helps.
@BrandonDyss You won’t get academic admit with that SAT score, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get in. Be sure to be very thorough on your extracurriculars and write terrific essays. Do something amazing this summer that you can add to your application. My son got a full admission with a 28 ACT and not in the top 10%.
@TexasAtHome We toured the school a few times (dorm tour and SNWC) AFTER the application. After one of the visits, we went by Admissions and asked if there was a way to add the tours to the ApplyTexas questions since that is something that they asked. At the time of application, my son didn’t have much to put in that section of the app. Admissions told us it didn’t matter what we put on that part of the application. It is not used for admissions and they really need to delete that part from the application because of the confusion it causes. They said that, at one time, they used it for statistics only (to compare who had shown great interest in the school to who actually accepted admission). They said it was only used after the fact, and never used for admissions. Just throwing that out there for what it’s worth. Way to go homeschooling your kiddos and getting them into A&M. You’re a good mom! (or Dad!) 
Weighted. And if I got a 1360 I would be automatically accepted?
So if you have a 1360 and complete all the coursework, you’re auto accepted? no questions asked?
SHould i apply as a junior?
You can’t apply until July 1st before your senior year. Did you just finish your sophomore or junior year? – I’m not sure how or if GPA figures in for home schooled kids. GPA doesn’t matter for public school kids. With a 1360 (and the above subject minimums) plus top 25% of the class, public school kids are automatically in.
I’m actually just starting sophomore year (I’m 16 but I’m taking an extra year) Is there anything I can do now to help my chances?
And how does Academic admits work for Homeschooled kids?
The process by which my homeschool kids were accepted was that admissions looked at their transcripts and judged that the rigor of their courses and their GPAs entitled them to be top 25%.
Once they were judged to be in the top 25% then their SAT scores were high enough to qualify them for Academic admission and they were admitted.
Each of my children had a dual credit courses from the University of Texas in San Antonio so that might have helped admissions determine that their curriculum was academically rigorous.
I think if you do the Required Coursework for Admission and have high enough SATs you should be an Academic admit.
If you can take a course dual credit at a college then do that. One of my children did his Freshman Composition (ENGL 104) course senior year at UTSA to get it out of the way.
Please correct me if I’m wrong… but I had heard years ago that all homeschoolers are always given top 25%, no matter their GPA or other factors. Anyone know a homeschooler who didn’t get top 25%?
You’ve got plenty of time to improve that GPA and SAT…
@AGmomx2 When my first child was admitted in 2010 we did hear that homeschoolers were always given top 25%. With the second child in 2014 the admissions advisor was more fuzzy on the matter and it seemed to us that the rigor of the curriculum and other factors would be considered.
Of course, we could have been mistaken or the admissions advisor could have misspoken.
We made sure to complete the Required Coursework for Admissions and to have some college credit earned at a local university to prove each of my children could handle college-level work.
We were told homeschoolers would be assigned quartile according to the SAT/ACT score. So whatever your score is, if it’s in the top 25% (nationally? State-wide? Not sure) then you’d get too 25%.
My son got 33 on ACT with 3.98 unweighted GPA. Homeschooled all the way from pre-K to 12 (except for 7th grade, we tried the school thing and it was academically so slow, we pulled him out)! Took 5 dual enrollment courses but not much extra curricular to speak of. He did fence 5 years. He not only got accepted as an out of state student, he got scholarship to get instate tuition so homeschoolers DO get a fair chance!!!
Just study hard and try to improve your test scores. You’re only a sophomore, you’ve got years to improve! Try both ACT and SAT.