I wonder if anyone can share some insights on how A&M Honors program selection works? My son got admitted as business major this coming fall. He applied for Honors program but got rejected. His grade ranked at 6.2% at a very competitive high school. He got tons of AP classes (all A’s). His SAT is 1540.
Just curious about their selection criteria.
Are you saying he got rejected from the Business Honors or University Honors? I know the Business Honors is extremely competitive. The average is top 4% class rank. They only take 80 kids a year and then approx 20 of submitted application Spring their Freshman year. I know some people have gotten acceptances, but I had not heard of rejections yet for business honors. When did you find out?
I don’t know as much about university honors and how competitive that is. We are still waiting to hear from both.
My kid said he got a letter (a couple of weeks ago) that he got rejected for both. That fact you are waiting is probably good news.
When did he apply for univeristy honors? we are still waiting
Univeristy honors is extremely competitive , but I heard they don’t go by class rank or GPA but by essays and the questionaire.
He applied last year (not sure exactly when) after he got accepted. He got accepted pretty early on.
There are definitely some downsides to University Honors-UH. UH freshman required to live in Lechner or McFadden, can’t pick their roommates. Lots of fluff/extra busy work, at least for freshmen. Honors classes hard to get, as student gets older.
This year, UH sent out emails, it seems to most current students who had a 3.5 or better, encouraging them to apply. Didn’t see that last year, which leads me to believe many have dropped out of the program. I’d love to see the stats on numbers that started and how many graduate UH-huge drop out rate.
Personally, major specific honors programs are far better than UH. Definitely no need to do both UH and a major specific honors program…one or the other.
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i am not able to understand what exactly is the difference between UH and departmental honors. Departmental honors at TAMU has only 20 students so, they are equally competitive. no clue how many will be selected for UH. My assumption is if you had clicked ‘interested in honors’, you will get the email for UH
@pp72 University Honors is a program that requires living in the dorm freshman year, is a stand alone program, but everyone has different majors. It requires a point system, lots of fluff/socials.
UH sent out mass emails in January, to most students with 3.5 or higher, asking them to apply. That didn’t happen last year, and major specific honors programs don’t solicit.
Within most of the colleges-Engineering, Liberal Arts, Ag, Business, etc-there are honors programs just for those specific majors. Not every college has honors, but most do. There are definitely more than 20 honors students in the various college programs, and each college admits the student differently.
UH program has a very high rate of students who drop out after freshman and sophomore year. Various reasons, but most complain it’s too hard to to get into honors classes.
But there are some students who ‘find their people’ in UH, love the honors dorm.
I see no reason to do UH and a major specific honors program. Do one or the other, if you’re able.
The biggest perk to being in any honors program is registering early! That is HUGE!
@pp72 this is a great link! You can click on every program, to see how to apply, what is needed, etc
thanks!
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the site has the following. I don’t know what it means. My son got rejected with honor though his ranking is 6.2%. does he need to do anything to be honor-eligible?
quote:
“The pertinent section for incoming freshmen, 16.1.1, reads: Incoming freshmen who are not in an Honors program will be considered Honors-eligible if they graduated in the top 10% of their high school class or have been identified as National Merit Semifinalists, National Merit Scholars, or National Hispanic Scholars, and have submitted a request to be marked Honors-eligible to LAUNCH. Students who meet these requirements will be sent an invitation to submit a request later in the Spring.”
@gsmx99 your son is an incoming Mays freshman? If he didn’t get accepted to Business Honors, he can try again, over Christmas break of his freshman year.
He can also reapply for University Honors, tho I don’t know when-check the website for that info.
Here’s the thing about A&M…the majority of kids (all the Mays kids) are top of their class, over achievers. Most were valedictorian, salutatorian, National Merit, top 1-2%. The competition is fierce.
There’s no wiggle room in Business Honors, you either get in, or you don’t. They don’t solicit applying, spaces don’t ever open up (except for the application time between fall & spring freshman year, and then only 8-13ish are accepted).
University Honors does seem some easier to get into, and students definitely drop out of it, making room. If he really wants to pursue honors, I’d have him follow up with UH. They may have openings late spring, once all students have made their final school decisions and deposits.
My student doesn’t know many in Mays & UH.
Honors or not, your son will love Mays! It’s a stellar program.
thank you for explaining. His major is business for 2021. He got rejected from both university and business for honors.
I’m actually surprised that A&M has lots of top 1-2% for business school. I thought UT Austin students are like that.
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@gsmx99 Business Honors students are definitely the valedictorian & salutatorian, National Merit students-very high achievers, yet also super well rounded. During a parent/student orientation, they gave the stats for the (then) incoming BH class. Many #1 & 2, most Nat Merit/Semi/Commended, Class Presidents/officers, head band drum major, varsity captains for 12 sports, most have many, many hours of community service (100s+)-and not just required NHS hours, Eagle Scout, state athletic champs, and more. Jaw dropping stats.
All Mays students are Top 10%, Mays fills by October with auto admits. It’s a super competitive program.
Texas A&M ranks 3rd in the nation for public school having the most National Merit Scholars-I think that’s the latest rank I saw.
Although I know what you mean about a lot of the top 1-2% may want TU, there are some kids, no matter what their rank, that just do not like the setting or feel of TU. If TU had offered my son a full-ride, he MAY have gone there. He just had no desire to be in the city with the traffic and everything else that comes with the city. I am sure there are a lot of kids that feel the same way. The setting and feel is so drastically different at the two schools.
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I guess the part that gets confusing is that if the average for BH is top 4%, and a lot of them are 1st or 2nd in their class, than statistically speaking, there are several kids getting in that are not in the top 5% of their class.
As I keep telling my son, he did everything he could possibly do, if he does not get into BH it is not a reflection of him. There is no way to know what he could have done to improve his chances. I guess we should feel fortunate that he got into Mays! It is a great program, honors or not… but he REALLY wants BH!
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@tmclanton agree with everything you said!
Your son sounds like a stellar young man! BH or not, he will thrive at Mays…and they’re lucky to have him.
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Those are very kind words! Funny how those simple words from a stranger had be beaming with pride for my son! Thank you!
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Sorry what is University Honors? Pardon my ignorance here. My daughter applied to Business honors but got rejected via a mail sent to her.