Howdy y’all! I’m currently a junior in high school and everyone got their psat scores yesterday. I looked my score up with my physics teacher during AP physics and saw that I got a 1400 and an index score of 210 (which according to online projections would make me a national merit scholar in Texas). When my teacher saw my score, he asked what college I wanted to go to and I replied with my dream college of Texas A&M. He scoffed at me and said I should go to a better school. So anyway, I was wondering if anyone had good advice on whether I should go to Texas A&M or look around at “better” schools. Thanks in advance and any tips are appreciated
Texas A&M is a great school! It’s ranked in the Top 50. Maybe he thinks with such a high score, you could get into a Top 10 or Top 20. What’s your GPA, college preferences, & budget?
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When my teacher saw my score, he asked what college I wanted to go to and I replied with my dream college of Texas A&M. He scoffed at me and said I should go to a better school.
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So anyway, I was wondering if anyone had good advice
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My advice: Your teacher is an idiot.
If you get into a better school and your family can afford it, then fine. But the decision shouldn’t be because TAMU isn’t good enough. TAMU is certainly good enough.
Many teachers have no clue about current college costs, how FA works, and whether YOUR parents can/will pay for a more expensive school.
Have you asked your parents how much they’ll pay? Do so.
On a 5 point scale my gpa is a 4.38 (4.0 is equal to a 100). I expect my gpa to increase as I plan on taking 5 AP courses senior year.
I don’t necessarily have any college preferences outside of two questions: which college gives me the best chance to succeed and will I be happy there. As a Texan and son of an aggie, I’ve always wanted to go to A&M. I’ve also always wanted to be a doctor and/or go into the medical field. So I always thought I would go to A&M for my undergrad and possibly my masters, then try to apply for a prestigious medical school. My parents paid for my tuition after I was born through the Texas tomorrow fund (or whatever it’s called). However, I could probably afford $7000 a year for four years + the expenses of graduate and medical school. Financially, A&M is the best option by far due to the Texas tomorrow fund and their $40000 national merit scholarship.
If you want to go to med school, then you’re right to focus on A&M. It gives generous merit and you might not even need to use your prepaid plan until med school.
BTW…all US MD schools are excellent. Just focus on doing well as an undergrad, prepare for the MCAT, do your medically-related ECs/research, and you’ll likely find success as a med school applicant.
You know that teacher went to UT right?? I’m hoping he was kidding if he wasn’t he is an idiot for saying something so rude to a kid. A&M is a great school. Sounds like you feel it is the place for you - nothing wrong with that.
Texas A&M cheap with NMF followed by Texas public or Baylor medical school for much lower cost than most medical schools seems like a good way to go into medicine with much less debt pressure than most new MDs have.
Thanks for all of the tips. I knew I was in the right to want to go to A&M. My physics teacher is always trying to recruit kids from our class to Boston University (he’s an alumni and he’s a recruiter) and thinks that they are just as much better than A&M as A&M is better than UTSA. 8-|
BU has a reputation of being expensive with poor financial aid, though they may have merit scholarships. But if your goal is medical school, being in Texas makes it a lot easier to get to medical school interviews at Texas medical schools than being in Massachusetts.
Here you can see what a deal you may get at Texas public medical schools and Baylor as a Texas resident:
https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/
Here are some examples of how long medical school debt can take to pay off:
https://www.aamc.org/download/447254/data/debtfactcard.pdf
If you always wanted to go to A&M, and you’d get a huge scholarship, I think that answers your question.
I have an engineering degree from Texas A&M and can say it is a great school. In the state of Texas I would look at A&M, UT and Rice. If you are interesting in going outside to school outside of Texas there are some other great options but you have 3 great schools right in your own backyard.
I agree with everyone else. You like A&M, it’s good in what you want to study and it’s affordable. It seems like a no brainer to me.