If you are applying to TAMS 2021...

State Forums
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Hey guys! If you happen to be applying to TAMS for the class of 2021, I made this post for you. My best friend got accepted to TAMS for the 2020 class and I wanted to share some of his stats with you guys since many people (based on previous threads) want to know if they will be accepted to TAMS. I don’t know all of his stats such as his grades but I know some things.

He went to a private school before starting high school and took Algebra 1, Geometry, Biology, and Spanish 1 there. Some classes he took freshman year:

  • AP Human Geography
  • Algebra 2 Pre-AP
  • Chemistry Pre-AP
  • English 1 Pre-AP
  • Spanish 2 Pre-AP
  • Medical Terminology
    All the classes he took sophomore year:
  • AP world history
  • AP Physics 1
  • Pre-Calculus Pre-AP
  • English 2 Pre-AP
  • Principles of Health Science
  • AP Biology
  • Intramural Tennis
  • Off period / Study Hall

He got a 1360 on the SAT and said he did virtually no prep: took a few practice tests a month before his test. He also got his teacher evaluations from his AP Physics 1, Pre-Calculus and English 2 teachers, and his last one from his counselor. Hope this post helps those people who are looking for stats of previous people who got accepted to TAMS!

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Hey y’all, just to add on to this, I got into TAMS class of 2020 and I want to help anyone who’s attempting to apply for TAMS.

IMPORTANT: Try and apply for early decision since you will have a better chance of getting in then that applying during regular decision. So get started on that application once it opens!

First of all, TAMS says they review your applications “holistically”, but in all honesty, they will more likely accept someone who has good grades and fewer extracurriculars, than someone who has a lot of extracurriculars and okay-ish grades. So focus on your grades, and then put the rest of your effort into extracurriculars. Also, the location of your school may affect your chances as I come from Allen High which had around 10-20 people apply so it was quite competitive to get in.

A few statistics/classes I took throughout 9th and 10th grades:

I took 4 AP classes in total, Human Geography (9th grade), World History (10th), Statistics and Probability (10th), and Biology (10th) (I had low A’s/high B’s in all of them)

All of my other classes were Pre-AP, which I got almost all A’s in (I guess you could call this honors) with the exception of Orchestra and Gym (Our school needs Fine Arts and PE credits to graduate)
Some Pre-AP classes that stand out here are Pre-AP Biology (9th), Pre-AP Algebra 2 (9th), Pre-AP Pre-
Calculus (10th) Pre-AP Chemistry (10th) and all of these were high A’s with the exception of Pre-Calc which I
had a low A.

My standardized test scores are as follows:
SAT: 1450 out of 1600 total, 700 out of 800 verbal, 750 out of 800 math (idk how)
PSAT: 1430 out of 1520 total, 670 out of 760 verbal, 760 out of 760 math (this is the real one you take 10th-grade year, but this one does NOT count toward national merit scholarships)

As you can see, math is very important when they look at your test scores so place emphasis on the math sections, but do not neglect your verbal either.

As for extracurriculars, I participated in a few, NJHS, NHS for 8-10th, I played select league Basketball from 7th-10th, Church Student council for 9th and 10th, TMSCA in 8th and got to State qualifiers for Science, was 7 points away for qualifying for math at State, (it’s like UIL, but its kind of different, same thing though because it’s just taking tests), DId UIL during 9th and 10th, and a few more things but can’t remember off the top of my head.

I have a few awards, and the one that stands out is Duke Tip State recognition. (I think even without this, you’ll be fine and it won’t affect your chances)

I honestly can’t think about anything else, but to leave a note of encouragement, I’m gonna advise every single one of y’all who is reading this post to work hard on your grades first, and then put in effort into extracurriculars, because no matter how much they want to say they evaluate all of y’all holistically, this is simply not the case and they place greater emphasis upon grades and test scores.

Thank you for reading this, and if y’all have any questions, just @seanstert me on a post underneath and I’ll get to your question sooner or later since I don’t check this website very often.

Best of luck to all who are applying!

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@seanstert
Hi, thank you so much for making this! It’s really helpful! I’m planning on applying this year, but I’m a little fearful of whether I’ll get in or not due to the fact that I went to an awful high school for freshman year. It was a ‘self-taught school’ where you sat in a cubicle (not kidding) and did work all day. Homework was not graded; only tests were graded. This meant that you’d have about ten grades per class, so ONE test grade could really hurt your overall GPA. On my first few tests, I kept on getting 70s for some reason; this was highly unusual for me considering I had always gotten very high grades on my tests. I was the valedictorian of my eighth-grade class with over a 4.0 GPA. After I continued to get 70s on my tests, I decided to check over every single answer on on one of my biology tests. I found that a bunch of answers were marked wrong that were correct. I brought this to the attention of my teacher and the principal, and they wouldn’t even listen to me at first. They claimed, “That’s not what the answer key said.” I kept on arguing with them, and they finally looked up the information. After they begrudgingly corrected my grade, my grade was a 100. However, they said they had already gotten rid of my previous tests, so they couldn’t look at those. After that, I made sure to look at all my test carefully, and the same thing happened every single time: answers that were correct were marked off. I got a 100 on almost all the rest of my tests, but I still had a few 70s in each class that they wouldn’t change back. In the end, my grades weren’t terrible. I think my lowest was a 90, but I know I could have gotten better grades. I am now going to go to a public school for tenth grade (my first time going to public school). I am going to try very hard to get good grades. I took the SAT for the first time a couple months ago and got a 1320. I got a 650/800 on math and 670/800 on reading/writing. I know those scores are okayish, but I just took it to get familiar with the test (I didn’t study whatsoever). This summer, I’m planning on studying hard for the SAT and taking it again before applying to TAMS. I’m also planning on taking as many advanced classes as possible. Just as an FYI, I went to private school from K-8; I’m not sure if that affects my chances of getting in, though.

Extracurriculars:
Taekwondo
Polynesian dancing for ten years (hula dancing, Tahitian dancing, etc.)
Select Choir
Advanced Theater
Student Council
Possibly NHS
There were no competitions or clubs at the school I went for freshman year or the private school I went to for K-8.

Is there anything else I can do this year to improve my chances of getting in? Both of my parents went to TAMS, and I really want to go as it has been a dream of mine since I was 5. Thank you for reading all of this, and good luck at TAMS!

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I also got high straight As in 7th and 8th.

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@creartivity

Hey, sorry to hear about your school’s grading system, seems very messed up to me, but good thing you’re getting out of that school system though!

Overall, I think you have a pretty good chance of getting into TAMS, You seem to have pretty good grades (TAMS wants your 7th-10th-grade grades, and SAT is good enough (right now for a sophomore) but you should try and get both scores above 700 by the time you take your test again, I would recommend taking it during August so you can apply for early decision, but if you want to take it twice to see what you get and then take it again after some prep, but then you’ll have to apply for regular decision if you do it this way. (August & December) I would recommend taking an SAT prep class if you would really like to improve, but if you have enough will and determination, then you can also just study and take practice tests at home out of a book or online. May I ask what high school you are going to go to?

Some things that you can also do to improve your chances is to join a Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honor Society), or any club that is related to the sciences or math at your new high school. If you guys have a UIL, join it but only if you can take on the load of the competitions and study for them along with your school’s workload.

The most important part that I cannot stress enough, keep your grades up and do not let them drop.

Good luck and @ me again if any more questions pop up!

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@seanstert

Thanks for the answers! I’ll be going to McMillen High School in Plano. I’ve heard that the Plano area is pretty competitive, so I’m not sure if that will affect my chances of getting in. I have an SAT book with a bunch of practice tests, tips, etc. in it, but I’m looking into taking a class. I’m aiming for a 700+ in both scores next time I take it. I’ll also see what math/science clubs McMillen has to offer and check out the UIL stuff. Keeping up grades has never been a problem for me (as long as the grading system is fair), so I think I’ll be fine in that aspect.

There’s an SAT test day on November 3 (the last day TAMS says you should take it), so I think I can take it then because the early decision application cuts off on December 9th. I’ll have everything else I need for the application ready before that, so I’m not rushing to get things after the test date. SAT scores come back in about 13-22 days, so I’m almost positive they’ll come in on time considering I’m not doing it with an essay this time.

Does race/gender play a role in your chance of getting accepted? I’m a half-white, half-Asian (Filipino specifically) female, but I don’t know if that makes a difference or not. I heard somewhere that it’s ‘easier’ for women to get in. I’m not sure about the integrity of that statement, though.

That’s all the questions I have so far. I’m sure more will pop up as I get closer to applying!

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@seanstert

Ok, I just checked McMillen’s clubs, and I’m interested in HOSA and the Mathematical Club. I think I’ll join one, possibly both, of those organizations depending on how hectic my schedule is since I’m taking advanced theater and choir along with just regular schoolwork. I might get into NHS, so there’s that also. It’s going to be a pretty crazy year.

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@creartivity

Yeah, I agree on taking that SAT, but if you really do want to, take the August one and the Nov one so you can see where you need to improve in those 3 months in between.

To answer your questions about race and gender, on the TAMS website, they encourage females to apply since the split is 55% male 45% female, so they generally do want more females to apply. For the race part, I don’t think it plays any role really for admissions but I could be mistaken.

The clubs you are planning to join seem pretty good, and NHS is literally the most easiest club to ever get into haha, but yea volunteering looks good for TAMS too! Also, you mentioned McMillian in Plano and I literally live just in the next town over in Allen, TX.

As always, just @ me if you have a question or if you really want an easier mode of communication, just message me on insta (I’m just gonna assume you have one) @seancgao!

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Thanks! Some of my friends go to Allen. I do have an Instagram (@miinaelise), and I noticed my friend Jonathan Xu was following you! We were in the same class in private school and did advanced math together.

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@seanstert

Hi! I plan on applying to TAMS for traditional science early decision. I’m also gonna apply to the Texas Academy of Leaderhip in the Humanities (it’s like TAMS except more humanities focused). I will also go to Allen High School next year! First of all… wow! 10-20 people applied from Allen high school this year!

So far I know of 5 people besides me who will be applying next year, and we had two people who are in TAMS right now come to our Spanish class in like November 2017 or something and promote TAMS!!! After that, I became totally hooked to the concept of 2 year residential high schools.

Also, this is off topic, but do you happen to know Parth Doshi? He also got in to TAMS from Allen and was in my Intramural Tennis class last school year.

Okay so here are my stats: Disclaimer my grades are TRRRRRRAAAAASSSSSSHHHHHHH. The thing is, since I went to Pakistan the summer after 8th grade and came back two weeks after school started, I missed some important stuff. That led to me hating most of my teachers (especially my English and Geometry teachers) because I was so far behind and no one helped me enough. On top of that, my grandmother passed away in October.

But I will work really hard next year and try to get a 95+ in all my classes. (I know that sounds unrealistic, but if I can pull it off then I hope TAMS and TALH will accept me.

CLASSES + GRADES
Freshman Year (Lowery Freshman Center) final grades:

  • HGAP - 91
  • Art I Pre-AP/IB - 93
  • Biology Pre-AP/IB - 91
  • Intramural Tennis - 100
  • English I Pre-AP/IB - 87
  • Geometry Pre-AP/IB - 81
  • Spanish II Pre-AP/IB - 90
  • Medical Terminology - 95

Sophomore Year (Allen High School Fall 2018)

  • AP Biology
  • AP Spanish IV (I’m taking a credit by exam for Spanish 3 on July 12th and am fairly confident I can pass it; I got the Realidades 3 textbook and practiced using the website as well)
  • AP World History
  • English II Pre-AP/IB
  • Algebra II Pre-AP/IB
  • Chemistry Pre-AP/IB
  • JV or Varsity Tennis (I’m going to try out on July 30th we’ll see how that goes... if I don’t make the team then I’ll take either AP Art History or Principles of Health Science; right now I just put Health Science for Arena Sceduling so I’m not sure if I can change it later if I don’t make the team... I think I can but not sure yet)

TESTING
For the SAT, I’m looking at a 1400+ and will take it in August and then maybe again in November (if I end up with a low score). Also I wanted to ask you if I should get the Student Answer Service? Is it worth it or not since I will take the SAT with Essay (cuz of TALH they will want to see my essay score especially since the only rec they require is from your English teacher!)
Also, I took an SAT Subject Test for Biology (ecological) on June 2nd. I feel like I did pretty well, but I don’t know if I should report it or not. Guess I don’t have to worry about that right now though!

*ALL EXTRACURRICULARS (7-9)

  • Spelling Bee 1st place and participated in regional spelling bee.
  • UIL Calculator Skills (7)
  • UIL Listening Skills (8)
  • UIL Dictionary Skills (8)
  • UIL Science (7, 8, 9)
  • UIL Spelling (8)
  • UIL Mathematics (8)
  • Builder’s Club (7, 8)
  • Academic Team (7, 8)
  • Tennis Team (8)
  • Student Council (9)
  • Spanish Club (9)

*ALL AWARDS/HONORS (7-9)

  • A/B Honor Roll (7-8)
  • School Spelling Bee Winner (7)
  • UIL Spelling Academic Excellence (8)
  • Fall Team Tennis Tournament Medal (8)
  • Islamic Center of Irving Winter Badminton Tournament Runner Up 2016 (8)

*Extracurricular Activities I will join (10)

  • UIL Science, Vocab/Spelling
  • HOSA
  • Science Club
  • Science NHS
  • Key Club
  • Interact Club
  • Intellichoice Club
  • Eagle Tutors

*Awards/Honors I might get (10)

  • If I make the tennis team, I might win a medal or two since Varsity will already have like 20 matches before Early decision apps are due!
  • I hope to place in district UIL conpetitions, possibly regional…
  • I’m going to try to get into the talent show for next year at Allen High School… I might win an award for that. (PS I’m gonna do a magic show)

I will work really hard next year and try to get a 95+ in all my classes. (I know that sounds unrealistic, but if I can pull it off then I hope TAMS and TALH will at least consider me lol)

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Guys this is TAMS2021Hopeful. Just an update that I’ll be using this account from now on.

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@itachasuke
Sorry to hear about your grandmother’s passing. I cannot imagine the impact it had on your academics at the time. To answer your question, I have heard from several parents of students attending TAMS that the Student Answer Service is not worth it. I also have a quick question. What resources do you find particularly helpful for Spanish?

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Thank you, @NecesitoAyuda
For Spanish, I highly recommend Conjugemos and Spanish Dict. I personally have a textbook for my class that I bought online (AP Spanish, I bought Triángulo Aprobado (Spanish Edition) ) and I had a old one that I used to self-study spanish 3 (realidades 3 texas edition). Hope this helps.

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Did anyone attend the preview day today?

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Sorry kinda late response. Yeah I did attend preview day!! It was the first time I ever visited TAMS and I got to learn about all the hidden things I wasn’t able to glean from their website. It was an eye-opening experience for me! What about you?

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I did too and it was a wonderful experience! I sure do look forwards to TAMS if I get accepted.

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Here are my stats for those interested. Please tell me how I stand! I am applying early descision.

Class rank: top 9%

7th Grade
Pre AP Algebra 1 - 89,91
GT Pre AP English - 94
Pre AP Science - 99,97
Pre AP Texas History - 96
All Electives - 99 - 100

8th Grade
Geometry Honors - 91,88
GT Pre AP English - 96
Pre AP Science - 95,95
Pre AP US history - 98
Spanish 1 - 98
All Electives 99 - 100

9th Grade
Pre AP Algebra 2 - 94,90
GT Pre AP English 1 - 94,94
AP Biology - 92,94
AP Human Geography - 90,92
AP Computer Science Principles - 95,100
Pre AP Spanish 2 - 95,90
Debate 1 - 94,99
Tennis - 100

10th Grade:
AP World History 92
Pre Calculus 94
AP Computer Science A. 97
GT PAP Chemistry. 90
Honors Intro to Engineering 100
Debate 2. 100
GT English 2. 94
Spanish 3 PAP. 96

PSAT score 9th grade
1420/1520

7th grade SAT score:

1750/2400
10/12 on essay

SAT projected:

Anything above 1500/1600, based on multiple practice tests etc.

Teacher Recommendations:
All positive. My math teacher in particular will write a really really good one, and she is already convinced I’m getting in, I really don’t know why.

Extra Curriculars

Math UIL 1st place - 7th grade

Duke TIP State qualified - 7th grade

NJHS and probably NHS but applications don’t open until second semester

Debate - 8th Grade to Present, 9th grade onward part of official school debate team for Congress

Book Club Senator (basically part of a group that runs the club) - 7th, 8th grade

Summer Volunteering at STA and was promised a job once I was older - 8th Grade, 9th Grade

Co founder and President of Software Development Club and Economics Club - 9th-10th grade

Bollywood Dance Club - Secretary and Tech Manager

Starting a blog on Medium during summer of 9th grade - I make a post around every 2 weeks and get a few hundred claps and around 50 or so bored each time. My posts are rather long, around 1000 words for the shortest. I write about a lot of stuff, but my first post was about machine learning and how artificial intelligence will affect our society.

Paid job at tutoring academy around 10 hours a week during the summer and 3 hours a week during school weeks of 10th grade. When I turn 16, I’ll start working at STA for around 30 or 40 hours a week during the summers.

I feel like some of my grades aren’t as good as I would like, and this is something that stresses me out. These are the final grades I’m submitting to early descision.

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My bad take out president of economics club. It didn’t really work

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Hey everyone! Hope your applications and classes are going fine! Just wanted to give a quick update on my academics

So I ended up not making the tennis team, but that’s okay because it would’ve taken almost an extra hour out of my day anyway. I still play tennis out of school though so there’s that. As for my sat score, classes and first progress report grades (the ones from the 10th grade report card that you have to submit to TAMS)
SAT (August 25) 1480 out of 1500

  • AP Spanish IV - 97
  • algebra 2 pre-ap - 100
  • AP biology - 92
  • Principles of Health Science - 100
  • chemistry pre-ap - 98
  • AP world history - 100
  • English 2 pre-ap - 95
    So yeah I made a significant improvement in my terms of academics, although AP biology is not where I want it to be. It’ll be really competitive for me to get in because as @seanstert mentioned, Allen is very competitive and I know kids with 98s in AP biology and that are doing much better than me right now and have done much much better than me last year as well.

Oh well enough about my grades lol. How are you guys doing, how far are you in your application process?

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So apparently I kinda screwed up on the SAT. I got a 720 on both sections unfortunately. 1440 overall ?