Thanks for all the great responses folks, much appreciated. We made 2 phone calls the day the rejection email arrived. We first called the Texas A&M recruiter we talked with at a College Fair in Denver. This person all but assured my DD that with her stats she would get enough scholarships to get an OOS tuition waiver. When we called this person, she basically said that all decisions are final and there are no appeals.
We then called the office of student affairs (or something like that). My wife made the calls, so I don’t have first hand knowledge. She said a student answered this call and my wife explained what we thought was our “high stats” daughter was denied admission to COE and we couldn’t understand why. He simply said he would look into it. That was that. We did nothing further and after many tears, had started to think about what might be her 2nd choice school.
Then at 5am this morning, DD said as she was heading out the door for swim practice that TAMU had sent her an acceptance email:
“It is our pleasure to inform you of your acceptance to the College of Engineering. Your major has been changed and is viewable on the Applicant Information System (AIS)”
I can only assume that the student who said he would “look into it”, looked into it and found a data entry error of some type? Who knows? I doubt we’ll ever know.
Our next concern is whether this mishap caused her to not be properly considered for scholarships. Without the OOS tuition waiver, she likely will not attend as she really needs the waiver to make it financially reasonable. It least now the decision is in her hands.
I am so sorry to hear that this has been so stressful! Your daughter’s stats are beyond amazing, and I am praying this will all work out for you. We are also counting on the waiver to be able to afford TAMU. Currently, we have 3750.00 in competitive scholarships, so it’s just out of reach. Also, I’m holding out hope that, as any students who were awarded scholarships but chose to decline based on whatever reason, the funds would be available again for others. I don’t know how it works. Like you, we’ve second guessed ourselves a thousand times, wondering what we could have done different to ensure our high achieving, hard working, well rounded son could afford his top choice school. Anxiety and agonizing on our end as well as we wait. Best of luck to you and your family. We slll just want what’s best for our awesome kids.
Glad to see your update - was quite surprised by your original post. There had to be some SNAFU on their end. Hopefully the scholarship piece will work out.
OH MY GOSH! What a roller coaster of emotions you all must be experiencing. @-) Yay! That she was accepted. Yay that you called to find out. I honestly hope that this did not hinder her ability for awards for instate tuition waiver. Stay on them. Somethimes, that is just what you have to do.
Two years ago, my daughter was going out of state. In June, right after she graduated and two weeks before her orientation and freshman camp, I received an email about a refund from housing, from the university. I logged into the portal and their was no explanation. So, I decided to make a call. Long story short, the university had sent out an email to prospective students who had applied, but not accepted the admissions decision. One girl, with the same name as my daughter, even same midddle initial but different email address, replied to the email that she had accepted admissions elsewhere and for the university to not email her anymore. So, some person totally cancels my daughters admissions, without a UIN number or anything. My daughter had accepted in Octover, had been awarded scholarship monies for instate tuition, taken out of her orientation and freshman camp, and housing had already given her room assignment to someone else.
Thing is, all of this transpired in April and we didn’t get an email until JUNE! with any clue that this was happening. It took a lot of phone calls and going over heads to get everything back as it should be. Even the housing department at first said they would not displace the person they had put in her room without the girls consent, which didn’t go over well with anyone, since my daughter and the roommate were friends.
Universities are not there for customer service and it took us being dilligent in talking with Panhellenic (yea, that was cancelled to), the bursar, housing, camp, etc. to make sure it all was straitened out with each department. There was not one person to oversee it all except ourselves. Wishing you all the best and GOOD LUCK!
Great news!! In Texas, state universities must accept the top 10% of Texas public high schools up to an admissions cap of 75% (which brings it down to about Top 8% in some universities). This doesn’t leave many open seats for OOS, academic admits and all others. This doesn’t mean you will get your major of choice when you are Top 10%. Although I understand the reasoning behind this Texas law, it does mean lots of Texas students who attended very challenging high schools but just missed the top 10% are left out. This may be why TAMU first missed your DD admission since she is an OOS admission.
Agreed with the above comments you might as well ask the question. With all she has accomplished it will turn out well even if not at TAMU. While going the Blinn route would get her where she wants to be I can see where that would be a hard pill to swallow. I hope it turns our to be an error!
I don’t think A&M plays the “safety” game i.e. they aren’t trying to protect their yield.
@ColoFatherOf3 --that is CRAZINESS! I am so glad you called! I think I would have HER call on Monday to talk with the financial/scholarship office. I had a friend AT College Station last week and it does sound like all of their main scholarships have been distributed. Departmental scholarships are ongoing. So far nothing for D (ACT 34 --which is SAT 1540) and #10 out of a class > 600). Maybe they take different things into consideration for OOS students?
It’s possible that there simply wasn’t enough space. I heard that this year was the most competitive year for applicants, with a whopping 42,000 applicants as apposed to the usual 30,000. Crazy stuff.
The response from 2/2/2017 is where we still are. DD received personal phone calls telling her she was in after getting the original denial email.
Although we are told she was considered for TAMU wide scholarships, she didn’t receive any. She is still holding out hope for an Engineering scholarship large enough to get an OOS tuition waiver, but we are viewing that as a long shot. Without that, she likely will not be able to attend.