I’m a mom to a Texas hs Jr. She’ll be (should be unless something crazy happens in the next 4 mos) an automatic admit and is applying to engineering (which I think is not automatic??).
I’d love to find a ck list of Do this 1st, Do this 2nd, on applications to complete, dates to be mindful of, etc… I know this is going to come at us hard & fast. Last kid went OOS to a small univ. & didn’t apply to any TX schools so I have no experience with the Apply TX app or Common App. Are those what TAMU uses for scholarship applications or is that something separate?
Welcome to the group! You are correct, Engineering is far from automatic. Apply in July. Use Apply Texas. There’s one essay and I believe another for Engineering. Have her work on that well before July and have English teacher review and edit. Get a strong Letter of Rec. Make sure you guys are writing down every little thing she does for extracurricular, especially if engineering related. Hopefully she has or is taking AP physics, Calc etc. to strengthen her app. They look for readiness in these areas. What are her test scores?
The sooner she applies, the sooner she’ll hear for Engineering, in theory. BUT it won’t be until after Oct. 15th. Be sure to put down a second choice major other than engineering if she has any other interest. You apply as a specific eng. major but if accepted, everyone goes in as general engineering then applies at end of freshman year for specialty.
I have no clue on scholarships. I’ll let someone else take that! Hope this helped a little! Good luck and don’t stress… too much.
For scholarships, (at least with Apply Texas), the application is submited through the website as well. That should also be filled out as soon as possible. The non need based ones are rolling.
Be sure to have the FAFSA all filled out and submitted as well. Even if you wont get anything based on need, the school still requires it to get anything based on merit.
Also, on a side note, with so many applicants, merit scholarships are hard to come by. Even with automatic admission, a lot of students dont get anything.
@Evon1254 thank you for the reply. I’ll ck dates on the FAFSA & have it filled out as early as possible. I know we won’t qualify for any grants but just in case they’d like to award her some scholarships
@tam123 You can go on apply texas now and see what the current essay is. They just switched from 3 to 1 essays for this class of 2023. My son is class of 2022 and had to do all 3. UGH! I’m going to assume the prompt will be the same. As for Engineering… I have no clue!
@Evon1254 coming back to this response. When she applies the summer prior to sr year, do we have FAFSA done at that time? Is it kid specific? I know husband just filled it out for DS 1 to get a summer student loan so do we fill it out again for DD or just reference it? Thx!
@Tam1233 You need to have FAFSA filled out by the FAFSA date each year, i’m not entirely sure off the top of my head when that is. I am also not entirely sure about summer loans. I have no experience with that.
@Tam1233 as the others have said, apply early-in July-and there will be a box to check on Apply Texas, for scholarship consideration. Don’t hold your breath tho- unless a National Merit Commended/Semi/Finalist, Eagle Scout, Top 10, Valedictorian- or something along those lines…merit scholarships are small, few and not many given.
@Tam1233 I also encourage taking SAT, and be sure your child takes the Writing portion of both tests. My daughter will be getting an A&M scholarship for the Fall, and when we looked up the criteria on the TAMU website, one requirement was having taken the Writing portion. Thankfully she took both tests 2x, and Writing portion with each test.
You can’t specify which scholarships you’d like to apply for-the university decides, and it’ll just appear in their portal, if they’re given one. Higher test scores definitely help + extra curricular activities.
@Tam1233 sure! A wise friend, who has 4 kids, told me to always have kids take the Writing portions. Super glad she did, because we wouldn’t have gotten TAMU Presidential Scholarship w/o it!
We used a College Guidance person to help with applications-she reviewed essays, helped list extra curricular activities, guided my daughter thru Apply Texas, knew the timelines, etc. She also kept my daughter on track…and could get away with nagging her ?
52ag82 thank you, I just amended her next ACT test registration to add writing. How did you find this type of person? We’re from a small school/town and the high school counselor/advisor doesn’t do this sort of thing.
@Tam1233 always good to add the Writing portions!
Hmmm, I’m in Houston, so we’ve got an abundance of resources. Maybe google ‘educational consultant’, ‘college coach’, ‘college admission counselor’-stuff like that? If you know a former high school counselor, or even a technical writer, they could help. It was beneficial for us to have another set of eyes to proof-read, check spelling/grammar, check formats, double check submissions, adhere to timelines. There’s gotta be somebody in your town, or in the closest big town.
