@HoustonTXmom How did your visit go today?
@rosegeo and @Momtaro Sorry for late reply. Our visit was beyond expectations. They scheduled us to meet with just the right people so we left with a pretty clear idea of how the honors works, and pros and cons. I have to keep it a little brief right now because I’m exhausted from late night and then long day driving up and back and then shuttling my other kid to soccer practice!
Some very quick summary items for now and can follow up more later if you would like any more info.
- After our visit, my daughter thinking she IS going to start out in University Honors and Engineering Honors. Many kids do not stay in honors through graduation but it sounds like a beneficial program to start in. You can stay in it for 1-3 years to benefit from the early registration and just take 1 Honors class per semester on average to stay in it but you could go almost a year without taking a class and still get to benefit. Because the engineering program is so strong at A&M, the University Honors program consists of about half engineering students.
If you didn’t apply for University Honors, not to worry. You can get many of the same benefits with Engineering Honors and any student can take (University) Honors courses even if not in the University Honors program (as long as have 3.5 GPA), and can apply the next year too.
They rolled out the red carpet and my daughter left really sold on attending there as a Brown Scholar. I was impressed that they had us meeting with heads of departments and advisors. They really let us know she is highly valued and they would like her attending A&M as a Brown Scholar in their dept.
I’d be happy to share my email address with you both if you would like to discuss specific questions too.
@HoustonTXmom Thanks for replying! We are leaving at 6:30 for our Brown visit tomorrow. We meet with Univ. Honors
@HoustonTXmom My computer keeps messing up. Sorry
@HoustonTXmom One more try…still messing up. I’ll post when we get back tomorrow. We aren’t engr. mine is BIMS plans to go to vet school. She’s meeting with the Dean of the Vet School b/c she has questions about a double major once she’s in vet school. Cornell and other vet schools have this set up but A&M doesn’t. I’m hoping between that mtg. and Financial aid mtg. she’ll be ready to commit. The schedule sounds like they are going all out. I just hope she’ll feel impressed. She found out tonight she was waitlisted by 3 schools, so I’m hoping she really takes everything in.
I am encouraged to hear that a BIMS major was offered the Brown scholarship, since that is what my d is planning, and it is not listed among the favored majors on the Brown webpage!
@bctnln1059 The very first Brown scholar is now a pediatrician. If she was there now she would have been a BIMS major! It’s such a blessing to be offered Brown $, I’m just waiting for my D to realize it’s highly unlikely she’ll be offered that from private colleges. She’s been accepted to Renssalaer with a huge merit scholarship, and huge need grant, but they still left 16K of unmet need. And who knows what she’d be offered next year.
@HoustonTXmom I’m happy to hear the visit went so well! We were also very impressed when we visited last month! It was an amazing opportunity to be able to meet with the dean of the biomedical engineering department! And it was clear that they want my son!
@Momtaro How did your visit go today?
@rosegeo @HoustonTXmom We just got home. What a day! Kati told me she took you and your D around yesterday, HoustonTXmom. She couldn’t have packed one more thing into our day. Scholarships was the best! Their info made my year. My D was smiling. She’s going to sign and return the Brown letter but wait until April 1st to make the decision. From the other Brown scholars we met and had lunch with, Rice accepted them but very little financial support. My D got another waitlist today from Emory. She’s just about had it with the waitlist thing. Everyone made it very clear today how much they wanted her at A&M. Kati told me they rec’d 40,000 applications this year. They rec’d 600 from NMF’s. They chose 100 to send to Brown (which we all knew b/c it was in the Brown letter), Brown chose 60 to interview and gave scholarships to 30. Our kids are amazing and they are also very fortunate. Every Brown scholar we met couldn’t say enough kind things about Mr. Brown and how he follows ‘his’ kids through college and beyond. My D laughed a lot today and seemed very comfortable and happy. I think she’ll make the commitment.
@rosegeo what did you find out from Pam about housing? We loved the Honors Dorm and what the Brown kids had to say about the Brown kids who live there. Univ. Honors said no you don’t have to be in Univ. Honors to live there, that’s a Brown thing. I’m not sure if my D will go with Univ. Honors or just take some classes. She really liked the early registration though.
Just for future reference, do you guys know what would happen if you declined the Brown scholarship? I imagine it would be too late for them to offer it to any “alternates”, right?
@bctnln1059 I really don’t know. I do know that one of the Brown scholars explained to my D that she’d be writing thank you notes to several donors every year. They said that besides his own foundation, Mr. Brown has control of other foundations at A&M and can use money from those as well. So, my guess would be there aren’t any alternates. I would suspect that if he has students he really wants to support, he does it.
@rosegeo @HoustonTXmom Rice decisions are in >:P Looks like it’s A&M. She has 2 she’s still interested in, but with the trend of waitlists, it’s going to be A&M. I’m thrilled, and she will be too once she deals with all the disappointment. As I explained to her, Mr. Brown saw something that all these private schools didn’t, and in the end that’s what matters. And think about all the kids who are so disappointed they didn’t receive Brown scholarships. We have a lot to be thankful for.
Since this is all happening today, we haven’t registered for a new student conference. The Univ. Honors guy said there are 400 students between the 2 Honors dorms and they have fun things they do together so I’m sure our kids will meet. 
@Momtaro @rosegeo Sorry, I’m finally responding. Even though my D had been waiting on Rice all that time, she actually realized she was ready to accept and commit to A&M on Friday before any news from Rice! About 2 hours after we checked all the boxes, she received Rice decision that she was waitlisted. She was totally ok with that. She feels good about going to A&M and all they have going for them as Brown Scholars. All these schools clearly have different selection criteria and with the record numbers of applications, many excellent students are not admitted to to these Selective schools. Can’t let that define them and bring them down. Be proud of this amazing opportunity that Mr. Brown and A&M saw in them and make the most of it. Mr. Brown obviously has a pretty great track record in selecting students!
@rosegeo @HoustonTXmom Well, she made up her mind today. Going to be an Aggie! Accepted University Honors signed up for NSC in July. I’m so glad the decision is Over.
@Momtaro Yeah!
@rosegeo Thanks! I’m glad we let her choose. Did your S ever hear about the living arrangements?
Hello, just a quick question. New here about first choice NM school. Is there a deadline as to when you should make your first choice NM school? My son is a NM finalist and only made TAMU his first choice today, Does anybody know if he can still get the NM scholarship from TAMU? Thanks for any input you can provide.
@gmc0508 I had thought they needed to declare their first choice by March1st but I don’t really know if that is true. Hopefully someone else here knows what the actual requirements are. The March 1st deadline might just be for official NM sponsored scholarships.
@gmc0508 We were told when they submitted their application to become a finalist back in Sept/Oct they had to list A&M as their #1 school choice to be awarded the NMF scholarships. But, you can always call and ask. I’ll private message you someone you can call.