My 8th grader - he will most likely be an engineering major - he already aspires to graduate early and attend TAMU’s engineering program. We are also signing him up for summer camps under the STEM directive at TAMU (he is eyeing one in particular that we missed last summer). Anyway, what entails the ideal engineering recruit for TAMU?? I believe he will definitely score very well in math and science (he will need to work on English LOL). He also plays basketball, runs CC, and will participate in track/field in Spring. He plans on participating in organizations but isn’t sure which ones to join (as in which ones are serious vs. lame lol). I am a little concerned as to how he will rank - his grades are always a major battle - while he is very intelligent, he struggles to remember deadlines and losing stuff (dead serious). He does have an IEP (very recent) but we are still learning the ropes/boundaries of this - got this put in place kind of late but at least before HS so we can work with him more before he starts HS. So when he does turn stuff in on time and remembers stuff, he scores very high. Sigh. I want this to be a positive experience for him (without being a hovering parent 
). Is there anything you wish you knew early on that would have helped you prepare?
@JaceyK
I have a super bright third child who is in engineering. He needs a personal assistant to handle the peripheral stuff. The struggle is real.
In his essays he can discuss his struggles. Not how they have necessarily hindered him but more "I have this issue and it caused me to X, so I… the bulk of the essay is what he has done, the steps he has taken, to overcome X obstacles. He cans till explain stuff that are a struggle and also discuss how he manages that struggle.
If someone struggles in high school and doesn’t have a plan to work on overcoming those obstacles while in high school, and thinks they will do so once they are at the university, the admissions officers know from experience that that isn’t the case and a competitive university environment won’t help him succeed.
Kids can have lower ranks for a variety of reasons and demonstrating improvement and what they did to improve over the course of the struggle etc, can make a difference.
@JaceyK : I love how you are planning ahead! This board was SO helpful to me when my 2nd daughter received a Blinn-TEAM offer for Fall 2017. I learned so much and wished that I had found this board when she was still in Middle School and even before my older daughter applied for Fall 2012. I don’t know how you are dealing with the stress of waiting for offers for your older 2 children, too!
Not sure if the IEP is similar to having Accommodations for a medical diagnosis or not, but if it is so, then THAT IS GREAT!! Anything that helps your child is a bonus.
My younger daughter suffered a level 2 concussion in the first week of Nov of her 8th grade year and didn’t return to class until after the New Year. She still had difficulty with frequent headaches, fatigue, focus, difficulty waking up, sensitivity to light and sound, eye strain, balance issues, etc. and had to work up to attending a full day/full week of classes. She was given Accommodations (extra time) for tests/homework/projects, but was medically cleared at the end of the 8th grade school year and her Accommodations ceased. As she was scoring in the average range on the concussion Dr.s tests, they couldn’t recommend any more cognitive or physical therapy and couldn’t sign off on more accommodations for HS. BUT she was Gifted and was a Duke TIPs student before the concussion, so she wasn’t back to “HER normal”!!! The first 2 years of HS were difficult because of the continuing issues. We did not have her take SAT/ACT prep classes, but I wish that we had. And we didn’t have her take the residual ACT at TAMU because we didn’t know about it. She is now thriving in her Sophomore year on TAMU Blinn-TEAM. Still doesn’t know her major yet so she stayed on Blinn-TEAM for the second year. It is 6 years since the concussion and she still has a very deep sleep need but is dealing with it, she is making As and Bs at TAMU/Blinn BUT she no longer likes Math and Science as she did before the concussion. 
My suggestions are to have your son take SAT/ACT prep classes, or take an online practice test, identify his weak areas and then study on Khan Academy. Get tutoring for English if necessary. It might be a good idea for him to also practice the college admissions essays so that he is aware of what is expected.
Extra Curriculars and volunteer hours are good to have but not at the expense of focusing on test scores. Make sure he joins something that he enjoys, not just a “bunch of somethings” to tick off more boxes. I think that colleges want to see if a student has made a long term commitment to something AND I think that they mainly want to see that students are using their time wisely and are learning time management skills. They want to make sure that students aren’t just hanging out in their rooms, playing on their computer or phone. My daughter was in one 4 year EC on campus and in her Senior year she also joined a competitive team off campus (45 minutes away, LOL) and had no Volunteering hours as she had absolutely no extra time. Looking back, she wishes she had quit the on campus team in her Jr or Sr year, but the competitive team off campus was good for her physically, and good for her self esteem and really taught her great time management skills. I wish that she had taken SAT/ACT prep. But it is what it is. If I had a third child, they would be taking test prep classes! LOL
I agree with @Thelma that he needs to address his struggles and how he is overcoming them/can continue to overcome them in his essays and also in the “extra question”. My daughter was still at the stage of not wanting to be “different” and very reluctant to discuss her concussion, so she only included a few sentences about it on her “extra question”, and wrote about how the recovery affected her grades (she had one C in one class for one semester in a Math or Science class in both Freshman and Sophomore HS years). She ended up in the 53% of her class with a 3.5 unweighted gpa/4.7 weighted gpa, 1250 SAT (Eng 670/Math 580) and 27 ACT. I am sure that the concussion affected her Math components as she had to drop out of Algebra I in 8th grade so was also a year “behind” in the Math class sequence as well as no longer liking Math. I was adamant that she had to address the concussion issue and would have preferred for her to give a longer explanation, but I guess that the little that she wrote was enough for them to take a chance on her and offer Blinn-TEAM.
The Letters of Recommendation from people who know him and can address how he is overcoming obstacles is also a way of showing TAMU that he is working on those issues. My daughter had great LORs from HS teachers who really liked her and whose classes she excelled in (AP English and regular Chemistry). And I think the great LORs also contributed to her receiving Blinn-TEAM and not PSA or denial.
Kudos to you for starting early with child #3!! 
Where do they have the opportunity to expose all this? I know that this year’s prompt was “Describe the environment in which you were raised in and how it impacted you” (or something like that). My oldest son is majorly ADHD - he has a love/hate relationship with medicine - he hates taking but he also hates what happens when he doesn’t. I had suggested mentioning the environment he was raised in and how being ADHD shaped him. He shot that down - “I will sound like I am complaining/whining/making excuses - no!” Sigh…but he did end up writing a nice story line about a scene from when he was a child and how that impacted/directed his decision on what he wants to be “when he grows up”. Anyhow, I was just wondering where these “extra” questions were? And we will have to see if my youngest son will comply with this suggestion (since my oldest didn’t LOL) - btw my youngest is mostly just ADD and has executive functioning disorder. Thank you both for stepping up with these suggestions!!! Hopefully I will follow this for years to come until my youngest is admitted! 
Generally speaking you want the school guidance counselor to address the issue and use the essay to highly strengths.
For the TX schools rank and standardized test scores are going to be super important. I agree with the above poster who said to work through some of the struggles now, well before he goes off to college. Good study habits, organization, and self motivation are critical skills for college, especially engineering!
@JaceyK : For Fall 2017 Apply Texas application there was a custom question for TAMU that I saw posted on CC BEFORE my daughter finished and submitted her application. I lurked on the board for many months before I started posting, LOL! I can’t find that original posting but found similar info posted on 11/13/17 by @nylah23 on “Chances for A&M?”:
"On Apply Texas, there’s this custom question for A&M:
“If there are additional personal challenges, hardships, or opportunities that have shaped or impacted your abilities or academic credentials, which you have not already written about, please note them in the space below.
A maximum of 40 lines will be sent.”
This was the same question that my daughter answered when she applied during Thanksgiving Break 2016 for Fall 2017 and the ONLY place where she mentioned the concussion, its effects and the recovery process as they impacted her grades in 9th and 10th grade. She did NOT use the entire 40 lines, probably used less than a dozen lines.
And I think at that time there were 2 required essays and one optional essay.
I am not sure if this question is still included as a custom question for TAMU on Apply Texas. I hope that it is, the info included could be the little extra bit that helps.
I have heard that UT has several custom questions on Apply Texas.
@JaceyK: It is too bad that your older son didn’t write about his autism diagnosis and how he is coping. TAMU seems to be very accommodating of those students, there is even a Spectrum Learning Living Community. It offers a lot of great services at no extra cost than what the dorm costs. I can’t seem to post links so you will have to find it online. Not sure if this will be of help to either of your sons, but it could be. It sounds great, I think it is a fairly new program so no idea how it is working out for those students.
Last year, there was a young man on CC from OOS with a super high SAT (perfect 800 Math and well above 700 English) with Autism who was accepted to Blinn-Engineering at Bryan for Fall 2018. Not sure if he joined the Spectrum LLC or not.
@JaceyK: DUH!! 
So sorry, MY brain isn’t working!! I don’t know why I read ADHD and thought Autism! I’ve evidently confused y’all with someone else…Disregard the info on the Spectrum Learning Living Community!
But I hope that TAMU still has the custom question where students can address those issues.
@JaceyK If I had it to do over again for my oldest (who will be a freshman fall 2019), I would check to make sure that optional AP classes taken in high school transfer to Tamu, and also that they will apply to his degree plan. (Of course, as a hs freshman, his future major was not set in stone but A&M seemed like a possibility). For example, he took an optional AP geography class and passed but the credit is not useful at A&M. On the bright side, he took all the math and science he could, to build a strong foundation for engineering.
My youngest also wants to go to Tamu and knows his major, so we are carefully looking at his future possible degree plan, and taking high school classes that will both provide transferable credit for those history/art/english classes and also build a strong foundation in his major. We all need a crystal ball!