Hi guys,
Is Texas A&M known to give scholarships to OOS applicants. If so, with my stats do you think I can get a scholarship if I am applying for computer engineering???
My Stats:
ACT: 32 (will this be good enough for a scholarship?)
E:31, M:35, R:27, S:35
UW GPA: 3.92
W GPA 10-11: 4.17
W GPA 9-11: 4.08
Class Rank: School does not rank
SAT Subject Tests:
Chem: 750
Math 2: 800
Physics: 760
AP Scores:
Physics 1: 4
Physics 2: 3
Stats: 5
My High School is the #11 public school in California
Freshman Year Grades
English 9A: B/A
CP Biology: A/A
PE: A/A
Honors Geometry: A/A+
Spanish 2: A/A-
Geography/Health: A/A-(repectively)
Sophmore Year Grades
Spanish 3: A/A-
World History: A/A
Chemistry: A/A
PE: A/A
English 10A: A/A
Honors Algebra 2/Trig: B/A-
Junior Year Grades
English 11A: A/A
Art 1: A/A
Honors Pre-Calculus: A/A-
AP Stats: A/A-
AP Physics 1: B/A
CP US History: A/A
Senior Year Courseload:
AP Physics C, AP Calc B/C, AP Computer Science A, AP Human Geography, English 12A, CP Gov/Econ
California Resident
Income: about $100k-150k
I have decent essays.
I do have a 5 week internship at Cisco (200 hours)
130 Volunteer hours at ICC (table tennis center which is known to compete in the Olympics)
10 Hours at my local food shelter
Member of the Comp Sci Club
4 years on Cross Country
as well as other smaller EC’s
Yes, A&M gives OOS scholarships. Even a small scholarship can exponentially increase in value because the OOS tuition is waived at that point.
I have no idea if your stats will be competitive for these scholarships. It definitely helps to have National Merit if you qualify. Looks like the bigger scholarships require ACT Writing. You are above a 30 so you are in contention but that is a minimum score.
https://scholarships.tamu.edu/FRESHMEN
@spamuser - My son is currently an OOS sophomore at A&M. He was a NMF, so he took advantage of the very nice merit aid package that A&M offers. When we were visiting in December 2013, we asked a financial aid officer about merit aid for OOS students who just missed NMF status, i.e. NM Commended. We were told that A&M did not offer merit aid specifically to attract these OOS students, That could have changed since our last visit.
The OOS tuition waiver is not easy to get. To qualify, the OOS student must be awarded at least $1,000 and: “The student must have competed with other students, including Texas residents, for the scholarship and the scholarship must be awarded by a Texas A&M University college or departmental scholarship committee or university representative.” So most outside scholarships will not qualify. https://scholarships.tamu.edu/Non-Resident-Tuition-Waiver
The easiest path to a $1,000 scholarship from A&M is to join the Corps of Cadets. Assuming admission, joining the Corps typically qualifies for a $1,000 scholarship and the OOS tuition waiver.
I don’t know what you intend to study, but there are several state schools that would automatically qualify a student with your qualifications for a significant merit scholarship. Arizona and Arizona State would both give you nice awards and likely put you in the Honors College. Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Alabama also offer generous merit aid to high achieving OOS students. When I ran the Alabama calculator for my third son, the award would cover all OOS tuition, plus books, supplies and expenses. (33 ACT, 15 AP classes passed, 3.52 GPA - from one of the top high schools in America - but not as good as your extracurriculars.) If you can get up to a 33 ACT or 1500 SAT, Michigan State really hands out the money if they admit you into the Honors College. Miami University (Ohio) is also generous. I am sure there are more, but these are colleges that we have investigated for our three sons.
Two small schools that my second son (similar statistics as my third son) was accepted to were very generous with merit aid: University of Portland and Trinity University in San Antonio. These are both highly rated private liberal arts colleges. We were impressed with Portland’s engineering program. Santa Clara was my son’s first choice, but they were very stingy with merit aid (and very expensive to begin with). He will be attending Miami University this fall to study mechanical engineering and was admitted to their very selective Honors Program. We leave on Wednesday next week and he is really psyched!
My daughter had a 31 ACT, similar gpa/courses, good extra curricular & top 3 % at a strong Texas HS. She was admitted to the Honors program and Cornerstone. She did not receive any scholarship money. She was Liberal Arts not Engineering.
Yes, they do give OOS students scholarships. The OOS Tuition waiver is not applicable to all scholarships. You have to obtain a qualifying scholarship. My kids have gotten both types and they are stated whether or not they qualify. You can stack qualifying scholarships to add up to the $1000 waiver amount ( my daughter did that her senior year). I had one with no qualifying scholarships until her senior year, the other student has a 4 year renewable scholarship. The older one had outside scholarships every year, so she was a worthy candidate just didn’t land a qualifying scholarship-it really is tough. We did not qualify for need based scholarships, so only non-need ones were available to my kids.
Scholarships are awarded on a holistic basis. Some are generated through the entire university, others through colleges and majors. you can keep applying each year for a scholarship. I do know that the scholarship committees often include students - so they are more current on what activities/awards are more ‘impressive’. Keep in mind 80% of the applicants are academic or top 10% TX admits, so the competition is stiff. Once you begin to compare the OOS students with scholarships, you’ll find things like national award winners, state champions, gifted athletes, impressive leadership, etc. all with outstanding academic records as well. There is a limited amount of tuition waivers available so they are very selective when choosing OOS students to receive qualifying scholarships. Vast majority of renewable scholarships have GPA requirements - normally a 3.5 to maintain the scholarship.
It isn’t a set list of criteria like some schools if you have this GPA and this score, you will get a scholarship - so none of us can really give you an accurate guess as to who will be chosen. You compete against a pool of applicants for each individual scholarship - some pools will be more competitive than others. The school decides based on your admission application which scholarships you will be eligible for and puts your name & application into that group to be reviewed. So yes, majors are considered so is interest or affiliation with various groups,need (even if just $1), personal situations like first to go to college, URM, hardship,etc. and there are catch all university wide scholarships that are decided through the financial aid committees. Mine over the years have gotten scholarships from three areas: school-wide, college & major. The committees are independent but some committee members serve on multiple boards, so they might know if you have already gotten a scholarship from their area & lately there has been a spread the wealth approach (in particular for continuing students - we have received letters to verify that fact). I think people tend to underestimate the caliber of students who attend Texas A&M, it is quite an impressive group and the top students are extremely accomplished individuals. So, do you stand a chance, certainly! It will depend on the pools of other applicants competing for the scholarships. Good luck!
I’ll share a “tale of two students”, both OOS. Son and friend both applied to A&M, accepted as Academic Admits to Dwight Look Engineering College. SAT scores virtually identical, ECs similar. Son had higher GPA and class rank, while friend was a National Merit Semi-Finalist. Not sure how essays may have influenced outcome. Friend received scholarship, while son did not. Based on limited evidence, would conclude that NMSQT carries clout. Congrats to you on your accomplishments and good luck with the A&M admissions process.