Hi,
I am an international student who recently got accepted to TAMU’s Class of 2021. I had a query regarding the scholarships and change of majors.
I had applied to Mays but got admitted for Biology ( at my second choice school). Was that because I simply didn’t fit the bill at TAMU or was it because of seats getting filled already?
Another doubt I had,
When and where on the portal do scholarship decisions come? (I’m international)
TIA
Seats were already taken. I don’t know about the scholarships.
We were just told today in person that only 5% of incoming freshmen receive any type of scholarship. It was crushing to hear that.
My son has applied to schools in six states and has received scholarships in all of them except Texas. (We live in Texas). I could be wrong, but in my opinion, it seems that the big Texas schools don’t provide much in the way of scholarship because they don’t have to. There are just so many people that want to go to school here, they don’t have to reward very many for them to come.
@ cosmonewman I hadn’t heard of that 5% figure before. That is great information. If we assume there are 9700 incoming freshman enrolled in a given year, 5% means that 485 freshmen will get scholarships. Of that number, all the National Merit and National Hispanic Merit scholars are guaranteed scholarships. There were 162 National Merit Scholars that attended TAMU in 2014-15 school year. Not sure how many National Hispanic Scholars. 485 - 162 = 323. Of the 323, I wonder how many are recruited athletes getting some form of scholarship? I suspect quite a few (guessing 200?). That would leave 123 spots left for others (including National Hispanic Scholars).
My D has great stats (SAT and ACT in top 99%, #1 in her class, perfect 4.0 UW GPA in the toughest course load, lots of great ECs, etc, etc), but was only National Merit Commended. That leaves her on the outside looking in and without a $4k scholarship to get an OOS tuition waiver, she won’t be able to attend. As TAMU is her #1 choice (even over Stanford (if she were to get in there)), the odds don’t look very good.
ColoFatherof3 - I am having a hard time believing the 5% statistic as I have two engineering daughters (one currently there as a junior) and there seem to be a lot more students with some merit aid, Both kids got some sort of merit aid — as a freshman, one daughter became a President’s Endowed Scholar (PES) and still is a PES while the other daughter received a smaller but still helpful scholarship. Please note: Neither of my daughters were National Merit anythings or in the top 1% of their class for their GPA (they did take rigorous schedules) and I would be absolutely shocked if your D didn’t get a very nice merit scholarship, certainly to cover the 4K.
I see in a different post that @cosmonewman wrote that the 5% figure may be for merit scholarships only, so that would take the athletic scholarships out of the equation, making chances a bit better.
@NETarrantMom I hope you are right! The waiting is hard. DD really wants to go to TAMU, but knows the only way she can afford it is with an OOS tuition waiver. We’ll see what happens. Even with her near perfect stats, we think she may have a 50/50 shot.
I think they may have confused the maximum number of tuition waivers vs. the number of merit scholarships - there are more merit scholarships than that available (my kids qualified for several each). It is a max of 5% for non-resident tuition waivers http://rules-saps.tamu.edu/PDFs/13.03.99.M0.03.pdf
@AGmomx2 with 9700 students and 5 percent win merit based awards then that means 485 freshman can win awards right? With 180 NMF auto awards, 224 Century scholars, and say 20 ( BCE idk real count fo that ) Opportunity awards , then that leaves about 85 awards left…
I’m pretty confused end about that number. Corps scholarships are merit based and they give out about 400 of those. And Each department already has dozens of merit awards and that before you even consider honors awards. Remember the scholarship pool changes each year with donors and sponsors and their is no reason for the predicted number to be that low. However she / he was likely referring to the general university scholarships for OOS becuase organizations like the foundation of excellence award choose chose to give out as many awards as they want each year.
[quote]
The total number of students at an institution paying resident tuition under this
section for a particular semester may not exceed five percent of the total number of
students registered at the institution for the same semester of the preceding
academic year.
[/quote = Texas A&M Standard Administrative Procedures]
Here’s an excerpt from the financial aid brochure, just one of the freshman scholarships which is primarily a merit scholarship:
Opportunity Award Scholarship
These scholarships are available to high school seniors entering college for the first time at Texas
A&M University. Selection is based on an applicant’s high school academic record, character, activities,
leadership ability, SAT or ACT scores and, in some cases, evidence of financial need. There are
approximately 1,000 scholarships to award with over 20,000 applications being received each year.
@AGmomx2 It may be true that there are over 1,000 scholarships to offer in what you reference but many of them are most likely not $4,000 a year or more which brings with it in state tuition. It appears that is what most people are concerned with.
The original information was what I was referring to : that only 5% of freshman receive merit scholarships and the subsequent calculations of chances. The maximum allowed number of waivers is 5% (by law) and the amount has just changed to $4000 (also by law) to earn a tuition waiver. Regarding how many will be eligible now, that is new territory - scholarships stack, meaning you can get more than one to add up to the amount needed.
My youngest had several that added up over the current $4000 limit - so it is possible. His OOS roommate also would have qualified for the new amount. Neither were NMF, both very high stats, lots of awards and in BHP. Merit scholarships do come from many places, not just the Financial Aid/Scholarships building - they only generate some of the merit aid scholarships ( Lechner, McFadden, etc) and the scholarships are not divided up between instate and out of state - to be eligible for the waiver you have to compete with TX residents. Regarding dollar amounts, there are very few single scholarships over $4000, so many students will have to win multiple awards to get to the benchmark. The previous mindset was that $1000 scholarships were ‘significant’ amounts.
I was told that by the scholarship rep after my campus tour yesterday. She said it to my face with my whole family also there. 5% of 10,000 freshmen receive merit based scholarships. Period. Looking at the stats they post on different web sites (Niche and US News and World Reports), it appears the numbers do not jive. It is a shame because had they been honest, we would not have bothered the expense of a trip to visit the school.
That is not what the rep told us yesterday but I will call and ask for clarification tomorrow. The rep’s name was Natalie (but she called herself Natalia).
We were told yesterday that there were 46000 applicants for the 2016-2017 school year.
@cosmonewman Hello! I called Finanicail Aid and Scholarships and they said they don’t have an “average” number of merit based awards that they give students because the applicant and donation pool changes each year.
But @AGmomx2 was right to point out that the opportunity award alone gives 1000 awards in merit, which when you include with corps, and President, and department, and other sources it has to exceed 5% of the total applicants. I personally think that 5% of scholarships is only applicable to OOS students because their may be only 5% that are equal to the required 4000 scholarship.
The Financial Aid tab on the Howdy Portal was just now updated with 2017-2018 Scholarship and Financial Aid decisions!! Good luck to all!!