Should I apply?

<p>I was pondering college admissions today, and realized that I need more safety schools that I can apply to this late. After some searching I came upon A&M, and I’m 99% sure that I qualify for their automatic admit program. I had a couple basic questions about the school to see if I should drop $60, which is kind of a tough thing to do in my family during these times, so it has to count. OOS applicant by the way.</p>

<p>Full Mexican Male
Florida
Senior at one of the best private schools in my area
I’m probably in the top 20% out of 160 (As far as I know, school doesn’t rank)
GPA- 3.94 unweighted, 4.16 weighted (After 1st semester grades, 4.23 W, 3.95 UW)</p>

<p>SAT- 720 Math, 630 CR, 730 Writing (7 Essay)
This is the first time I took it, which ended up being the best score</p>

<p>SAT Subject- 720 Chem, 680 Math I (I didn’t study for this at all because I spent the whole month studying Chem. I payed the price)</p>

<p>AP- I took my first AP’s senior year (Chemistry, Calc AB, and American Gov)</p>

<p>Courseload- Difficult, the hardest that I could possibly take with the exception of English, where I took Honors instead of AP</p>

<p>EC’s</p>

<p>Community Service (9-12)- I have about 100 hours so far through four years, on pace for 200 by the end of senior year</p>

<p>Church’s Weekly Dinner for Homeless (10-12)- Where I get the majority of my hours</p>

<p>Church’s Annual Retreat (12)- Youth Leader</p>

<p>Students Against Destructive Decisions (11-12)- Membership Director</p>

<p>National Honor Society (12)</p>

<p>Social Studies Honor Society (11-12)</p>

<p>French Honor Society (11-12)</p>

<p>Hispanic Appreciation Club (10-12)- Board of Directors</p>

<p>I held a couple of jobs over the summer, one at a horse farm in June and as a cashier in a restaurant through July</p>

<p>Random Stuff</p>

<p>Outstanding Student in French- 11</p>

<p>Played bass for 5 years</p>

<p>Fluent in Spanish, semifluent in French</p>

<li><p>How good/prestigious is the engineering school, more specifically the chemical engineering program? Because my two other safety schools are not really high up there in terms of engineering and I at least wanted a safety with a good program.</p></li>
<li><p>What is the general atmosphere of College Station like? Is it basically the college and that’s it? Or is there a good amount of things to do outside of the school? How close is it (int terms of a car ride) to Dallas and Houston?</p></li>
<li><p>How good is the financial aid programs in terms of meeting a student’s need, especially for OOS students? How much can I expect to get after an auto admit?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks to everybody who answers my questions.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Our engineering program is ranked top 20 USNWR, chemE top 25. Being a part of the engineering school I can tell you personally that our engineering school is great, and gives great opportunities for internships/co-ops and for jobs. It’s very known regionally, and pretty well known nationally. Classes aren’t too big for such a large university, and with your stats you might be able to apply to the Honors program…which would give you a great chance to be in smaller classes and get more one-on-one attention.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s not a huge city, but the Bryan/College Station area has your typical bars/clubs, movie theaters, bowling, ice skating, Lake Bryan for boating/fishing and recreation, and a pretty vivid live concert scene. Not to mention Aggie sports are huge… there is a lot of tradition and spirit in sports here that can be tons of fun. It’s about an hour driving from the outskirts of Houston, hour and a half from Austin, and about 3 hours driving to Dallas.</p></li>
<li><p>Financial aid is pretty competitive, just as it is at any college with 45k+ students. I honestly couldn’t tell you if you’d get any, let alone a lot. Your best bet would be to speak with a financial aid representative from A&M.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Good luck with your choice, and I hope you choose to apply to A&M. It’s a very rewarding school. I’d also suggest that if you get the time/money and start getting serious about potentially attending, schedule a campus visit.</p>

<p>Thank you very much! That was very informative, more than I was expecting really. Those are def. some good responses, and I have a friend who just finished her first semester and was happy with the school. I will definitely keep it in my considerations.</p>

<p>Anytime. If you ever have any questions about A&M feel free to PM me and I’d be more than happy to take a shot at them.</p>

<p>gstein, where can I find the list that verifies “Engineering program is ranked top 20 USNWR”? Thanks.</p>

<p>^^^</p>

<p>Might I suggest umm… US News and World Report. aka the “USNWR” you quoted.</p>

<p><a href=“http://engineering.tamu.edu/about/facts/LookCOE.pdf[/url]”>http://engineering.tamu.edu/about/facts/LookCOE.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>That has a lot of info you might like.</p>

<p>That was helpful, but the rankings listed on the PDF are not the same as the rankings on the USNWR website, and the PDF claims that its source is USNWR, so something’s up here…</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/382751-usnews-2008-engineering-ranking-compilation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/382751-usnews-2008-engineering-ranking-compilation.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Sigh…still don’t match…but whatever, because gstein gave me a perfect answer, and that post alone pretty much answered my questions. Submitted my app today BTW</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/555743-us-news-2009-undergraduate-engineering-rankings-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/555743-us-news-2009-undergraduate-engineering-rankings-2.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>For some reason CC doesn’t sticky the updated 2009 USNWR Rankings, but there they are. Glad to hear you applied disasterpiece.</p>

<p>Thank you gstein, ampzor, and ModernChem.</p>