My S22 is narrowing his college application list. We are OOS, from Tennessee (as an aside, I am an SMU alum, please do not hold that against me). A&M has bubbled to the top as his top choice, much to my surprise. We will be visiting College Station this summer. He has done well in high school. He scored a 34 on the ACT on his first try, he has no plans to take it again (his test date was cancelled three times because of COVID). His will be a Commended Scholar and may be a National Merit Scholar depending on the cutoff (would be for this year). He is a full IB candidate taking 4 HLs, including HL Physics and HL Maths Applications and Interpretations. So, we believe he is a strong candidate for A&M.
Here are my questions:
Is he a strong OOS candidate (I know Texas, as a state, likes to protect its flagship public universities)?
Having read some threads, it appears it may be critical to apply early. Is that a correct assumption?
He is an undecided Engineering major. I am aware of the ETaM process. Should he be concerned by it?
@Peruna1998 great ACT, especially for 1st try! What was his jr year PSAT? How can you already know he’ll be Commended; I thought those scores weren’t released until September?
Sounds like he could be a strong candidate getting into A&M and General Engineering-that’s what they all enter as-just be sure to apply early in August. What is his class rank? Extra curriculars?
Don’t expect to receive in-state tuition, that would be my biggest tip. Unless your son is National Merit Finalist and/or receives $4,000 worth of A&M scholarships (next to impossible), he will not get a waiver for in-state tuition. @AggieMomhelp is the guru, so I’m sure she’ll weigh in with more details.
Good luck and enjoy your campus tour!
Fair questions. He scored a 215 on the PSAT. The National Merit cutoff in Tennessee for the Class of 2021 was 215. Who knows what it will be for his class. I have read articles supposing that the Commended cutoff for the Class of 2022 will be 208-209. So, he will likely be that. National Merit is unknown.
His school does not rank. His GPA is 4.21 weighted. I have no clue unweighted. Again, all IB classes. ECs…well, COVID has not helped. He has been active in his High School Robotics team in high school (though they could not compete this year). He has worked in a pediatric office sterilizing patient rooms during COVID (polite way of saying janitorial work). He also has volunteered to do non-medical work in distributing COVID vaccines. So, some, just not a lot.
Again, @AggieMomhelp is the Queen, knows the stats needed for admission.
Curious tho, what’s a 215? We are in Texas, my student was NM Commended in 2019, with a 1440. I’ve never seen something like a 215? Is there a chart to make it into an actual SAT score?
If he would get at least Commended, that will open all kinds of doors, at every school! Problem is-I’ve been saying this for years-NM doesn’t announce scores until September, when many college applications open up in August. I don’t understand??
@52ag82 not that my kiddos ever got close to commended, lol, but yes the scoring on psat for commended is in the 200’s and typically 212-220 range depending on year and state. 2021 for Texas was 219 for example.
Anywho… @Peruna1998 Your son sounds like an exceptional candidate. Definitely apply in August when it opens. His ECs, ACT, course rigor and GPA demonstrates all that TAMU loves to see. I don’t think he’ll have any trouble with the ETAM process of getting his first choice and how great is it that he doesn’t have to decide on which field until he has an overall engineering course under his belt?
OOS tuition is rough. @52ag82 spelled it out. It’s not impossible but competitive. I think he’s got a shot though.
@AggieMomhelp now I’m curious about PSAT/NM score for my student! I just know what it came out to be, I guess after they translated it? And scores do vary by state, and by year.
Oh well, she got Commended and it definitely opened doors for her at A&M.
It is a converted score. The PSAT is scored out of a possible 720. The SAT out of a possible 800. So, the max possible conversion is a 224. The 215 is the Selection Index. You add your three sections scores together and multiply by two (see: How to Become a National Merit Semifinalist).
The UCs are pretty stingy for OOS applicants, but the Ivies (including Cornell) have a reputation for meeting 100% need. Filling out the FAFSA should give you an idea of what to expect. This should help as well:
Congrats on the great stats. Long time Texan here, so I am not completely positive how A&M treats out of state applicants, but I believe it is somewhat easier to gain admission to A&M from out of state than to UT Austin. If he were an in state applicant, he would be a very strong candidate for A&M, and I would expect he would be a strong candidate as an out of state applicant as well. Also, I also believe A&M is one of the colleges who still treat National Merit Finalists very well, so if your son pulls off finalist status that would help him a lot, both for admission and for scholarship money.
If your daughter still has her report from her junior year fall PSAT, the selection index will be there. The full report should be multiple pages. @AggieMomhelp fyi
I might be able to help here. TAMU is difficult to get into from OOS as they are obligated to admit a lot of Texans based on Texas’s higher education plan. However, they are probably the top engineering school that really targets National Merit Scholars. My son, an incoming freshman, is a National Merit Scholar from California. He applied to TAMU as a safety, but it’s looking more and more like his best bet in this very difficult application year where many schools discounted the value of test scores when they went test-optional (by Covid necessity).
About five percent of the student population is from OOS. Three percent of the total are National Merit Scholars. That’s a lot of NMSs, so a very large percentage of the OOS students are NMSs. So, apply by October 15 for the early engineering deadline (not a hard deadline but try to meet it) and you should be fine.
My son is looking at a total cost of attendance in the mid-teens with his TAMU scholarship awards that qualify him for the OOS tuition waiver. Purdue, Michigan, UCs do not have packages like that. Cost is a big issue for our family, so here we are.
I believe it’s a 3.5 GPA requirement to maintain the scholarship and a 3.75 for guaranteed entry to a major. For us, this means that my son will be strategic in his course selection and maybe stretch just a little less until he has several semesters under his belt.
He was accepted for Engineering Honors and the ECOS living community very quickly once he got around to doing those steps. I think it’s really important for him to be with other serious scholars in order to find his tribe among all those Texans! He quickly decided the Corps was not a fit for him.
Also be aware of the Brown Foundation Scholarships, which are selected from among the NMSs and make TAMU a free ride. My son was not invited to interview for this scholarship, perhaps because his application, the earliest deadline he had to meet, did not even have teacher recommendations. (They were not strictly required and since we were then – and still are – all Zoom school, his teachers kind of failed him on that one.) Not that I’m bitter about that!
Thanks for your comments, and congratulations to your son. I have heard about the GPA requirements for the NMF several times, but I never see it mentioned on TAMU websites. Maybe I am missing something? As a family, we have a definite budget for college. TAMU does not work unless D22 is a NMF. If so, then it is probably his top choice. We likely will start college applications as soon they open this summer, with a goal to complete all by mid-September. Originally, he was planning on applying to ten schools. His counselor was pushing him to apply to a couple of reach schools which I knew my son really did not want to attend. So, I talked to him and asked why would he invest the emotional work and effort into an application if he never intended to attend the school. He was relieved. All the counselor wanted was to pad the class acceptance list (I was not amused). So, we cut it down to six to seven.
