@AggieMomAgain Thank you for taking all the time to help us make decisions. It is much appreciated. @AggieMomhelp and @Thelma2 have been great help all around!
@Bellaire2828 I promise you… and I pinky swear *this is how serious I am… she will not know the difference when she’s here. Rellis campus is just off site. It will not feel like a CC except core classes won’t be jam packed and she can find a seat. TAMU has great shuttles back and forth. It’s truly not an issue and she will find Blinn classes are no joke, just easier to manage because they’re smaller. She’ll be challenged and she will grow. AND she is an Aggie!!!
At my daughter’s NSC in 2017, the Blinn-TEAM advisor said that the students selected to receive a Blinn-TEAM offer ARE VERY MUCH WANTED! TAMU is required by TX law to take all of the Top 10% from every school, not all of them are prepared for the rigor of TAMU. The students selected for Blinn-TEAM have been selected BECAUSE they are highly qualified, very well prepared and are expected to THRIVE at TAMU.
The ONLY guaranteed full TAMU admits are the Top 10% from every TX HS and the extremely qualified Academic Admits. Everyone else has to suffer through the review process.
It is simply a space issue. The state of Texas is huge, there are many more thousands of highly qualified students in the state of TX than there are seats in the Freshman class at TAMU. And those OOS schools who are handing out $$, they want the highly qualified students from TX because there are not enough highly qualified, well prepared students in their OWN state to fill all of their Freshman seats.
And the students who go to college out of state often settle out of state. So then their children and their tax dollars don’t come home to TX.
Our daughter graduated in the 53% of an extremely competitive suburban 6A HS with 3.5 unweighted gpa and a 4.7 weighted gpa, 1250 SAT and 27 ACT. She didn’t take any SAT/ACT prep. She is our last child, but if I had younger children, I would definitely have them take test prep to boost those scores. The average SAT at her school, which is also what she scored, is considerably higher than the next ranked school in this ISD. I don’t think I would play the game of sending my children to one of the lower ranked HS in the district like many have as I attended an abysmal HS in another state and wasn’t prepared for the rigor of my University way back in my day. My daughter was well prepared and has thrived in Aggieland.
We are very grateful for whatever it was in my younger daughter’s application which earned her the Blinn-TEAM offer. There are a lot of people who don’t even receive a Blinn-TEAM offer.
Please go take a tour of TAMU and the Rellis facility and go on a school day so you can talk with Blinn-TEAM advisors so that you have all of the current info before you make a decision which will shape the rest of her life.
@Bellaire2828 If you haven’t already, I would suggest taking a campus tour prior to making a final decision. We just completed the campus tour at College Station yesterday and passed the Rellis campus on the way back home. For big city kids, A&M is already in the middle of nowhere; Rellis even more so. I’m sorry to disagree with others here but there’s no way your student wouldn’t notice. It’s not just off campus. For me, that would imply you could at least see the upper deck of Kyle Field. Umm… no. It’s a haul to Rellis.
My daughter’s application is still in review admit, but after reading the fine print as well as some of the other comments, she has already decided there is no way she will take a Blinn Team offer. She will take the OOS full admission that comes with money instead. But keep in mind no one in her family has attended A&M, nor are we Texas natives. Her closest friends are not attending A&M and she’s far from a die hard Aggie. Her intentions are to continue on to medical school so of course she wants A&M for the reputation and rank. A non-committal offer such as Blinn just isn’t worth it for her.
@NotanAggie: Good luck to your daughter. Saving $$ on an undergrad degree to go toward Med school is a good plan. I hope she gets into her preferred Med School.
Sorry that Rellis isn’t close enough for you to see Kyle Field, but 20 minutes away isn’t all that far for some people.
Having the Blinn-TEAM students taking 3 classes at Rellis with other Blinn-TEAM or Aggie profs in smaller classes with other Blinn-TEAM students and taking 2 classes on the TAMU campus works for a lot of people. My current Sophomore was the last Freshman Blinn-TEAM class to take classes on the Blinn-Bryan campus and it wasn’t a big deal to her, even though her classes were mixed with BlinnCC students and 15 minutes from the TAMU campus. The trade off was getting to live the Aggie life in Aggieland and eventually earning a TAMU degree and Aggie gold ring.
Our daughter is also a big city kid, or at least from a suburb of a big city, not from Podunk, TX. The campus of TAMU is around 5,0000 acres, the number of enrolled students is around 60,000. A lot bigger than most Universities in other states. But still the friendliest college campus and college town that I have ever seen.
And who knows, your daughter might receive one of the “golden ticket” full admit offers if there are any left. Fingers crossed.
Thank you @NotanAggie and @AggieMomAgain , I appreciate all of the info and varying views. My next question was going to be how far away Rellis is-so right on cue! Her dad is an Aggie so she’s familiar with CSTAT but might be upset about the difference from the main campus. Thank y’all again. I’ll update when we have a decision. Notanaggie-good luck to your D and I hope she gets a full admit-let us know.
@Bellaire2828 Google maps puts it at 10.7 miles and 26 minutes driving time from Kyle Field.
I wish your D all the best! My husband and I would love our kids to attend our alma mater, but OOS tuition and no merit enticement means that won’t happen. We love our school, just not enough to pay double for it. lol
It can sometimes take a while just to walk across the TAMU campus, or drive from point A to point B anywhere in CStat. But it is still a lot less time and distance than the commute time across any of the big cities where these students may eventually live and work.
Add up the drive time to Rellis for 2 or 3 days a week for maximum 2 years, (maybe less) and is that enough to trade away living the Aggie life in Aggieland? And factor in the travel time to and from home to any OOS school. There might be a lot less total commute time with the Blinn-TEAM offer.
Neither of my daughters lived on campus, but from the experiences of their friends who did live on campus as Freshman, most did not live on campus after that first year. My daughter said that it took her 15 minutes to drive to one of her friends house, and they all live nearish to campus.
There are a lot of Universities which have smaller campuses or are in even smaller towns. Or they are smack in the middle of a big urban area. Some Universities require all freshman to live on campus. Maybe one of those situations works better for those of y’all who are unsure of the Blinn-TEAM offer.
And living the Aggie life in Aggieland doesn’t work for everyone. I know of a family whose son decided at FISH CAMP that he didn’t want to be an Aggie, and he had always thought that was what he wanted. But he didn’t have any real Aggie experience as neither parent was an Aggie, so FISH Camp was more than he could absorb. He headed OOS and that worked for him.
Go with whatever works best for y’all. Good luck.
Thanks for the update @AggieMomAgain. It’s nice to hear that your daughter had a great Blinn TEAM year and will continue with the program next year. My son will be taking his Blinn courses at the RELLIS Campus and I will try to remember to come back here to post about his experience. ink it will
Oh my sorry about the post above. It was a draft from last year and I accidentally just posted it.
Anyway, I guess I should go ahead and provide an update for my son. He was accepted in Blinn Team last year and frankly he was lucky to get that offer. He lives on campus in a modular on Northside. Takes 3 classes at Rellis and two on the main campus. He is doing great (rocked a 3.5 his first semester)! It has been an awesome experience for him and we’ve saved money to boot since the Blinn tuition is cheaper than A&M.
Bottom line, if a student really, really wants to be an Aggie they will accept Blinn Team in a heartbeat! I know my son did and does not regret it one bit!
Sorry, quick correction, meant to say he takes 2 classes 3 days a week at Rellis and 2 classes two days a week in the main campus.
@grumpydad Congrats on your son being selected for TEAM. My daughter was as well. With that, I hope you are taking this opportunity to correct your son on his impression of community colleges. As others have said there are all levels of instruction at all upper level schools. Community colleges do not provide a lower level of instruction. As a former student of a community college I can say with complete confidence that it is frequently the exact opposite. It was a wonderful stepping stone in my educational path. Encourage your son and remind yourself to value education at all levels. I am by no means looking to spark a debate but rather send a PSA of the value of community colleges. Students will get out of all classes what they put into it.
UPDATE:
I just wanted to update this thread. My daughter successfully completed 2 years on Blinn-TEAM and is now a registered TAMU Junior! She is on target to graduate from TAMU in the Spring of 2021. We are SO PROUD of her!!
Her gpa is a 3.75 for both TAMU classes and Blinn classes. 
She was the last class to take her Blinn-TEAM classes at the Blinn-Bryan campus. I think that about 2,000+ students were offered Blinn-TEAM for her entering year (2017) and 1,054 students accepted Blinn-TEAM, if I remember the info posted online. I hope that all 1,054 have successfully arrived as full Aggies.
She is now an Aggie English Major with a Philosophy Minor and has plans to continue on to grad school after graduation.
Blinn-TEAM turned out extremely well for her. She was able to juggle classes at both campuses by having classes MWF at one and T/Th at the other. She participated in a TAMU activity group during her Freshman year, as well as she went through Sorority recruitment (and joined her first choice house) as an incoming Freshman.
My daughter has found a great group of friends in her Sorority sisters, including the PERFECT “Little”, plus other friends and a very nice, very sweet, very smart Aggie boyfriend. I am so proud of her for having great time management skills and juggling classes and studying along with Sorority functions, a great boyfriend and everything that goes with navigating the first years of college. She has LOVED living the AGGIELIFE in AGGIELAND!
She lived in The Rise as a Freshman, in her Sorority house as a Sophomore and will live in an off campus house with 3 other Sorority sisters next year. Please read my previous posts for more info on her Blinn-TEAM journey.
I hope that all of your students also have a wonderful experience with Blinn-TEAM. It is a fantastic program which has become even more valued as the number of applications to TAMU has risen.
AggieMomAgain, congrats to your daughter!. I would like to add that my son by the smallest of margins (I would say) was also accepted into the Blinn TEAB program (Engineering) this past year. I agree, the program was excellent for my son. He managed attending both A&M and Rellis without a problem (Just plan well!). I am happy to say he finished his 1st year at A&M with a 4.0 at both schools. He applied for his Entry to Major and will get his 1st choice major, Aerospace. The program is very doable, and we think an excellent avenue to get to A&M full time. It can be done! Best of luck to all future Blinn Team/TEAB students.
@Maverik : CONGRATS on your son earning A DOUBLE 4.0 on Blinn-TEAB!! That is awesome! So glad that he is getting his first choice Aerospace Engineering Major after one year on Blinn-TEAB!!
Great to hear of more success stories! I hope that the Texas wide public perception of Blinn-TEAM and Blinn-TEAB gets aligned with how awesome these programs really are, these are not watered-down Community College programs, these programs are for students who are expected to THRIVE as Aggies! There just isn’t enough room on campus. So VERY glad that these programs exist.
Last year my daughter said that it was “THE. BEST. YEAR. EVER!!” I asked her this year how she viewed her Sophomore year and she said it was 'AWESOME" and at the same time it was “CHILL” and she was very content with her life.
Her Freshman year was full of meeting new people and experiencing things for the first time. She said that she went to a lot of things on and off campus just to have the experience and not miss out on anything. LOL Her Sophomore year was more chill as she already had formed a strong group of friends, and enjoyed time just hanging out with friends instead of always going out to do something. Glad that it worked out that way for her.
Our (adulting) children are lucky to be living the AGGIE LIFE in AGGIELAND!
Congrats to your daughter @AggieMomAgain. She worked hard for that achievement.
UPDATE:
I just wanted to update this thread.
Fall Semester 2019 grades are in and my daughter earned a 4.0 for her first “all TAMU” semester!! She is a Junior, having finished 2 years of Blinn-TEAM. I am SO VERY proud of her!! For this semester, she had 16 hours, which were 4 very tough, heavy writing required classes (English and Philosophy) and also began the required 2 years of required Foreign Language.
I was blown away in October when she casually mentioned that she had several papers due in the same week and one was required to be 12 pages!!! I don’t know how the profs even have time to read and grade a class full of 12 page papers! She has some great profs and has developed great relationships with several.
The language class is the same one that she took in HS as Soph/Junior but she said that this TAMU class covered basically all 2 years of HS work in about 6 weeks! And since it has been 3 years since she took that language, it wasn’t really an “easy A”, but she is enjoying the class and hopes to use this language when she travels after collage.
She says she is disciplined when setting up study times and preparing for projects and papers, and enjoys participating in events with her sorority and has a great relationship with a very sweet, very smart Aggie boyfriend. I am so in awe of her ability to juggle everything: school/sorority/boyfriend/cooking/laundry/living with roommates/etc.
She is planning on grad school and is determined to graduate with a great gpa. Her boyfriend is eaqually driven. He is a Senior in a Science major and is headed for grad school, and so they encourage and support each other.
I am so very grateful to the TAMU Admissions office who took the chance on her and offered her Blinn-TEAM despite her 3Q HS class rank, (53%). My daughter has thrived at TAMU.
I hope that her Blinn-TEAM experience is encouraging to anyone out there who may not be an automatic or academic admit to TAMU.
Gig 'em and God Bless!
That is awesome to hear! Thanks for sharing!
Love this! Your daughter sounds amazing, Thank you for the update!
We will be thrilled if our S21 gets a Blinn Team offer. Now that they are doing away with Academic Admit (which he would have qualified for), we’re nervous about what next year’s cycle will mean for those not in the top 10% and will be holistic review.
@Momof3B i still think those that are old academic admits will get the acceptance assuming they did more than breathe through high school. I think it will just open up more spaces for those not as academically Test taking gifted to shine and get some offers as well. No worries momma.