@realchk . not necessarily. .It depends on the AP courses and the school. Some schools have a rampant cheating problem in the AP courses.
Also, some AP classes are loaded with so much graded “busywork” and “extra credit” that the student comes out of the class with an “A”–but is it REALLY an A if they only got the A because of the graded homework (cough cough AP World History where you get grades for turning in handwritten notes!!) and the extra credit??? I don’t think so. I never had a class at A&M that gave grades for doing your reading and none of them offered “extra credit.” If that is how the kid is getting the “A” in the class then they are NOT prepared for college classes.
Some AP classes are well-known as “AP Lite” classes. So if you are top 10% but your transcript is loaded with AP Human Geo, APES, Stats (totally a useful and solid class, but still not considered as rigorous as calculus) and AP psych I think some might debate whether that is a kid who is really prepared for a rigorous program like engineering.
If you have a stellar GPA and are top 10% but a comparably lower ACT or SAT—some AOs do scratch their head and wonder why this stellar student can’t score a little better. Not saying it’s good or bad, but it may be a legit question.
I totally see the rationale for not auto accepting the top 10% into a rigorous program. It’s just hard to wait. I don’t know why it matters since it’s falling off the list anyway!
When my son visited with an engineering department advisor, she explained the reasoning for the engineering review. She said it had got to the point where engineering at A&M was filling up with auto-admits and a lot of those students did not have the math and science background to succeed and ended up changing majors or doing poorly. She said they were not even able to look at candidates from small, highly competitive high schools that did not rank because they were full. This year they will be able to look at each candidate’s entire portfolio and pick the best students for engineering instead of just top 10% auto admits from class rank at public high schools.
When did you apply: 8/30
When did you get your UIN: 8/30
When did you receive your admission decision: 9/20
Auto-admit? Academic Admit? Review Admit: Academic Admit
Major/College of Choice: Dwight Look COE Biomedical
Did you get in: 9/20 Admitted to University - Admitted General Engineering (Biomedical) 11/11
Honors program: still waiting on that
Class Rank: school does not rank
Old SAT: 2100; Math 700, Reading 740, Writing 660
@carachel2 - that means it’s still in review. My son’s changed out of review and now lists the major as Mechanical Engineering. Not sure I understand the mechanical engineering though, if she put Biomed as her 1st choice major. Hmm. I’d wait and see what pops up when she comes out of review.
When did you apply: 8/24
When did you get your UIN: 8/29
When did you receive your admission decision: 9/20
Auto-admit? Academic Admit? Review Admit: Auto Admit
Major/College of Choice: Dwight Look COE CHEN/ELEN
Did you get in: 9/20 Admitted to University - 11/11 Admitted to General Engineering (Chemical)
Honors program: Applied, waiting for decision
Class Rank: 11/411 (2.7%)
ACT composite: 31
SAT composite: 1360
@carachel2 The engineering review/mechanical engineering that you’re seeing means that you’re still under review. Once you are under review the first choice major, in your case biomedical engineering, changes to engineering review and then the second choice major is listed. For example, I applied for computer science as my first choice and electrical engineering as my second and I saw engineering review as my first and electrical engineering as my second before I was admitted to general engineering. I was under review for a little over a month. I was admitted to general engineering today and I received admission to the university overall on September 20th.
Still waiting here. Interesting that they have started the notification process early. I wonder if they will continue to engineering acceptances now on a rolling basis? Any clue as to what prompted this first wave of acceptances?
@TxSker —I don’t know. It certainly wasn’t stats only–top 2% and 34 ACT and a full senior load (AP physics, AP Calc BC and full IB schedule). The one thing lacking is no extensive summer engineering experiences and competitions. So maybe the holistic part of the equation will hold up in this process if they are looking for kids with depth of field specifically in engineering?
@carachel2 Same here. Academic admit, Full AP Schedule Calc BC, Physics C, ISM Mentoring program in engineering, 3 years of PLTW engineering classes, Eagle Scout, etc. I’m sure there is some reasoning and we just need to wait patiently. For all we know they could be going out alphabetically.
Anyone that was accepted is there a new letter in your My Communications > My Letters tab in AIS?
@TxSker —that’s interesting that he wasn’t taken in the first round. He seems to have ALL they are looking for in regards to the holistic part of the process with his engineering depth of field!!!
@carachel2 I’m not too worried. They could have released a small batch as a test of the process, they could be going in alpha order, who knows. I don’t think you should worry at all as well. Those stats are great.