@Kuehne410 do you go to a college prep? small school? Have a reason for your low ranking ( medical issue, transfer, emotional issues, etc,)? Your opportunity to write about that was within your essay, if you had a life event that affected your performance you would be wise to notify admissions. If you haven’t done 2 rec letters, that might be another opportunity to slide it in. Now, if it is ‘did not apply myself’ or ‘didn’t take things seriously early on’ type of thing, you’ll just have to hope for the best. Should you get offered Blinn Team, you can also apply to transfer in early ( as a transfer vs. BT) once you complete the minimum requirements, some business majors transfer after the first year that way. Mays is competitive for admission as a transfer, but should you get offered the BT route you can always stay the course & continue with BT if an early transfer doesn’t work out.
If u get into business honors, does it show up in the howdy portal?
This has been a very helpful website. My son received a letter regarding filling in an out of state scholarship declaration form after they received his FAFSA. When I went into HOWDY to access the document, he had 6 tabs. From the discussion I knew that was a great thing to see! He received his acceptance to Galveston (which is his primary choice due to his major choice and the Maritime Academy.) He is one happy Pennsylvania boy! His AIS was actually current to for Galveston… It showed “A decision was mailed 12/18/17. With a grey tab that said “Next Steps””. Haven’t heard from College Station though.
@AGmomx2
I didn’t explicitly say that it was a part of me being third quarter, but my essays were mostly about split parents and moving schools from San Antonio to Dallas in the middle of my sophomore year.
How exactly would I apply to Mays early? Would that benefit me rather than “staying the course” with the BT route? What is the other option if I don’t apply after one year?
Sounds like you covered your bases in your essay as the the why you’re rank is low for a high stat performing student. (even if you didn’t intend to).
Applying early is exactly the same as a transfer student. Go to tamu.edu and see the requirements for transfers (course-wise) if you have those courses completed you can apply as a transfer - you will be in the same group as any other student attending another CC or university that applies for a transfer (no advantage for BT).
You can go to tamu.edu to see the Blinn Team requirements for transfer and the timeline.
Did you submit a recommendation letter? If not, you might want to add one to your file that also mentions your family situation and your potential. Rec letters can come from anyone & you can give them guidance as to the purpose of your letter request, give them your resume or any other information they may need. Good luck!
How long after you were admitted via AIS and email did you receive your acceptance letter via postall mail?
@JenniferAggie91 No telling with the holidays. Hopefully this week so they can take pics with the banner!!!
@Aghelp4FutureAgs Hope so too! We are going to NYC for Christmas and always get great family pictures there so I I was waiting until after the trip to send our Christmas/NY Cards anyway, but REALLY wanted to include one of my 2 kids with their banners on the back 
My son has applied to Texas A&M. His SAT score is 1390 and he just barely didn’t make the top 25%. His highschool is extremely competitive and is nationally ranked. Does Texas A&M look at the highschool the kids come from? It doesn’t seem fair that a GPA from a competitive highschool is compared to a GPA from a school that isn’t as competitive. I’m hoping this will help him with admissions.
@Gmanmom123 I’ve talked a lot about this exact question with Admissions. If your school ranks and he is outside the top 25% then he will have to go to holistic review. 50% of his score on holistic review will be academic related. Things that will be on his side are the 1390 and the school profile (if it is a challenging school). They will also look at his rigor, grades and the fact that he’s close to 25%. Remember, a lot of kids in holistic review are closer to top 11%, but then again some are below yours too. But all of what I just said is only 50% of the holistic review. The other half is essays, resume and recommendations. If there’s more that you can send to enhance that part of your file, then I would call admissions and ask if you can supplement still. Good luck.
@GManmom123 An admissions officer on another forum gave this information.
“When we look at the rank and test scores, we determine a projected GPA here at TAMU. We use algorithms to combine a student’s rank and test scores and it produces 2.9, 3.0, 3.1, so on and so forth. Once we see what a student’s projected GPA is, we begin weighing all the other components”.
A&M does not consider the competitiveness of a high school for admissions. This is what the Admissions Officer stated about A&M stance behind it.
"Think of it like this; if a student is performing averagely in a somewhat more competitive environment than, say, hypothetically, if they attended another school, what makes that student or their families think they could compete in an exceptionally more competitive environment at X University? What your question, and it is something I heard thousands of times, is that “if only they went to a worse high school, they would blow all of those other kids out of the water” as if it were a simple replacement.
Related, why should X University take an average student from a good school when we have many, many exceptional students competing at high levels in competitive high schools?
In a resource rich environment, that student has access, presumably, to substantially more things than their peers “across the street” (extracurriculars, small class ratios, college advising, community outreach, field trips, better academics, newer books, veteran teachers, etc etc). If you take that student and put them in a resource poor environment, the outcomes would be unpredictable.
To answer directly, we do not look at competitiveness of high school when making a decision. We want to see how that student has competed against those within their own environment and how they have utilized those tools and resources to the best of their ability. Comparing schools is comparing apples and turkeys. The only similarity is that they are both food, and it ends there.
One reason I think standardized tests have a possible benefit is in a college’s ability to make a comparison of how a student competes on a national level. This is a much more reliable indicator than some hypothetical “well my son/daughter goes to this school that is SO COMPETITIVE, they would do SO MUCH better if they went to THAT OTHER SCHOOL.” There is no way to know that".
@Thelma2 Thanks for the information! Can’t say I totally agree with A&M’s stance, but it is what it is. He has taken AP classes and Dual Credit courses, so he would be entering with 25 college credits. He did well in all of them. I’m hoping they look at that, too. He wishes he took easier classes so that his gpa was higher. Right now he has a 3.7 gpa and is in the second quarter. His SAT score is 1390 (perfect score in math). He played football, basketball, track and worked part time plus community hours. We are hoping this is enough to get him into the Engineering program. I guess we’ll just wait and see. Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. Happy holidays!
@Thelma2 thanks for posting the admission’s response to the competitive high school question!
On the subject of using rank and test scores to indicate a student’s readiness for college, I HEARTILY AGREE that comparing schools is like comparing apples to turkeys (both are foods) and not apples to apples, as not all schools are equal, unfortunately. But my issue is that a gpa at one school is not the same as it would be at another school. A 3.5 at some schools in this same district would mean a top 10% ranking but at my daughter’s school, a 3.5 unweighted was 53%.
from @Thelma2, her post #610, info from TAMU admissions: “When we look at the rank and test scores, we determine a projected GPA here at TAMU. We use algorithms to combine a student’s rank and test scores and it produces 2.9, 3.0, 3.1, so on and so forth. Once we see what a student’s projected GPA is, we begin weighing all the other components”.
A&M does not consider the competitiveness of a high school for admissions. This is what the Admissions Officer stated about A&M stance behind it."
A student has control over the grades and standardized test scores that they earn. They do not have control over the grades that their cohorts earn, ie: their class rank. If the majority of the class are high performing students, then there will be a high number of As and Bs and it will be much harder to have a high class rank. I think that HS gpa should be considered in the equation to determine the projected TAMU gpa. There can only be a finite number in the top 10% but there could be quite a lot of students with a gpa between 3.0 and 4.0.
I agree that the scores on standardized tests are an indicator of college preparedness as this is an “apples to apples” comparison across the nation. Yes, many students take SAT/ACT prep classes to improve their scores, but since a lot of that prep is now available at no cost, everyone can prep if they choose. Some of my daughters friends took test prep classes. Neither of my daughters prepped beyond a practice test online shortly before taking the test. And their scores were at or above the average for both their HS and TAMU incoming Freshman.
When one school (ours) has more than half of the NMSF for the entire school district each year, the entire student body at that school (those apples) is obviously higher performing than the students at the other schools in the district. There are 30 to 40+ NMSF at our neighborhood school each year, which is usually around half or more of the total number for the entire district. It is a public neighborhood zoned school, not an application only school. For 2018, the next “competitive” school has half the number of NMSF as our school, one school has one quarter of the number of NMSF as our school and the rest of the schools have 3 or less or zero NMSF. That means 3 schools in our district regularly have about 3/4 of the total NMSF for the district. And usually about 3 schools have zero NMSF. Definitely not apples to apples even in the same school district.
There is no way that the schools with lower number of NMSF in our district have students with a 3.5 gpa who are in the 53% class rank and have an SAT/ACT score that is in the median range for incoming Freshman at TAMU. Comparing class rank without taking gpa into account for all schools even in the same district is not comparing apples to apples and it penalizes students at the more competitive schools.
This school is a very competitive school but it prepares students for the rigor of college. The teachers are pretty good, (some are FANTASTIC and some are most definitely NOT fantastic), there are no fights or reoccurring discipline problems. But I do know of people who don’t send their child to this school even though they are zoned here just because they don’t think that their child will rank well here.
One of my daughter’s Freshman TAMU friends who was the Valedictorian at her HS (in a different part of TX) was in danger of failing a course this past Semester and was overwhelmed at the rigor of TAMU classes. She needed a very high B on the final just to pass that course.
Just my 2 cents.
@GManmom123 my son has very similar stats 28% and 1430 SAT and we are still waiting. I wish the SAT carried more sway.
Class rank should count for more if average sat at that school is above 1300. Common sense. I know some are worse test takers, but I am talking averages.
Is anyone having trouble with portal. Wondering if they are automatically updating or anything. My son’s has nothing on it at the moment.
I already got accepted but now its saying I cannot access the portal?
I think they updated the system so it might not work if you have AIS bookmarked. I logged into the portal by googling “TAMU AIS” and it worked.
I think the Howdy must be down for maintenance or something. My son was going to download a form on the portal and nothing came up on Howdy (almost a blank page) when he signed on, so a slight momentary panic set in, but he told me to go check the forum I have mentioned to him to see if others were having problems… and I noticed on another page others have said the same. So all should be well.