Just got home from Aggieland Saturday. Went to the Mays Business School presentation as well as the Corps Q&A. Here are interesting things I learned for next year:
1- Apply Texas Application for Texas A&M will go online July 1st rather than August 1, 2017.
2- If you want to be eligible for Corps and other school scholarships, you MUST complete Essay “C”
3- Mays Business school was full in early November 2016, so don’t delay in applying.
4- The school received about 6 thousand applications this year on December 1st. Most of those were not even considered because they were not “complete”. This means that by December first they must have your transcript, LOR, etc…not just your Application!
My S’s summer plans have now been slightly adjusted. All essays will be written by June 2017! Essay “C” will not be optional for him, per this mama.
One more thing – both my daughters got together with their school guidance counselor and registrar to make a plan to submit their final junior year transcript to Texas A&M prior to the start of their senior year. So, on August 1st, which sounds like July 1st now, they could have a completed package.
Ooh, great advice @NETarrantMom ! I will add “make arrangements with counselor & registrar to send transcript by end of junior year” to S’s to-do list! *-
You might want to check with your registrar & see when they re-calculate rank. Meaning… some kids drop from junior year to senior year due to not having enough units to graduate ( summer school required). At our school, they are all included in senior count for a couple of weeks, then gone for summer, back again at the start of senior year minus those who won’t get enough units to graduate who drop down to the junior class. Ask to find out how your child’s HS works for best rank - those kids pad the bottom of a class & increase your higher achieving kids ranks.
Ooh, great advice @AGmomx2 ! I never would have thought of that but it makes perfect sense now that you point it out. And, this is particularly useful advice for my S whose latest class rank is 25.6%. He needs to do better than five classmates to get back to being inside 25%. Kids who may drop back down to the junior class can definitely make a huge difference between being an auto-admit and a Review admit. His situation is unique in that he is zoned to the high school in our district that hosts the Academy of Science & technology. This means that all of the smartest and brightest students in our district get to go (and compete for class rank) with our kids even though they are not zoned to our school. We asked his aunt, who is a HS counselor to see what his ranking in her school would be, and he would be in the top 15%. It doesn’t seem fair, does it? Of course, he still has to bring up his SAT score up 30 points, but he retook it already in January and felt much better than his 1330 score of the Fall. We’ll find out February 23rd if he needs to take it a third time, or just try the ACT. They did say at Aggie Saturday that they do not care how many times a student takes the SAT or ACT. In my day, you could only take it three times and it wouldn’t count after that. Of course, who wants to take it that many times anyways?
On the flip side, you can increase your own rank with summer school courses that increase your overall units. A good friend of ours was a competitor for valedictorian at his HS & we were privy to all the drama as to how to increase your GPA to beat the other competitors. There are ways - if your son is that close, start researching options.
Alright @AGmomx2 ! I feel I owe ya some Margaritas already for all of this great advice! If my son gets in by auto-admit by using these strategies, name your watering hole of choice in CS. The first few rounds will be on me!
Take your time with the essays, and have a few teachers read and edit them for you. It is VERY important to apply early, but not necessarily July 1st. Take your time, it is better to take your time and create a quality application rather than to rush a poor one. Gig’em
Great advice on the transcript. We had to go up during the summer and luckily some of the staff was still there.
I would suggest taking the ACT as well. My boys did much better on the ACT than SAT. They were auto admits but the high test scores get the scholarships. It is amazing what a difference a point makes. One way my boys increased their GPA’s was by taking non-weighted high school courses at a junior college. At our school, speech communications was not offered as an honors course, so they took it at the college. It kept their GPA above a 100 and have one less course to take at A&M. Also look to see what courses they can test out of and which they can’t. While mine passed the AP test, it was suggested that they retake that class so they have a stronger base. (calc and phy) Each college will have a different course list that you need to consider. (If that makes sense)
We had a retired high school counselor come over to help my boys with their essays. She just talked to them about what a good topic would be for them and proofread what they had written. The college essays were also the first assignment in their English class. So the teacher also proofread the essays. I don’t know that you will need to apply by Aug. 1st but I would definitely have it in by mid Sept.
Anyone else on here already looking to start this process for next year? Part of me wants to get everything ready to submit on July 1st, but then I dread the wait… My son is hoping to apply for an ROTC scholarship. Any advice on that would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Make sure you end of Jr year transcript is certified with both semesters. We jumped the gun and ordered it too soon (and no one in office said a word) so what we sent only had the first semester. It was the portal for another college that tipped us off so we called. Had to order all new ones to send out. Whew! Find out what that date is for yours.
@Thelma2, Good point. My son’s high school could not even provide a final junior year transcript/class rank when the application process opened Aug. 1. Instead, students had to get in line to have their transcripts sent to colleges when school began in late August. I don’t know that high schools will amend or speed up their process, particularly over the summer, to meet earlier application deadlines. Students should also be asking their teachers/coaches for letters of recommendation now so that task can be completed by the time school finishes this spring as teachers won’t want to be asked for them over their summer break.
