@JaceyK Are you anywhere near College Station or can you take a road trip? TAMU offers an ACT on site that is just for their University. Have your son do some studying in his weak areas and retake it. Here is a link to all of the info.
@CamandCam and @Mojo1995 with both of yâall (and perhaps others, I have havenât gone back to look) both being engineering and both still with three tabs, and auto admits, and since everyone undergoes holistic review, I bet your students apps are âin a different stackâ so to speak- You will both still be offered admissions to the university and since we are still a few days away from the window of past release dates, you will get tabs or your decisions may show up before the tabs. I wouldnât worry about it. All auto/academics will be admitted to A&M and it if isnât that exact release day, it will be shortly. Looking back at last yearâs engineering stats I kept, there was only one person who applied in July who did not receive uni admission until mid Oct, academic admit, US citizen living in India.
@Thelma2 Thank you for putting the engineer/auto admits at ease! Checking every day!
@Thelma2 Does A&M superscore? I thought they didnât? Maybe Iâm wrong. I spoke to son about this - he is thinking about it. We are over an hour away, so not too bad.
@JaceyK, has your son ever considered also taking the SAT? There is a test on Oct 7 and the results are usually available within 2 weeks. My son does not do well in ACT but does well in SAT (he is academic admit). So worth also checking this optionâŠ
@JaceyK TAMU does not super score. On their admission requirements, they specifically state âYour highest total score from a single test date will be considered for admission.â
@gingytx He did take SAT - he does better on ACT, and he likes the format better. 
@JaceyK As gingytx mentioned, they do not superscore BUT if you take it here (I live here, so was definitely easier on my son to do this), they round up. So say her gets a 28.25 that would be a 29 by TAMU standards but only at 28 by ACT standards. AND he gets the score back the next day (usually). IT also shows his high interest in TAMU which is never a bad thing. A friend of mine only got a 24 taking it at TAMU, top 12% and was admitted 2 days after her score posted by TAMU. IF he does this, let him know he cannot write on the test. This through my son off a bit in english.
Side note⊠going up 2 points is very hard. You have to improve on each subject to go up. If his english went down, then he must have kicked butt on something else. Just saying, 2 points is great. And a 28 with his ranking will probably get him in based on years past.
@AggieMomhelp , how do you register to take the ACT on campus? Is it through the ACT board website or through TAMU? Is it offered only once a year or more times? This is intriguing to me for my son who is sophomore in high school this year. He hasnât taken the ACT yet.
@TXRunningMom (979) 845-0532 an earlier post gave a link and this number to call to arrange a time at tamu. It is $120
Yes, His transcript has class rank and class size. Will wait and see.
Thanks for your response.
The Residual ACT is at any time you schedule through TAMU only, not through the site. @Eggscapgoats thanks for the info! I knew it was somewhere but couldnât remember!
Re: Residual ACT - I just called - 9 a.m. test Monday through Friday; no testing in October, starts back up in November. We would have to take a day off for this, so we need to discuss this before we do it. $120 plus one PTO day plus school day plus gas - just to see if he can get his score 2 pts higher - worth it? I donât know - LOL
@JaceyK: Wow, your son is soooo close to Academic Admit. He has the class rank in the Top 25%, which is something that canât be changed. He has increased his ACT score by 2 points already and could possibly increase it to the Academic Admit threshold. You have to weigh the cost in $ and time and effort and see which is best for yâall. I can tell you that the period of waiting for a Review Admit offer is very stressful on the child and parents. Iâve been through this twice.
My oldest daughter was HS class of 2012. She was in 27% of HS rank but had the SAT/ACT score for Academic Admit for that year (it has gone up since then). She got her offer of full TAMU Admission in Feb. 2012. She turned in her application in mid Oct 2011. The wait until Feb was very stressful and although she had a lot going on with her Senior year and ECâs, she has said that the stress of waiting affected her and that she would have enjoyed her Senior year more if she had heard earlier.
My younger daughter was HS class of 2017, with 3.5 unweighted gpa/ high 4âs weighted gpa, a 53% HS rank, SAT 1250 and ACT 27 (Math is not her strong point). We did not know about the possibility of taking the ACT at TAMU, we may have had her take it. She took an official TAMU campus tour, had a meeting with an adviser and sat in on a class during a regular class day in mid Sept. 2016. She turned in her application on the Sunday of Thanksgiving '16. After months of agonizing waiting, checking online many many times a day, she received her offer of TAMU Blinn-TEAM on Feb. 14, 2017. She was initially disappointed to receive the Blinn-TEAM offer and that was very stressful too for a while, but Blinn-TEAM has turned out well for her.
I do wonder now that if she had taken the ACT at TAMU, could she have increased her score and possibly received an offer of full admission? I know that the waiting was very stressful on her, but with her class rank, she was going to always be a Review Admit. She had a level 2 concussion in the 8th grade, missed 2 months of school, had to drop out of Algebra I that year, so was behind in the Math sequence. She was still having headaches, fatigue, and issues with focusing for at least the first few years of HS and had a difficult time with Math and Science.
The irony is that she initially wanted to be an English Major. Her SAT English score qualified her for English Honors BUT it was required that she be in the Top 25% of her class. No exceptions, no consideration for her gpa and test scores. ;/ So she was penalized for having high performing cohorts, not judged on her own merit.
These are the things I would consider if we were in your place:
- How hard was it for him to raise his score by 2 points already?
- Does he want to go through that process again?
- Does he have time to identify weaknesses and improve score (Khan Academy online is supposed to be good).
- Which will be more stressful, preparing for and taking the retest or waiting as a Review Applicant (could be Feb or March or later to receive his offer).
- Which will affect his Senior year more, retaking the test or waiting as a Review applicant?
- Can you afford the time off from work and the cost of the test/travel/ overnight hotel room, etc?.
- Most schools allow an excused absence for an official college campus visit. Can you plan the day off so that it has minimal effect upon tests, etc? (But my daughterâs EC gave her some flack about missing and event even though the HS had the day off anyway!)
- If you decide to do this, will it still be worth your time and effort and money if he doesnât raise his score?
Good luck, keep us posted on what you decide and the eventual outcome.
@JaceyK there is also a national ACT test on Oct 27 and their site says scores will be available as early as Nov 13. That is also an option, and if he makes it, that will secure his academic admit status by end of Nov.
@gingytx is that not pushing it? If he submits his application before then and then the scores come in November (as you suggest - there is possibility they will be delayed - happened to us first time he took it - 6 weeks we waited lol), is that not too late by the time they review? I will present this option to him too. I think he would rather have time but at the same time, he is also taking AP Chem & AP Stat so he may not even have the time to dedicate to studying. I donât knowâŠwill let this ball be in his court.
- How hard was it for him to raise his score by 2 points already? I paid for tutoring where he met with them online once a week all summerâŠalso included books/materials
- Does he want to go through that process again? He isnât opposed to (just said âthats a thoughtâ lol)
- Does he have time to identify weaknesses and improve score (Khan Academy online is supposed to be good). I donât know - I have asked him that.
- Which will be more stressful, preparing for and taking the retest or waiting as a Review Applicant (could be Feb or March or later to receive his offer). Will ask him that tonight.
- Which will affect his Senior year more, retaking the test or waiting as a Review applicant? Again, will ask him that tonight.
- Can you afford the time off from work and the cost of the test/travel/ overnight hotel room, etc?. Yes.
- Most schools allow an excused absence for an official college campus visit. Can you plan the day off so that it has minimal effect upon tests, etc? (But my daughterâs EC gave her some flack about missing and event even though the HS had the day off anyway!) I will see if A&M will give the same excuse letter that they give for visits - we are scheduled to visit them already on 10/5 but our schools are closed so we donât need a letter then.
- If you decide to do this, will it still be worth your time and effort and money if he doesnât raise his score? That was my question. Guess it boils down to how much either option will stress him out.
Just saw a transfer student posted her ais updated to accepted. Hopefully weâll all get acceptance soon!
For those that are seeing changes, are the updates occurring during normal business hours only, or are you seeing any early and/or late in the day?
After readily through the transfer topic I noticed them saying that they had an email along with library on howdy? Does anyone have email? My daughter does not. She has had six tabs almost immediately after submitting her application.