@Jaceyk Don’t stress too much about ECs. It’s such a small part unless his ECs are crazy impressive. Most kids have a ton of them and unless you do them all 4 years and move up in the responsibility role, it won’t hurt him too bad. ECs/LOR and essays are all mixed together. But yes, increasing his ACT will definitely help.
@brl2000 LORs should come from someone that can attest to their abilities and character. Doesn’t hurt to know someone high up at TAMU either… just sayin,
@brl2000 Sorry to say, there are not any indicators for Auto/Academic admits for engineering decisions coming. The tabs are only for admittance to the university. The Engineering decisions just show up.
Now, for review ENGR applicants, I cannot recall if they get tabs before the decisions are released or if it all shows up at once. Not many review engineering applicants receive their decision before Dec 1, even though they applied by the Early Decision deadline, unless they are National Hispanic Scholars or NMC, NMSF, etc but out of academic admit rank.
@Thelma2 and @AggieMomhelp My son & I drafted a “resume” that outlined everything that he has done in school. It is in resume format with Skills (showcasing his qualities and character); Volunteer Experience; Organizations; Work Experience and Education (probably overkill). His Objective?? “To be an Aggie, Class of 2019” 
He has some tweaking to do and then will upload to Howdy tonight. 
@JaceyK He wants to be an Aggie, Class of 2023! NOT 2019- 2019 is his high school graduating class. 2023 is his Aggie graduating class.
@thelma2 that is what is on there LOL - I was typing fast and really meant 2023.
thanks @Thelma2 . I am an auto-admit in the engineering review wait and see mode so I just thought maybe there was a secret means of finding out a little earlier like the tabs thing. Thanks!
@thelma2 you beat me to it on the class of 2019. I was like “Nooooo” don’t submit! = )
@thelma2 and @aggiemomhelp Just wanted to let you know that the resume has been submitted (last night) - yes, it has Class of 2023. My daughter was upset that he didn’t elaborate more on the objective, but I think it’s fine to keep it simple since he is already doing more by adding the resume. But I do have a question - I think one of you mentioned that those not falling under the auto/academic admits, some may hear back as early as November. We are hoping that since he applied early (kind of sort of lol 9/29), he will hear back early. He retakes ACT on 10/27, and will probably do the residual first week of November (to double up - pray that one sticks to 30 or higher LOL). Do you have an idea of what kind of admits heard in November? Wondering if it’s because they applied in July when apps opened.
@jaceyk My son applied July 1st by noon. He was review admit. 28 ACT top 14% from here in Aggieland with a strong LOR from a higher up at TAMU. He heard in December wave (15th I think). His friend who was ranked top 20% and lower ACT score but a LOR from Board of Regents, heard in November. Most of his other friends found out in January with average scores (26-28) and top 25%. Not sure this helps, but that’s my first hand knowledge from last year.
@aggiemomhelp hmm…so you have to have LORs from higher up connections to hear back sooner than later. LOL. To reiterate, DS has 28 ACT, top 13% of class, good ECs, 18 hours dual credit & 3 AP courses, GPA ~3.5 UW, etc. Just no LORs 
I guess our best hope is he gets that 30 on ACT.
@JaceyK The review applicants that heard back last year on Nov 21 were top 15% and with strong SAT/ACT scores, some out of academic admit due to sub scores. That is not to say those were the only ones who received a decision but from the applicants on this site, those were the one’s who heard at that time.
For class 2021, review applicants didn’t hear until Dec 2 and then nothing til Mid February.
This is info I copied from an Admissions Officer on another forum about the admissions process. I have replaced the “we”, “our”, etc to be generic so as not to confuse me as an AO when I post it.
"There is absolutely no difference in the way the decisions are made for Blinn Team, Gateway or full admits for review applicants. A&M uses a holistic process for all of them. They look at class rank, test scores, extracurricular activities, essays, etc. Blinn Team and Gateway are just different forms of freshman admission.
The rank and test scores are viewed together, and they make up around 50% of the admission decision. The essays, personal achievement, etc. make up the other 50%. For a student that comes from a non-ranking high school, we use their GPA in relation to their school’s grading scale to assign a quartile ranking. Other than that, GPA is not even considered in the process.
When they look at the rank and test scores, they determine a projected GPA the applicant will earn at TAMU. They 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 they see what a student’s projected GPA is, they begin weighing all the other components".
@thelma2 Thank you for your response. I know I am driving y’all crazy - but I am going crazy!! LOL With one trying to transfer into A&M and another going for first time…aaaaahhhh!!! Does it help that he is 126 out of 941?
@JaceyK : Can’t your son still have LORs submitted by adults who know him well and can speak about his character, time management skills, work ethic, problem solving abilities, unique qualities, obstacles overcome, life lessons learned, resiliency, future goals, etc? The LORs don’t necessarily need to be from someone AT TAMU, those are great if you know someone, but that isn’t the only way.
Do you have any friends who were Aggies or at least were college graduates from somewhere who could write a positive LOR? Or an adult from one of his ECs or places where he has volunteered? A teacher of his, a neighbor, a tutor, someone from a local business that you frequent, a clergy person, his pediatrician, your pets’ veterinarian, or any educated adult who knows him and likes him and thinks that TAMU is where he belongs would be a great resource. Anyone who is currently working in his target major would also be a plus.
Please find LORs for him so that section isn’t blank. Anything positive is better than nothing at all. I would think that you would have until the deadline to submit those LORs.
I think that the wonderful LORs my youngest daughter received from two HS teachers, one Longhorn (English class Jr. year) and one Aggie (Chemistry class Jr. year) were positive factors in the TAMU reviewers offering my daughter the opportunity of Blinn-TEAM for Fall 2017. Her class rank was 53%. Yes, it is an extremely competitive HS, even with an unweighted gpa of 3.5, weighted gpa 4.7, she wasn’t in the Top HALF! Her SAT 1250/ACT 27, were average for admitted TAMU students, but her low class rank really made us worry that she would receive PSA or be denied admissions. A lot of students from her school received PSA or were denied, so possibly her LORs were one of the deciding factors in her offer. Blinn-TEAM was a wonderful opportunity for her and she has thrived in Aggieland!
Just make sure that the people whom you ask for LORs know of the deadline date and how to submit the LORs. Not sure if they all have to be uploaded into the application or if they can still be mailed like in previous years. That info is probably online and other forum members will have current info.
My thoughts are to not leave ANY portion of his application blank. Maximize his message that he wants to be an Aggie. Dot all of the "I"s and cross all of the "T"s. Just so that you don’t have to worry about “woulda, coulda, shoulda” if he doesn’t receive an admissions offer which allows him to be an Aggie in Aggieland.
Just my 2 cents worth. Good luck!
Has anyone heard if any engineering decisions have been made (National Merit Commended and above and Hispanic Scholars might hear early)?
My daughter is national merit and is still in engineering review. The National Merit Scholars campus visit on November 5 is for engineering majors only. So I guess students would have to know if they got accepted to engineering a couple of weeks before that in order to register?
My daughter has received her admission (auto admit), my question is, will LOR make a difference for the scholarship process?
@CamandCam , my son is Commended and we haven’t heard anything yet. Someone had posted earlier about last year Commended and above hearing early October. We’re looking every day!
@momosmom : I have no idea if the scholarship committee looks at the LORs. I have no idea what criteria they use. BUT just in case, why don’t y’all send in some? There is still time, right? Positive LORs from an educated adult couldn’t hurt her chances. See my previous post about suggestions for people to ask for LORs.
You could ask those people to specifically address why the scholarships are needed as well as including any other positive info about your child in their LORs.
My advice is always to do everything possible. Dot all of the "I"s and cross all of the "T"s and then you won’t have to worry about the “What if” situation.
Just my 2 cents.
My son is attending the ARC event, S.E.A.L. (Seniors Experiencing Aggie Life) November 9-11. I feel lucky to have known about it, and I did only because of the Class of 2022 thread!
Does anyone know someone or has him/herself had a child attend this event?
Just looking for some insight as to what to expect…
Thanks!
Hi, I’m hoping you guys can answer my question. My son is a review applicant to Mays with a 1340 SAT and a ranking of 124 out of 793, or 15.6%. He applied to Mays back in early September and we were thinking it would be a wait game until November at the earliest. We just checked his application and while it still states the following: “My App is Complete and in Review” he did notice that he has six tabs in his Howdy portal as follows: Home, Applicant, My Record, My Finances, Student Life and My Howdy. He only had three tabs yesterday.
Can you guys confirm for me that this is a good sign? I’m surprised that we would hear back so soon with him being a review applicant with Mays as his first choice major and economics as the second choice.