@aggiedreamin awesome. Love the little fire pit areas. And yes, from there you can hit all of those restaurants and shops and dessert places PLUS a really nice movie theater without driving!!!
just found that has been admitted to engineering cs. It was so fast!
Hi, there. Iâve been reading this thread for a long time and never commented until now. I am very appreciative for everyoneâs information; however, I have to reply to the post about Baylor being easier to get into than TAMU. I completely, whole-heartedly disagree. I have a different perspective, perhaps, since my son is out of state (although a TX resident since we own property there and will retire in state as our home of record from the military) and getting an acceptance from TAMU is certainly not the end-all to future happiness. Although my son is 3/550 in his class, attends a specialty center high school for engineering, has a weighted 4.6 GPA with an incredible resume of great ECA, sports, volunteer hours, working, NHS, etc. he wasnât a top 10% admit since they obviously consider him out of state since thatâs where heâll graduate from here. He missed the automatic admit by 1 point; his high school doesnât rank since itâs already an advanced diploma with a governorâs seal, so he was placed in the first quartile for admission purposes. None of these things define himâhe is already a huge success in setting and achieving goals. He applied early action to 4 very different schools: Tarleton, A&M, Baylor, and Trinity. He has acceptances from Baylor and Tarleton and is waiting for the other two before he can make a proper decision. BUT . . .Baylor has identified his strengths from the very beginning, and cost aside of course, has been there every step of the way. He would make a fabulous addition to their campus and receiving his acceptance in the summer from Tarleton and in October from Baylor has shocked him since no one here in VA has even submitted applications quite yet in his circle of friends. Yes, itâs a money-making business venture like all things, but in my heart of hearts, I can feel the love that Baylor has provided every single step of the way. With TAMU, you feel like youâre clawing to get a space and need to feel forever indebted to them for âallowingâ you to enter the scared circle. Itâs quite strange from the outside looking in, and Iâm here to tell the mom who thought Baylor might be a reach to remember that they saw something unique and wonderful about your child to offer a spotâa mutually beneficial relationship. Of course, the bill will come and we parents and students have to be able to pay for it, so I completely understand the financial end to this as well. After all of my research, I would have to say that the admission rate of 39% at Baylor still holds an admirable spot on the list of great accomplishments for admittance and just might offer a large enough financial aid package for your child to attend. Good luck!
@GermanMama Thank you so much for your comment. My son had some very particular requirements when it came to applying to schools. He has pros/and cons listed for each. As an avid sports fan, he wants to attend a school that is rich in tradition and has a sports following that he can pass down to his children (these are his words). He wants academic rigor and a network that will benefit him when it comes to starting his career. Texas A&M obviously has all of those categories âchecked offâ, but so do many other schools. Our hope is that he is able to sit down in the Spring and look at his acceptances (heâll have 5-6), their financial aid offerings, and prayerfully consider where God is leading him.
Baylor and A&M are completely different schools and feel. Iâve had friends attend both and now I have friends with kids at each. Both are great schools.
A ton goes into admission decisions - but I am about the stats @GermanMama . And I do think statistics support that you are more likely to be accepted to Baylor if you are not in the Top 10%. Baylorâs Average SAT is 1279 (1120-1310 range) and ACT of 28 (26-30). A&Mâs average SAT is 1336 and ACT of 29. This is for students coming out of my daughterâs high performing in state HS. If you look at the national numbers Baylorâs SAT ave drops to 1215 and the ACT stays the same.
Baylor doesnât offer the program my daughter wants, so she isnât applying there. But her scores are on the bubble where she almost certainly would be admitted to Baylor. But she is looking at probably a 74% chance of A&M. She has already been admitted to UT Dallas (Where the average SAT from her school is 1325 and ACT 29).
@BlueBayouAZ where are you getting your avg stats because A&M avg seems high unless you are looking at Engineering specifically? The information I have seen shows A&M with SAT avg at 1280 and ACT avg 27.
I am not an expert but would like to know that source so I can look it up. Thanks!
@laxmom2000 keep God first and all will fall in place, Best Regards!
@AggieDreamin Those stats are specific to kids that applied from my daughterâs high school in 2018, taken from Naviance. Itâs a high performing high school in a high performing district. She is NHS/3.76 GPA/AP Scholar with Honors and only 40.1% in her graduating class.
@BlueBayouAZ, a more accurate representation of the test scores and acceptance rates would be to pull the data from both Baylorâs and Texas A&Mâs respective Common Data Set (CDS). For the 2017-2018 application period, the numbers are as follows:
According to Box C1, Baylor received 37,083 freshman applications and admitted 14,442. Thatâs an acceptance rate of 38.94%. In contrast, A&Mâs entries in Box C1 reflect that it received 37,191 freshman applications and admitted 26,064. Thatâs an acceptance rate of 70.08%. (This large number is reflective of both the size of A&Mâs entering class and likely also a result of the varying alternative pathways to admissions.)
In regards to test scores, according to Box C9, the SAT mid-50 range for Baylor was 1190-1360. Baylorâs ACT mid-50 range was 26-31. In contrast, Texas A&Mâs entries in BoxC9 reveal that its SAT mid-50 range was 1140-1360, and the ACT mid-50 range was 25-30.
Those are the official numbers as reported by each institution. The hyperlinks to the CDS are pasted below:
https://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/303503.pdf
https://dars.tamu.edu/Student/files/CDS_2017-2018.aspx
I would recommend against relying on these numbers or the US News rankings to pick a college. It sounds like a cliche, but you really should focus on âfitâ and affordability. My eldest son was accepted into UT-Austin, Texas A&M and Ohio State. Of the three, UT had the lower acceptance rate, higher test scores and the higher ranking in US News. However, Ohio State offered him a full-ride academic scholarship and thatâs where he ended up and it has worked out fabulously for him. Although my wife and I are both Texas Exes, we have concluded that his experiences at Ohio State have likely exceeded what he would have experienced at UT. One of the reasons he wanted to go to UT was because his girlfriend was accepted there and although she performed exceedingly well academically as a freshman, she did not like being at a large public university. This year, sheâs enrolled at Vanderbilt University.
As a result of the preceding, we are more focused on fit with my youngest son and he is ecstatic to have been admitted to A&M. Weâve visited the campus numerous times over the last couple of years and he looks forward to attending a large flagship public university with an intense sports culture. I know he would not be as happy at a smaller private institution; however, thatâs exactly what my eldest sonâs girlfriend needed.
Again, Iâd recommend focusing on fit and affordability, and even with that last factor depending on your financial situation some of these elite private universities could be the cheaper option . See the blurb below about Rice University.
âThe Rice Investment program, full tuition scholarships will be awarded to degree-seeking undergraduates with family incomes between $65,000 and $130,000 who are eligible to receive need-based financial aid. In addition, students with family incomes between $130,000 and $200,000 will receive scholarships covering at least half of their tuition.â
@BlueBayouAZ Thank you for the clarification. We have a similar issue with a high performing high school school. My daughter has a 4.8 weighted GPA and is right at the 25% class rank. Our school stopped reporting class rank this year because of this issue but not sure it is going to help.
Thanks to all whom replied. Yes, completely different schools all the way around. Iâm just adding the perspective that although some of the waiting and stress associated with college applications is normal and expected, there is certainly merit (and a whole lot of joy!) to see your child feel wanted, acknowledged for his hard work and choices, and to not feel SO measured through the process. There is a place and a fit for everyone. I also havenât seen those same stats mentionedâif A&M doesnât want him with a 29 ACT, a 4.6 GPA, and a long resume, then itâs their loss! No disrespect meant whatsoeverâjust the honest truth. 
Blessings to all through the journey!
Just to put button on this discussion and provide further context on A&Mâs 70% admission rate that the school has reported in its CDS, that number does in fact include the alternate pathways to admission. Thus for the 2018 class, 4,000 applicants were offerred TEAM admission, 600 Gateway and 9,000 PSA. If you exclude those offers, which as I understand it Baylor does not have an comparable alternative admission track, then the acceptance rate at A&M for direct admission to College Station is much, much lower.
In no way was I trying to diss Baylor at all and I am very sorry that my post came off as slighting Baylor or any applicant to Baylor. That was not my intention at all. Baylor is a GREAT school and I have many friends who attended and now their children attend/applying. It is also a private school and not mandated by the state to admit top 10% admits, which fills a lot of slots when yielding a freshman class, unlike the state funded public A&M. It is also why Baylor can offer much better financial aid pkgs than A&M.
For Texas residents, A&M is harder to get into because of the top 10% law AND they also offer the academic admit path for top quarter applicants with 1360+ SAT/30ACT with qualifying sub scores. This makes up for a lot of the freshman class, leaving 35% =/- an alternative pathway offer, which with the DARS (date and reports/students) breakdowns, around 13-15% of review applicants are offered full admissions.
And as @BlueBayouAZ points out, the statistical numbers bear it out further that A&M is more competitive for admissions.
As to âclawing for a spotâ, I guess that is true at both UT and A&M, the two competitive flagships in the state. So yes, there is less room for a lot of awesome and accomplished review applicant kids who donât meet the top 10% law or academic admit threshold, to compete for a small number of spots.
Not being offered an admission decision to A&M (or to any college/university for that matter) or not receiving the admissions decision one was wishing for, is not a slight against any applicant and it should in no way make them feel bad about their worthiness and accomplishments or to feel indebted for being let in the sacred circle (or their parents).
I get that the application process is an emotional one. I now have three in college with my super senior graduating in May. Our paths have had their share of rocks, bumps, Yâs, pot holes, smooth pavement, solid white lines, etc from the application process to about to order a gown and tassel. I could be a Farmers Commercial. I know a thing or two because I have seen a thing or two. This is possibly the first semester since fall 2015 that my stomach is not in a knot over worrying about someone over something.
since I had wonderful guidance from the parents who were on CC when my son was applying in 2015, I have tried to help the incoming classes, as well as many others do, in the admission cycles since then. I (we) get as excited with someoneâs admissions decision and feel such empathy with those who are not offered what they wanted but try to help them understand it is not where you start but where you finish. There are many paths to being an Aggie. That may be at A&M or it maybe somewhere else. Be the best you can with what you have, where you are.
No oneâs accomplishments, failures and mistakes define who they are as a person. They refine us.
Good luck to your son with all of his school choices, and again, I am sorry that my comment came off as slighting anyone applying to Baylor.
I hear you @fatherof2boys - We are having difficulty with our daughter in terms of evaluating schools. She wants to go to the school with the best ranked program for her choice of major (That we can afford/she get accepted to). When touring schools - I keep trying to get her to see if she feels like the school/campus would be a good fit for her. She keeps focusing on the programâs reputation. Personally, I thought UTD was a very strong program and I could see her fitting in with the student population there.
@BlueBayouAZ I have to give you credit as you are actually way further along than I was with our first child. I was obsessed by the rankings. I even purchased the subscription to get the more detailed reports from US News regarding the colleges. I also caused a lot of unnecessary stress and friction with my eldest son as I was the worst helicopter parent.
With my second child, Iâm so chill about this whole process. I come on CC to interact with other parents and to get it out my system, but I actually rarely talk about this college stuff with my younger child. I told him to focus on enjoying his senior year of high school.
It sounds to me like you are being the model parent for this application process focusing on where your daughter would be comfortable and gently advising her as such.
Sonâs tabs went from 3 to 6 today. Seems to be conflicting information as to whether or not this is actually a tell for admission. Care to weigh in? He applied mid August. OOS
by tomorrow am u should see an accepted message if it is like my dâs experience. congrats!
Going back to my eldest sonâs application back in 2015, and the experience with youngest son last month, this has been a tell. @nrvsmom you will not have to be nervous much longer.
Where does it show what rank A&M assigned you? Does it show on AIS as CLASS RANK (Rank they gave you) or is there another place where they show you?
@wolfgang54 it shows under AIS - where it lists Documents Required for Admission and has green check marks for Complete (or yellow yield sign or a red x for other statuses). My sonâs Class Rank is first in the list and shows 127/931.