@sportingclaymom I agree it makes no sense the way the assess these kids. But for my DD the issue, through no fault of her own, is she goes to an extremely competitive school where the class rigor and GPA’s are very high and once they put her in a quartile her GPA is now supposedly irrelevant. She worked really hard and it is frustrating that with that GPA it may not be enough. But it is what it is for now and we are still hoping for the best. 
This forum has provided a lot of interesting insight so maybe I can help out the two other kids with choices and decisions that will have an actual impact on their admission decisions (such as more focused SAT/ACT prep over too many AP classes). But for current DD we are now resorting to a lot of praying!
@AggieDreamin I had son take private SAT prep to try to really boost that score. Ended up with a 1330 which I was thrilled with. Fingers crossed for both our kiddos!
I’m a little bit confused. Do I have to finish and send in the documents in my Financial Aid portal before I can be fully considered as a finished applicant? As in, could I have not received a decision by now because I haven’t finished the financial aid part?
@luckyaggie No, you do not have to have financial aid documents completed for admission. On the AIS, they list the “Documents Required for Admission” and have the following listed:
CLASS RANK
HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM REQUIREMENT
HIGH SCHOOL TRANSCRIPT
$75 UGRAD APPLICATION FEE
SAT/ACT SCORES (VIEW ALL TESTS)
Essay A
However, in order to be considered for any aid, you must have the documents completed but these can be done before admission - just not required.
Posting for my daughter
When did you apply: 8/30
When did you get your UIN: a few days later
When did you receive your admission decision: N/A
Are you an Auto-admit or Academic Admit or Review Admit: Review
Major/College of Choice: Psychology
In State
Class Rank: 3rd Qtr (top 65%)
GPA: 3.48 UW / 4.33 W (2 AP, 5 Pre AP, 1 Honors, 15 hours Dual credit where she has a 3.0 GPA)
SAT (with Sub Scores) N/A
ACT (with Sub Scores) 31 (English: 34, Math: 26, Reading: 35, Science: 28)
I know 3rd Quartile is going to hurt her. Of course, like everyone else, she goes to a very competitive high school in Austin.
We met with an admissions counselor over the summer and he told us Class Rank plays a huge part in the process, even with holistic review. He said they really don’t even look at GPA. Then he said she could go to a community college for a semester and would very highly likely be able to transfer in Spring 2020. Doesn’t seem holistic if they are not looking at GPA for the review admits. She will probably end up going out of state.
Yikes @AggieDreamin - how do they weight? Is the highest possible point a 5 for an advanced class?
@eTown23 I COULD NOT for the life of me figure out how to use Naviance, unless I am looking in the wrong section. Is there a search area where you can type in the schools you’re trying to look at? I could not find it anywhere only stars for Ivy’s ?
I applied to TAMU back in Sept. as a review applicant and am still waiting for a decision. I just noticed that on my app. online that I put both of my parents level of education, but for the supplemental parent information I only put my father. While my mother does not live with us, is it bad that I included her for the level of education? Could this hurt my chance at being admitted? For the level of education my parents both graduated HS which makes me a first generation student.
If daughter is holistic review and submitted her ap in mid Oct (she is ARCH major) are you saying the first round of holistic aps would hear in Nov? Any updates would be greatly appreciated as she is being recruited heavily by a couple of other colleges and has heard from everyone but A&M - her first choice…thanks
Our son is in the 3rd quarter of his very competitive HS he was in AP classes all through high school, and currently taking college math through his high school, GPA is 3.33, SAT 1260 and ACT is 30. His essay was written well, plays ice hockey and a lot.of volunteer hours.
We should hear something on Tuesday (hopefully). We’ve been trying to not get his hopes up (he has high functioning autism) so he perseverates on his own. He’s been excepted to UNT and Baylor, but really has his sight in A&M. Given the above anyone have any thoughts?
@Bababui1 curious how you came up with Tues as the next wave? Did someone at TAMU give you that date? We are all trying to guess but didn’t seem to be any date specifically just that we think it will come this week or next.
@Aggiemomhelp - curious why A&M admissions would give so much weight to a student’s quarter rank as my daughter is in a very competitive school and her rank is 2nd qtr and probably mid range to bottom but her test scores are competitive to what I have seen in kids who are in the 1st qtr…the review admit is simply agonizing for students and parents especially when all the other schools have sent generous merit/scholarship offers and we know A&M will likely not yet it’s her first choice…thanks
What is the definition of a first generation student? Our daughter is adopted from a very remote and poor orphanage in China and we are pretty sure her biological parents were not college educated. We, her adoptive parents are though.
@KimmyJoe She wouldn’t be considered 1st generation if she’s been raised by you for the majority of her life.
@nervoustamumommy Go to Colleges I’m Interested In in the top drop down menu. The, click on Scattergrams on the left sidebar. Then, you should be able to search for any school. When you see the scattergram, click on 1600 SAT or ACT, depending on what your student took.
@AggieDreamin I’m not sure how he heard that, but he showed it to me online as well when he logged in.
@Bababui1 What was he logged into? Was it a TAMU site? Sorry to be nosy but this is good info if it is from a credible source.
@AggieDreamin no worries he showed me yesterday when he was logged into TAMU site
Tamu will not ever tell anyone when a “wave” will be released. While I hope it’s Tuesday or earlier, they have never ever ever given a date when people will hear. Not trying to cause waves… I’m trying to prevent everyone else the stress.
As for the ranking and scores… they plug both into an algorithm. This will “predict” a gpa the student would earn At Tamu. While this is not foolproof, it’s something they have done for a while now and coupled with the other weighted 50% of ec, essay and LoR, it seems to work for the majority of students. I can’t imagine going through over 50,000 applications and making decisions for these kids. But for real, the students will end up and graduate from where they want to be. Where there’s a will…blah blah blah
Would I have a better chance of acceptance after spending a semester at a community college then transferring? Has this benefitted anyone in the past?