Any applicants new or former that have advice?
My son is applying for Viz admission Spring 2019 with 15 hours dual credit & 3.8 gpa, 25 hours end of this semester including physics.
My daughter is waiting too. No advice - but we are in the same boat. Here are her stats.
For my daughter
When did you apply: 8/5/18
When did you get your UIN:8/7/18
When did you receive your admission decision: Waiting
Are you an Auto-admit or Academic Admit or Review Admit: Review
Major/College of Choice: Visualization
Class Rank: 318/793 (40.1%)
SAT (with Sub Scores)
ACT 28 (with Sub Scores) Math-29, English-27, Reading-29, Science-26
8 AP classes, AP Scholar with Honor, NHS, Model UN. Working on GS Gold Award (Has Silver and Bronze), National Art Honor Society. Attended Visualization summer camp at TAMU two years. Decent number of service hours.
Accepted to SCAD (Savanah, GA) and UTD and SHSU. (Only applying to schools with animation programs).
My son is a Viz senior this year. He was an Academic Admit who applied the first week of August (ApplyTexas opened on 8/1 in 2015). I don’t know whether the Viz admission process has changed, but he was admitted to Viz simultaneously with his academic admit – no additional review. Sorry I’m not more help, but good luck to both of you!
@Loganator Thank you for the input!
@cpacestx unless I am misreading your posts, Your son has already graduated high school and has taken college courses outside of Dual Credit, is that correct?
If that is the case, he is considered a transfer student and his application file will be processed by the College he’s looking to enter (Architecture) and not by an admissions officer, which process incoming, first time in college applicants.
I am on my phone and I can’t seem to open a tab to look it up, but there should be online a Transfer Course Requirement sheet for the major he’s trying to get into.
@Thelma2 Thank you for you advice.
He graduates this semester & has only taken dual credit thus far.
He will finish this semester with 25 hours DC including Physics.
His gpa is 3.8 and as he was homeschooled (actually means we chose the teachers for math, rhetoric & science) TAMU ranked him as top 25% based on his stats.
Extra curriculars are great as well but none of this helps if there are no spots for Spring.
@cpacestx Thank you for clearing that up. I do not like the mobile site as well and I was trying to piece the pieces together from the different replies, obviously, not very well.
A&M will take into consideration his test scores and assigned rank and will not consider his GPA at all for admissions.
Please let us know how the spring admissions goes. Good luck to him.
@Thelma2 & @AggieMomAgain Advice please?
Planning ahead for possible outcomes for this application cycle.
My son applied to TAMU for Spring 2019. From what I’ve learned here and on TAMU site, he is a review admit & will either get PSA, Blinn team, or not accepted.
He is a H.S. senior graduating Dec 2018 . His gpa is from community college classes ( Lone Star, 15 credits) 3.8.
His SAT is mid range & he was homeschooled prior to this. TAMU ranked him top 25%.
His extra curriculars are great, Eagle Scout…
He wants Viz which is competitive & PSA/ Blinn team won’t help.
- So, if what we predict happens and IF he gets Blinn or PSA, would it be best to not accept and just take ACT for a high score ( at least above 30)? He’s taking it for 1st time Oct 27th but if not high enough, he was planning on continuing the prep & retaking.
2)Thoughts on the strategy of taking more CC credits. Even with good grades in CC, this doesn’t seem wise as the SAT or ACT score seems to count more especially for competitive programs like VIZ.
I know each admit cycle brings diff applicants and so no guarantee he’d get a chance at PSA or Blinn team for Fall 2019or Spring 2020.
3)Also, any penalty for reapplying more than once?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
@cpacestx
Being a spring freshman admit, in the past 3 admission cycles, I have not come across your situation before on CC, so I wish I had more to offer but I’ll give you what options I know.
I know that being a review applicant in the fall is not high in overall percentages for full admissions, but there are several thousands offered full admissions each year. It will be interesting to see how the spring admission cycle goes (I am sure, agonizing for you). Have you been told information that a spring freshman full admission isn’t likely and that is why you think along the lines of Blinn Team or PSA?
I am not knowledgeable with the VIZ major and do not know if is an impacted major with limited seats or not. Have you found this out? I know some review applicants were admitted for fall 2018.
You have mentioned his SAT was average but have not offered his scores. When the averages are posted, it usually is the average scores include all offers of admissions, from Full CStat, Galveston, Blinn Team and Gateway, so not really indicative of full admissions to CStat.
Definitely take the ACT as often as you can and submit scores by the deadline (Dec 8 for documents/test scores). He would need a 30 with sub scores of 27 in Math and English to become an academic admit, for whatever semester he applies for.
With only 15 Dual Credit hours, which have to be claimed, that is not so much an obstacle for Blinn Team than if he had 25-30 hours. Having too many credit hours coming in, there isn’t much Blinn Jr College can offer them to take. Blinn Team is still a transfer type application and not a guaranteed pathway to full admissions. I don’t know what VIZ classes Blinn has so in the co-enrollment process, he would have to take these at A&M. This is the transfer required course sheet for Viz http://admissions.tamu.edu/admissions-staging/media/Main/pdfs-transfer2018/ARCH18-Viz.pdfnum
For Blinn Team, there is a max number of hours you can enroll at A&M (6 I think) If a student only takes 1 three hour class, they usually enroll in 1 one hour class, as a “spare tire” so if they have to drop the 3 hour class, they are technically still co enrolled.
In looking at the Transfer Course Sheet,I noticed that Engineering Calculus I & II are required classes (A&M 151&152/ TCCNS 2413&2414). These are hard classes and considered weed out classes at College Station. These two classes alone keep a large number of freshman engineering students from applying to major on time (or dismissed from program) because of the requirement to complete it with a C or better and they only get to have two attempts to pass. From what I understand, Blinn doesn’t make them a whole lot easier.
If he does not get full admit to CStat or Blinn Team for Spring, and the decision comes before Dec. 1, can he turn around and apply for Fall 2019 admission before Dec 1? He would have to decline whatever they offer him and re apply.
If he did turn around and apply for Fall 2019 admission (or any freshman admissions anywhere), after he graduates in December, he cannot enroll in college courses anywhere, while he waits for a decision and still be considered a freshman applicant. If he enrolls in college while he awaits a decisions, he then becomes a transfer applicant (and will have to then re-apply as one) instead of a incoming freshman applicant.
The only he would be allowed to enroll in college courses after graduation would be AFTER he accepts an admissions decision somewhere (like applicants are doing now) and then can take summer school classes before fall classes.
If he decides to take more classes at CC after graduation with plans to be a transfer student instead of a freshman applicant, he needs to follow a transfer course sheet for a major. Just having hours in random classes with a high GPA will not get him accepted into A&M. His GPA from his Dual Credit classes won’t transfer though the classes do. The college he wants to transfer into wants specific courses complete in order to be admitted. Too many hours can also hamper them, as some majors have caps on hours for transferring into the major. I did not look up what Viz is, if any. Some colleges cap at 60 and others higher.
Another thing that some do, is go strait Blinn Jr College after high school graduation if they want to be near College Station or they can attend any college and follow the Transfer Course Sheet for the desired major (where applicable) and apply for transfer. TAMU and Blinn had pathway agreements for guaranteed admission yo many majors but the links no longer work. I don’t know if they are doing away with this program or if it is being revamped.
I would suggest the Program for Transfer Admission (PTA) http://admissions.tamu.edu/PTA that offers guaranteed admission but the college of ARCH does not offer Viz under this program.
PSA: Not all applicants are offered all system schools for PSA. An applicant offered PSA will be given which schools they can participate with. The college of ARCH Viz does participate in PSA but again, they may not offer any of the Viz classes and he could only do the UCC and a handful of other classes. There is a lot of info on the PSA Page http://admissions.tamu.edu/PSA/
Not sure I was helpful at all but I shared all the options I know.
@Thelma2 Thank you! That was very helpful and filled in some of our knowledge gaps.
To answer your question about his admission status, we haven’t heard anything yet. We are making sure we are ready for an informed decision if we are not offered admission.
His SAT was over a year ago 1130. So not good.
I was told Viz takes about 100 Freshmen applicants ( used to be 75.) The Viz department admissions personnel were unsure how many Spring spots are available if any.
My DS is currently studying for the ACT Oct 27th. If he gets 30 or better, great. If he’s just under, we need to decide if we take it at A&M with 24 hour turn around or take the National test for Spring exams. Only the Oct 27th exam will result in time for the Dec 1st deadline.
Thank you!!!
@cpacestx: Since your son’s SAT was over a year ago and he is scheduled to take the ACT at the end of Oct., I would bet that he has made significant improvements.
If you have the time, have him take a practice exam online and then go to Khan Academy to address any areas of weakness.
Fingers crossed that he hits the Academic Admit threshold on the ACT. 
Keep us posted.
@AggieMomAgain Thank you! You are such an encourager?
Yes, he should improve as he took Trig & precalculus last year ( after the SAT) and has gone through most of 5e Accuplacer review book this past month.?
@cpacestx Did your son get into visualization? My daughter is still waiting to hear.
@BlueBayouAZ Sorry for late answer, I just saw this.
Yes, he was accepted.
How is your daughter doing?
Congratulations to your son. Is he starting this January? My daughter is still waiting to hear for the fall.
@BlueBayouAZ Yes, he started this week. They gave him temporary dorm space, not ideal but it’s a space so he is thankful. I hope your daughter’s journey takes her to where she will love & be happy.