Texas a&m chances with low class rank

Colleges and Universities A-Z Texas A&M University
1

Hey so, A&M is my dream school, and I’m really trying to bring my grades up to what I need to get in. My GPA plummeted sophomore year due to me battling anorexia, and I’m really working on trying to make up for it in other categories. Here’s what I have:
Race/Gender: White female
GPA- 3.6 weighted
Class Rank- top 50% (I’m in one of the top 15 most competitive high schools in texas, most of the top 10 students are going to harvard or stanford etc.)
SAT- (1250 PSAT) Shooting for at least a 1350 so go off of that
Extracarricular- I don’t have much, I was in a lot of volunteering clubs my first two years of HS, and my aunt runs a Interior design company that i intern and help with, although it is a very small company. I played tennis freshman year too.

I would be willing to apply to a less popular major and transfer over if that helps my score, and I would also would be ecstatic if i got accepted into the summer program, or Blinn team…

My parents are willing to pay for college application tutors for my essay and my SAT, but I don’t want them to spend a lot of money if there is no chance of me getting in… Am I delusional? Is there a chance?

2

@monclays

I would say that there is a decent chance of you getting into Blinn or another community college that transfers into TAMU. The main thing that is killing you is your class rank and (possible)SAT.

A top 50% class rank at a very competitive high school matters very little. A person who is ranked 9% in the crappiest texas high school has an exponentially better chance than a person ranked 11% at a far better high school.

I personally know the difficulties of class rank also, I had to transfer from one of the best high schools in Texas into a less prestigious (but still top 10) high school. This resulted in my class rank being boosted from 65% to 20%. Granted, my schedule of 6 AP classes no doubt helped, but that is beside the point.

A 50% rank is really your downfall. It leaves you out of both Autoadmit (top 10%) and Academic Admit (Top 25% + SAT). The only option (for directly getting in) is review admit. This is very difficult, as the slots are very few and you will be competing with the out of state kids, many of whom are extremely good (as in 1500+ SAT and killer EC’s).

I would say that your best bet would be to try your best and aim for Blinn or a similar route.

I have a couple questions though.

Are you worried about your parent’s finances? If you are worried about them spending a few thousand (my parents spent 5k on my SAT prep), how will you be able to afford to go to TAMU? No offense intended, but your stats aren’t going to score many scholarships. I would advise against taking out student loans, and would advocate you attend a community college first to save money if your parent’s finances aren’t too good.

I would also advise against trying to transfer. Getting into an easy major (which is what I assume you mean by less popular, despite that fact that popularity and difficulty have no correlation), and transferring into a harder major is much more difficult than you think. The college understands that people will try and take the route that you are taking, so transfer slots are extremely limited, and even some students with 4.0 GPA’s get denied, especially when trying to transfer to the most competitive majors.

Overall my best advice would be to aim as high as you can on the SAT (preferably between 1450 and 1500) to be able to secure a spot as a review admit. You being a white female (something which is abundant in a place like TAMU) does you no favors :confused:

If you need any more advice, feel free to ask me. Just use the @ and then my username (for example @RMNiMiTz ) to notify me.

3

@RMNiMiTz Do you think I could get offered a slot for the summer school program? Or Blinn team? Also, how much did your SAT improve from the SAT prep? My parents have money saved for my college I just feel guilty spending so much on prep since it sounds like a lot. How much more difficult is it to get into the 1400’s? Is the prep worth it? Thank you so much for answering my questions I really appreciate it

4

@monclays

To calculate the value of the SAT prep would honestly be kind of difficult. The quality of prep programs varies from place to place.

When I took the SAT in 7th grade (as a part of duke TIP), I score a 1550 (out of 2400 at the time). My equivalent (from Jan 21st of this year) would be around 2000 (if converted to out of 2400). However, it was me taking the test on a really bad day (hence why my score was so low). Going up by 500 points is certainly nice, but at the same time going from Pre-Algebra all the way to Calculus probably played a bigger role.

I would say that my SAT prep class probably only improved my score about 60-70 points. This may not be worth it for you (5,000 for 60 points), but my parents are in a decent financial situation. However, prep programs could vary in price. The 5,000 was a 4-year program (for both SAT and ACT, which had new lessons each week, unlimited practice tests, essay grading, daily vocab drill opportunities and all that good stuff), and a shorter prep program would no doubt be far cheaper (maybe 500 to 1k).

A free prep program that is pretty highly regarded would be Khan academy’s SAT prep. It’s easily accessible on the internet and is a fine tool for getting better. Local libraries also usually have SAT prep books for you to study with.

If you don’t want to attend a prep program (which depends on the circumstances), I would say that you can go to a discount bookstore or something along those lines and spend $100-200 on a couple prep books (you can’t write in library books, and the books directly from collegeboard are usually overpriced). Studying them rigorously for 2-3 months before the exam could really help your scores. If you can, also sign up for multiple tests; you never know when you could have a bad day and end up scoring substantially lower than you should have.

If you are still a sophomore (as it appears from your comments), you still have a chance to get your grades up. Finding a leadership role as a junior in a club would greatly boost your EC’s. It’s also not too late to get your grades up (TAMU takes the first 6 semesters/3 years).

If you take mostly AP or Pre-AP classes and score perhaps a 4.2 weighted GPA (not too difficult, especially if you are dedicated; for instance, I raised my 3.76 up to a 3.94 in a single year), you could bring that 3.6 up to a 3.8, and maybe raise your class rank high enough to qualify in the top 25% (I have found that scoring just a point or two higher on your GPA above the average will raise your class rank a lot, due to the way that most kids are somewhere in the middle of the bell curve). I did terrible my first 2 years (3.76 weighted GPA, 55% class rank at the end of Sophomore year) to (3.94 weighted GPA, 20% class rank at the end of Junior year).

If you can at least get a 1400 on your SAT, I would say that you definitely have a solid shot at a transfer/summer program.

Btw, be sure to ask about Blinn at

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/texas-m-university/

which is the TAMU forum here at CC, and there are people who know more about blinn and summer programs than I do.

5

Work on your essay! Explain what happened that caused your GPA to drop and explain what you overcame. I’m assuming you’ve overcome anorexia. Congrats! That’s not an easy feat and you should be proud! I don’t know how much I’d spend on a tutor to write an essay. Maybe just to correct grammar. It perhaps your English teacher can do that for you? Just be real and be yourself. Also have you tried ACT? My son did ok on SAT but did so much better on ACT (33 composite with 36 on English and Science). So I’d highly recommend checking it out!

6

You are a good candidate for Gateway - you do not apply directly, the admissions office chooses which pathway is best for each applicant. Gateway is the summer session program which is for students they feel have special circumstances and deserve a chance to prove themselves in the college environment. The ‘stats’ of Gateway students vary greatly but the common thread is a challenge that is addressed in their essay (otherwise they don’t know about it).

You did not mention your year group - are you at the end of sophomore year or junior year? Don’t forget to line up a recommendation to add to your file, given your situation did you confide in the guidance counselor or teacher? That might be a good choice for a recommendation.

As far as spending money on test prep - mostly it is commitment on your part that is the essential ingredient for success. You can do it on your own or sign up for mandatory study session (honestly, that is what they are). Make sure someone proofreads your essays, use powerful words ( a thesaurus function on the keyboard is magical!) and remember that an essay is your only way of communicating to the admissions team. Passion, commitment, hardship and drive are all things that will need to resonate with the reader.

Do not think that the ‘competitive high school’ angle will help you, everyone seems to think that will have some impact but it doesn’t. Competitive high schools also have advantages like better staff & opportunities as well as competition to push students to achieve more. Very few applicants look at it that way, but admissions does. The way you scream ‘competitive high school’ is through extremely high test scores. I would sign up for both the ACT & SAT. My oldest took both, her younger brother only took the ACT. He scored so high on the ACT, we opted to skip the SAT. You can request your test question results to hone in on your strengths & weaknesses for re-testing if needed. What is a good score? You should go for the academic admit scores at a minimum with a 50% ranking. Obviously the higher the better, but when you consider that over 85% of the admits will qualify for admission by academic admit or top 10% admit - you need to be competitive with those students. Give yourself the gift of time by starting your studies early & sign up for testing. At TAMU, only the best one sitting score is counted - the others are discarded if they are submitted to the school so, go ahead and mark the send box each time. Good luck!