<p>wsmith65, tell your child not to give up on her dream of becoming an Aggie. If she really wants it, she can get there eventually. I went straight in from high school, but both my sisters went to other state schools after their freshmen years before they transferred to A&M. They are no less Aggies than I am. We all wear the same ring in the end. Don’t give up!</p>
<p>wsmith65- I wouldn’t play the game with the 2nd child. Things change and by sending your son through High School on the easy route may bite him in the rear. Best bet - take the AP/Dual credit classes and work hard! It’s high school! What happens if they take away the top 10% law and your son is not competitive at all after taking the easy way. This is a possibility! What happens when your son is not ready for college? The easy way will not prepare him for A&M - the AP way will if he digs in and does the work. What will work is a SAT/ACT prep class - look into it.</p>
<p>I hope your daughter is admitted. I know this must be tough on her - and her family! </p>
<p>ADVICE for future applicants who may be reading these post with great interest
If you are not in the top 10%:
Take a SAT/ACT prep class or get some software and practice!
Take both SAT/ACT, start early so you can take more than once if necessary. These scores are very important.
Visit campus. Visit a Prospective Student Center. Go to the activities A&M offers for high School jr/sr’s - Why do you think they offer these things? They want to see who really wants to be at A&M and who will go to the effort of attending.
Apply early! A&M has rolling admissions.
Make your essay C something that stands out. Plead your case if necessary, I’m pretty sure they get a ton about bleeding maroon.
They are not looking for students that take the easy route in high school. Take the AP courses, If you cant make it in a high school AP/dual credit class you have no business at A&M anyway.
A&M loves community service - get out there and do something
A&M loves leadership - join a club and get involved</p>
<p>The students that get into A&M under the top 10% law and have never taken AP/Dual credit classes - they arn’t ready.</p>
<p>wsmith65, I echo your feelings and statements. A less than competitive GPA and class rank imposes valuable scholarship and college entrance limitations to many bright students and it has cost my S. S has taken 3 APs (scoring 4s and 5s) and now taking 5 APs with A+ in all classes; 32 ACT score; 34 ACT superscore, Varsity Tennis (captain), Big Brother Mentor/Volunteer are his two passions but many other ECs and volunteers with church/mission trips.<br>
So, his GPA is 3.89 and ranked in the top 11%. Why? Because of B’s in Pre-Cal/Trig and Algebra II. Algebra II we learned that his teacher was the Girl’s Softball Coach during softball season who was eventually fired during that semester for striking a player. The next semester I emailed his guidance counselor to please ensure that he is assigned an accomplished pre-calc/trig teacher because he is college bound. I called as many parents as I could for recommendations and all parents liked her for Algebra II but we learned later that she had never taught pre-cal/trig before! We looked inward for solutions to see if S just wasn’t “getting the subject”, hired expensive tutors and the advice was “why is this bright student needing tutoring?” Interestingly, this teacher is also no longer employed with our school system.<br>
Actually we were pleased S passed with a 92 (B) in each class but really did not know about the GPA, scholarship, class rank impact. Now we do and it’s too late.
This past summer he attended an exchange program attending high school in Berlin Germany, returned home to attend TN Governor’s School at the University of Memphis on scholarship taking 4 college classes. Started H.S Senior year and learned that many students in his pre-cal/trig class purposely failed the class because they knew of a caveat called “Online Credit Recovery” in which they can take the course online. S very upset that his classmates did not even try in class, received an A online, jumped him in GPA and inevitably pushed his class rank down while conveniently doing this from the comfort of their home. Scholarship offers they have received have been quite impressive. I met with the principal of his high school to ask that he be given the same opportunity and the answer is no because his grade was a B.<br>
The great news is that he is loving AP Calculus with one if not the highest grade in all classes (A+) and is yearning for a redo for previous classes because he is finally enjoying math. His teacher is a math/engineer graduate from Auburn University. War Eagle!
More to this story but that is for another day!</p>
<p>gosh, wsmith. your high school sucks!</p>
<p>sorry that is the situation you are in. but, i repeat, if she REALLY wants to go to A&M, the blinn option is working out great for MANY kids.</p>