I did have one more SRAR question before we finalize: is there any benefit to uploading a resume? My thought was if it changes/gets updated, it might be out of sync with what is submitted later on (for example, if he applies to Galveston in the spring). I didn’t know if that would be a problem or if it’s better to just upload the resume with Apply Texas.
ETA: some short answer questions on the app from the scholarship section:
please explain any special circumstances that could affect your family’s ability to pay for your college expenses.
Why have you chosen to apply to this university?
Why have you chosen this major?
Describe any educational plans you have beyond earning your bachelor’s degree.
What are some of your life goals? Your answer may be educational, professional, or personal goals.
Not sure if those are new for this year but I had not seen them before.
Student can upload resume any time via AIS. Not needed if auto or not aiming for scholarship.
Scholarship questions may change a little every year but most questions are similar. Answer as many as you can during application. Once submitted, student cannot re-submit answers in AIS.
Well that’s a relief! Common Application paid and submitted. TAMU was by far the longest and most tedious of the applications completed, but grateful to have it out of the way, and thankful a lot of the heavy lifting was done early regarding essays. After lurking on here for the past few months and reading through the thousands of posts from previous years, I expected to see dozens of similar posts. Strangely quiet. Everyone must be plucking away at all those prompts. Good Luck everyone! Can’t wait to hear others’ opinions on the process.
Wow, y’all were QUICK! My kiddo is at band camp all day so I am waiting for him to get home and resisting the urge to finish filling it all out myself
Did they remove the diversity question? I just looked over it quickly last night and I didn’t see it. I also don’t see where the extra essays are…just looks like Essay prompt A.
On common ap there was no diversity question. There was #1. Tell us your story, #2 Life Event, #3 Impactful person. #4 Optional Other: Any special circumstances (covid) etc.
Then, in the scholarship section there were a few short 50 word max. questions, and a longer leadership question. They also asked tons of weird questions we didn’t see anywhere else about income, relations to regents, etc. Just a very lengthy application if you choose to fill out the scholarship section in addition to the regular section.
I’m actually disappointed they took the diversity question out. I thought my kid wrote a great answer for it and it is something he highly values. It’s the one question his recruiter was not really able to provide a great answer to either (what is TAMU doing to increase diversity).
I understand that! I thought my kid had a good one for that as well. Quite unique actually, but maybe an opportunity will arise in the future on a scholarship application, or something.
We’re 98% (whoop) done with the common app, just waiting on Naviance to get back up. I’m being a Karen about that (don’t they KNOW what we are trying to do today!?!?)
Naviance is a tool used by a lot of ISD for sending transcripts, LORs, and for doing statistical research of college admission. It is informative tool but not required in TAMU application process.
1). The application asks how many credit hours will the student be arriving with when he gets to campus. Should we include AP tests (even if not taken yet) and/or just dual credit courses taken while in high school
the application asks whether you are interested in Blinn team or not or undecided at this time. Does anyone know from last year’s application if this was asked at the time of application, or did A&M ask later in the spring when they started to hand out blinn team acceptances
The question is mainly aimed for someone with too many DC hours. There is a limit for freshmen. If student is planning to take AP, (even took some in 9-11th grade) it is best not to count those hours. Students can send AP scores any time later to TAMU and the credit claiming process is pretty much self-serving in student’s Howdy portal. Student should put off claiming any credit (even put off til the end of freshmen year). This allows student to have a choice to take some easier classes in TAMU to boost GPA.
General suggestion is putting “Yes” to Blinn option. You can also choose undecided.
So Son applied today and SRAR is done but do you need to wait until u have access to AIS to link it. I’m guessing it takes a few days for TAMU to send you the email to access AIS.
Ok big unexpected screen on the Common App recommenders page. I got the message “Your school uses Schoolinks for transcripts, recommendations and counselor documents. Reach out to your counselor about sending the documents.”
And then it had a link to a form report from the school counselor about your student.
Our counselors definitely DO NOT know my kid. Our school is massive. The report asks the counselor how long they have known the student and how they stand out. Is this really required? I don’t remember reading about this anywhere. In fact, my son’s assigned counselor this year is BRAND NEW to the job, she was a history teacher last year. Even our long time head counselor is gone and a math teacher replaced her. Ugh.
@sbhubbell i don’t read that as the counselor has to write the only recommendation; just all recs must be sent via the counselor & Schoolinks, as well as transcript, etc. Student can’t submit on their on, it all must go thru Schoolinks.
You would think/hope counselor would fill it out honestly and say they don’t know the student. I doubt many high school counselors truly know most of the students well, especially at mega 6A schools. That’s where teacher recommendations become important.
That’s the way I read it. But sounds like everything does need to submitted thru Schoolinks.
