Ya in our school we’re not allowed to see our LOR to stop teachers from being pressured on what they write and instead write truthfully so other than 1 teacher who wanted me to see it I have no idea what was written for me.
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If you are referring to 1400+ SAT with balanced scores or 29+ ACT across sub scores, assume good SRAR and ranking. Yes OOS students also have a good chance.
For Mays still have to apply early.
Posting to follow along with this thread. Daughter just informed me she is interested in TAMU engineering (Aerospace is ultimate goal). We are OOS - SC.
She is top 10% of class. Her current GPA is 3.92 unweighted, 4.92 weighted.
Testing scores so far are 1430 (720/710) SAT, 32 ACT. Waiting on a second ACT score currently. She has earned National Rural & Small Town Recognition which looks like would offer a $4,000/year scholarship & OOS tuition waiver from what I see on the website. Her PSAT selection index is borderline National Merit Semifinalist cutoff for our state, so will have to wait and see on that. I think she may have missed it by 1 point.
She attends her home public high school, but is also enrolled in an engineering program through our state Governor’s School for Science & Math. It involves intensive DE courses in English, Engineering, Calculus, Chemistry & Physics.
Plays 1 varsity sport, student council officer, Beta Club member, Girl Scout, and holds a part-time job.
All I can find on the website is that OOS applicants are viewed holistically. I am hoping she would likely be considered a good candidate? I have not investigated honors or other programs available. Any suggestions on those? She will need as much merit/aid as possible to attend, but the OOS tuition waiver should help greatly if she were to get it.
She will have zero trouble with getting full admission (imo). She needs $4k of Tamu competitive scholarships for waiver. Again, must come from Tamu not outside sources.
Be sure to look at ETAM for engineering and being ready to compete for aerospace at the end of freshman year (typically).
Yes oos are reviewed holistically. Look at her over all strength of resume from top to bottom, she’s good. She needs to apply early (like beginning of August when it opens).
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My girl’s school SAT results was released last Friday, she got 1430 with 780Math and 650 reading, @FriscoDad and @ChristiR93 do you think that’s good enough or reading need to do better?
She hates SAT and chances of retaking is very remote
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780M/650R is a very good score. I believe it is good enough for engineering if ranking is close to top 10%. I think your student is at the largest public high school in Texas (Allen) so that should be good.
Make sure SRAR is accurate and apply way before the engineering priority deadline of October 15.
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@momof2insc
She has earned National Rural & Small Town Recognition which looks like would offer a $4,000/year scholarship & OOS tuition waiver from what I see on the website
Great score, but would not count on automatically receiving the OOS tuition waiver. Like @ChristiR93 said, it must be $4,000+ worth of TAMU scholarships offered-not outside-to get OOS tuition waiver…which is not easy to do.
If she can qualify for NM semi or finalist, that will open doors.
Apply the first week in August, making sure application is complete. Be aware that she’ll enter as General Engineering.
The scholarship amount with OOS tuition waiver was mentioned directly on the TAMU website for National Recognition recipients and says is a guaranteed award. It was not an outside scholarship. Unless I am misunderstanding the information?
https://scholarships.tamu.edu/scholarship-programs/national-scholars#0-NationalRecognitionPrograms
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Oh TAMU awarded that? Then yes, that counts!!! Sorry, I misunderstood where the money came from. That’s amazing!!! Congrats. From reading the link you posted (thank you), you are 100% correct.
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Sorry if my original post was unclear. This search is all new to me. My oldest daughter never looked outside of schools close to home. National Recognition is through College Board, but TAMU offers a scholarship to those students.
Several schools seem to offer decent scholarships for the Recognition Program. Which has been such a relief here, because we can start looking into those and not stressing over possibly missing the National Merit cutoff for our state.
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Yes she sounds like a great candidate and yes the national recognition scholarship from TAMU (based on the college board national recognition program award for hispanic, black, indigenous, or rural) does qualify her for the OOS waiver. Whoop!
Make sure to check out the forum for “college board national recognition program” here in the college confidential community forums too. Everyone uses this same forum not just the hispanic group.
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@momof2insc @52AG82 and @ChristiR93 This is the same award my daughter has except we are in state and in the hispanic category. It’s only $4,000 for out of state (vs. $6,000 for Texas residents) but does qualify for the OOS waiver. Rural is also one of the targeted under represented student populations that TAMU actively recruits. TAMU gives the scholarship money. It is based on receiving the award from the College Board. TAMU gets a list from the College Board and issues the scholarship automatically and it is guaranteed. TAMU recruits and gives scholarships to both NMSC and CBNRP and lumps both under the category of “National Scholars” but has different criteria and award amounts based on NMSC semi-finalist or NMSC finalist or CBNRP.
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Yes, the CBNRP is a great program and opens many doors. In addition to the scholarship, they can apply to be student ambassadors. They also get invited to other events. So keep checking that email! For example, my daughter was invited to apply to the Conway Fitzhugh International Honors Leadership seminar in Italy this summer. It is for incoming freshman national scholars and is subsidized for all participants by a donor. She finds out on April 1st if she was selected. They are selecting 30 students. I don’t know how many applied. 
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Thank you so much! I will look into it all of this. Very helpful info!
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Also, Good Luck to your daughter! I hope she gets good news this week!
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People are more familiar with the NMSC program but the CBNRP program opens many of the same doors. At TAMU, CBNRP students get a larger scholarship than NMSC semi-finalists, but a smaller one than NMSC finalists.
@martinezcs I’ve never even heard of this other program, until you mentioned it a few months ago. How does one qualify for it, what tests do you take?
The College Board identifies students that have a qualifying PSAT score and/or AP exam scores (score cut offs vary each year) and are under represented: black, hispanic, indigenous, or rural. Each spring, they invite these students to apply for the CBNRP. The application involves submitting a transcript and other details. A minimum GPA of 3.5 is required. Applications are reviewed and awards are issued by the College Board August 31st each year. Many colleges, such as TAMU, request a list of CBNRP awarded students and recruit them with visits and scholarships. Our school district had an award ceremony to recognize all of the NMSC students and all of the CBNRP students and presented each with a District Trustee’s Merit award this fall.
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Of course your son’s choice is completely his own, but are you serious that he doesn’t have a shot with a 1440 and top quarter? I know A&M has become way more competitive but no shot??! I need to start preparing everyone in my four-generation Aggie family for some bad news…
There’s a shot for sure but it’s not slam dunk j like before.
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