Next year tuition is never predictable in high inflation years. So there is no accurate calculator.
When FAFSA opens, link the family 1040 and report assets. Income from $30K to up to $150K, students will get ranging from full tuition to a few hundred dollars in grants, student work and loans. TAMU living expenses are not high if live off-campus. Departments have some assistance as well and it depends on GPA after Freshmen year.
Since Political Science doesn’t have an honors program, is the general TAMU honors worth it? Is it worth applying to?
What are you wanting out of a honors program?
Do you plan to live on campus?
Have you been accepted to A&M yet?
Sending luck and lots of good vibes to your family as well!!
No I haven’t been accepted yet. If I don’t get Hullabaloo Hall or White Creek Apartments, I will most likely live off campus, but I don’t really know if the general honors program has anything to offer me, other than early class selections and dorms.
@TigerGirl06 UH does require living in Lechner or McFadden freshman year.
UH can be tricky, getting into HNR section classes. All HNR students are required to take a certain number of HNR courses, but UH students don’t have an automatic ‘in’ all HNR classes. In fact, it can be quite difficult to get enough HNR courses, so UH students have to ask professors to ‘make’ the session ‘honors’ for them-extra work, presentation, research, etc-and professors don’t have to.
Most HNR classes are filled with major specific HNR students.
Some that pay housing deposit late will do UH for a year, just so they are guaranteed a bed on campus.
Zero chance of living in Hullabaloo, unless you can find a roommate who paid housing deposit the first or second day auto admits went out.
If I apply to honors and get in, am I obligated to do it? Also…does honors really mean I get first choice in classes?
You would have to read the fine print. You can back out of UH, if you’re accepted, I’m sure up to a certain date.
Incoming freshman all register during NSC, so being in UH won’t make a difference Fall. You would get earlier registration (NOT ‘first choice’) for Spring, but again…UH doesn’t get special consideration for HNR level classes tho; you’d be able to try & get basics sooner than some.
College/Major specific HNR programs are by far better vs UH.
So, as a Political Science major, it wouldn’t help me as much. Ok, I’ll read about accept/deny acceptance and then decide. What would you suggest I do?
Personally I wouldn’t bother. BUT, if you really want to live on campus, especially in a Northside Modular (next most popular style, after Hullabaloo) and you don’t get acceptance until January or later, I’d consider UH. You can always quit after freshman year (many do).
It can’t hurt to apply.
Our son is homeschooled (out of state - in midwest) and I think he was accepted (engineering) about 2-3 weeks after being classified top 10%.
Do you know how corps of cadets scholarship notification works? Obviously, he’d really like the new Murray scholarship that would cover out-of-state differential. Son is accepted OOS in engineering and has high stats (34 ACT, 7 AP’s, 4.3 weighted GPA), and already did housing deposit for the corps barracks.
@braintop @FriscoDad
True. Except due to the tuition freeze next years tuition will be the same as this year. Those who chose the variable rate tuition option are happy and those of us who chose the locked rate option last year are furious because it was pitched as a four year compounded average so we would pay the same amount each semester for all 4 years and could budget easily. The adjustable rate TAMU said that while the adjustable plan costs less in year 1, tuition increases annually and could cost more than locked plan overall in the end. so we , like many , chose locked rate tuition so we didn’t have to worry about variable annual increases, especially considering the economy and inflation! But Then they didn’t raise the tuition last year and froze the tuition for the next two years. They received a ton of money from the state to do so. So we are locked in at the higher year 1 rate and it isn’t really going up every year. So the “average” isn’t really an average. We are paying an additional $1000 per semester. Year 1,2, and 3. We are in year 2 of no increases and next year will not increase also. The freeze will end after that and will likely increase but we don’t know by how much. So those with an adjustable rate will likely see a tuition increase for 2025-2026 school year. But likely not enough to compensate for how much they overcharged those with a locked rate. Looks like we will overpay by $6000 vs if we had chosen the adjustable rate. Historically the adjustable rate and locked rates ended up being comparable with a difference of hundreds of dollars in the end not thousands. I had hoped they would do the right thing and recalculate the average factoring in the freeze so that all students benefited from the freeze in tuition not just those with the adjustable rate. But no they said they are only freezing tuition for adjustable rate students and locked rate students have to pay the original locked rate which factored in annual increases that won’t actually be happening!
But for those of you starting next year. Tuition will be the same as this year but then will likely increase the following year and following years. You will have to make a wild guess about if you are better off with locked rate or variable rate tuition plan. We would have been better off with variable but there is no way we could have known that with the information provided at the time we had to make the decision and that may not be the case for next years incoming freshman because the freeze is scheduled to end for what will be your year 2. So you will also have to make a decision based on a guess on how things will unfold with tuition.
Also tuition varies by major. My daughters major is one of the more expensive majors and costs $1000 more per semester than some of the other majors. Her tuition and fees are $7000 per semester. $5000 of that is tuition. The rest are fees. And then dorm and meal plans is on top of that. Dorm and meals plans vary in cost. My daughters meal plan is around $2000 per semester and her dorm is $4000 per semester. So her total cost is $13000 per semester. Fortunately her merit scholarships from the university and her college and department cover about half of that and she has interest free private loans for some and we pay the remaining. She doesn’t qualify for any need based aid.
@DarkhorseMW scholarships don’t start coming out until spring. Your son does have a high ACT, but you have to realize there are easily hundreds, if. not thousands, who will have as high, or much higher stats/scores. I think most in the Corps do get some stipend or scholarship, but I wouldn’t bank on getting the Murray-or any other-that will get him to in state rate.
When scholarship handbook releases for 2024-2025, you can contact Aggie One Stop for scholarship information update.
For Corps of Cadets, there is a path for scholarships that qualify the students to get non-resident waiver. Most scholarship and financial aid starts at March but may be delayed this year due to delayed FAFSA process.
Thanks, @52AG82. We acknowledge the competitiveness university-wide (and especially within engineering) and thus our hope is mainly in the corps. There are 2000+ cadets now and the school wants to grow that number by 500. Since about 20% of the corps is out-of-state, that amounts to 400-500 out-of-state cadets, and it’s that group that we hope to be competitive in. The new Murray Scholarship applies only to out-of-state cadets and offers several million in awards, and it appears one only has to earn $1,200 in scholarship awards for it and its tuition waiver to kick-in. Texas A&M Establishes Maj. Gen. Raymond L. Murray ’35 Corps Of Cadets Scholarship - Texas A&M Today
@DarkhorseMW I’ve read about the Murray Scholarship, it is fantastic!
But, Corps or not, OOS must receive $4k per year in A&M scholarships to receive in-state tuition rate.
Sounds easy…but it isn’t.
Since your son isn’t NM S/F, the Corps is definitely his best shot at receiving more scholarship $ vs a non reg.
To get the OOS waiver for the Corps of Cadets, you must be awarded a $1200 or greater Corps scholarship. During our tour, they stated over 97% of the corps receive a scholarship of that amount or more, and stated that basically if you are in the Corps from OOS and apply for the scholarship, you will receive the tuition waiver. The $4,000 competitive scholarship does not apply to the Corps OOS tuition waiver.
“The new scholarship will be available to students who receive a Corps of Cadets scholarship valued at $1,200 or greater and are not receiving a non-resident tuition waiver such as the Competitive Scholarship Waiver or Military in Texas Waiver. The scholarship will be awarded in an amount equal to the additional tuition and fees charged to non-residents, thereby reducing total tuition and fees to be equivalent to those paid by Texas residents.”
@Beechtoheavy oh wow. As a tax payer, not sure how I feel about that. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Corps of Cadets, but sure doesn’t seem fair they should get such a substantial in-state tuition ‘cut’.
But…no one asked me…
Well, we are good for the OOS waiver having a “Nation Recognition Program” Scholar, and I will gladly take your Texas money. 
