You are spot on in your thinking. His SAT and lack of ECs may hurt his chances in the review process for engineering.
What is his goal for after college. Let that drive the decision. If both degrees get your there, then go bio.
The other thing about engineering is you go general engineering first year and then apply to an engineering major. The only guarantee to get you your major is a 3.75 gpa and completing required courses that every engineering student must take.
I think it’s safe to say, you can hold your breath lol
With those stats and ECs he will not have any trouble.
Thanks. Not holding my breath so much about admissions…NMF cutoffs…that’s an entirely different subject.
@Peruna1998 i don’t know anything about Tennessee PSAT/Nat Merit scores & ranking, but I would think a 1440 has a good shot at getting Commended, at least.
My ‘23 Aggie had a 1440 PSAT and did get Commended (she would not have gotten it the next year-crazy how the scores fluctuate, and we are in Texas). Even getting Commended will open many doors. Good luck!
Please keep us posted on nmsf! Very impressive! Oh and I was checking on biomedic hoping they had a minor but you have to be an engineering student to minor in this field. So that’s a bummer. Was hoping to get another option for him.
Thanks! Yes, It is a 5 year program. 8th-12th grade. Students can only enter in 8th or 9th. It was a pretty rigorous application process: written essay, video interview, letters of recommentation, grades, and attendance records. He expressed interest in it so we said go for it.
Will meet with advisor re daughters AP credits. 
The Selection Index for Commended for Class of 2022 has already been released. It is 207. S22 scored a 215. So, at a minimum he is Commended. The question is NMSF, which should be released in a month. The cutoff for the Class of 2021 in Tennessee was 215. He scored a 215. Of course, he is in the Class of 2022. With COVID’s impact on test taking and results, we shall see.
We are in the same boat, OOS waiting for NMSF cut off to make our decision.
@martinezcs ECHS is an example of when a school/counselor/administrator is doing everything the way it should be-helping students plan for their future. The DC hours aren’t wasted, but rather very thought out and count towards an end goal. I can’t even comprehend students can graduate and potentially go directly into the medical field…truly remarkable!
It is a shame when so many students get to A&M (or wherever) with 40-60ish DC hours, only to find out they have no room for ‘fun’ electives, can’t find any open classes to register for, aren’t eligible to change their major and often have to retake classes they’ve already taken. There aren’t enough college guidance counselors on every campus to help navigate the college process.
Sounds like your son will thrive in the new environment, be surrounded by like minded students and supportive staff/teachers. What an incredible opportunity for him!
Amazing!! Fingers crossed for y’all! NM Commended has opened many doors for my Aggie, so at the very least he’s got that! 
By “opened many doors” for being NM Commended, do you mean a McFadden, Lechner, or Presidents Endowed Scholarship?
Anyone get an email with NetID yet that applied with Go Texas? Son applied on 8/2 and nothing here. He also applied at Baylor and got a Baylor id 2 days later.
Another question- he is at a small private school (like 9 kids in his class). How will A&M assign a rank to him???
What happens if I’m at a non-ranking school?
The Office of Admissions will assign a ranking based on the information included in your SRAR. Students can see the quartile ranking assigned in the AIS checklist.
Source: https://admissions.tamu.edu/srar
@NDTA96 yes, Presidents Endowed Scholarship and Business Honors. My Aggie had great stats-rank & gpa-as well as leadership, awards, 500+ volunteer hours…but so did MANY. The Commended status put her into the next level. At the PES ceremony in 2019, I don’t think anyone got it, that wasn’t at least Commended.
A&M is really, really big into all levels of National Merit recognition.
Thanks for the information about rank assignment, but how do they calculate it exactly? His SRAR will only have info about his grades in his classes. He doesn’t have a rank from his school in the SRAR. There also isn’t info on other kids in his school in the SRAR so without comparative data how do they determine a rank quartile?
Tamu has the stats on most schools. Classes offered, gpa distribution etc.
@Aggies9698
Supposedly the ID will come out by the end of this week. Someone called admissions… it’s up higher in this thread someplace… and that’s what they found out. It is an Apply Texas issue. My daughter applied 8/1 using Apply Texas to both TAMU and UT and hasn’t gotten ID’S from either school yet, so it’s not specific to TAMU.
Just to give y’all a timeline from last year on acceptances.
Sept 6th & 22nd (ish): Top 10% to Mays
Sept. 29th: Engineering review students and top 10% full admits to Cstat campus
& Mays review students
Oct. 21st: several majors (including Mays & Eng.) in 1st quarter and most test optional
Oct. 28th: Review students (a lot were test optional): All majors including Eng.
Nov. 11th: Engineering review students and other majors
Nov. 18th: Test optional other majors (Mays is now full)
Dec. 2nd: starting to see some 2nd quarter non Eng majors being accepted
Dec. 16: Top quarter with mediocre scores to all majors except Eng. (remember, Mays is now full).
Jan. 20th: Engineering review students only
Jan. 21st: Offers to select option for TEAM/Waitlist to TAMU/ Or both! Also, Gateway offers where given (this is a great pathway)
Jan. 26th: Galveston Engineering offers
Jan. 27th: Engineering at Cstat full- most got to choose other locations: Galveston, Blinn or McAllen.
And then this forum was not loading so I couldn’t go further. I’ll do so at a later time.
This is so helpful- thanks
Last year, my son entered the present month (august 2020) as the end date for jobs in progress. If your student feels the application does not allow enough space to explain job info, consider submitting a separate resume. A resume also allows a student to include items that happened before high school. (the app specifically asks for high school info only). If one is a review candidate, they definitely want to include all info helpful to their application. Best wishes!