They literally review every holistic application TWICE before making a decision. Mind you on the definite high scoring top quarter students it may only take once, but they will not give an alternate pathway or psa or denial without reviewing the app twice. And no 1 person makes the decision. They have people that score the essay, the SRAR, the ECs, etc. It’s all done blindly to my knowledge.
It always takes this long. And throwing test optional in there is even more cumbersome.
TAMU official decisions date as stated in their web site “Most students applying for fall admission will receive a decision between January 1 and late March.” Now is only January 24th.
Sometimes people may get the “decision” mixed up as UT does guarantee a Feb 1st decision for those meeting priority deadline. TAMU only have that for Engineering applied completed by Oct 15th. For TAMU, non engineering can get decisions as late as March.
The key is the last day for admitted students to accept, there is no need for TAMU to wait for other universities as admitted students have plenty of time to weigh their decisions.
Questions
I followed the links from admissions dreadful email last week and saw Gateway has engineering offer, is it true?
Do you know what triggers a gateway offer? And what triggers a Blinn offer?
@ChristiR93 , once again thank you. It is really very good to know that they read essays , score SRAR and ECs. I have never seen my son spend so much time on any of his school assignments than he did with those essays so it feels good to know someone is actually reading them 
all things said and done, I am still hopeful and I won’t let my son give up just yet. His stats are good and I’d like to believe his Varsity Coach wrote a good LOR for him
PlanoAggies, you must be one of few really following admission instruction closely.
TAMU just updated the links and set the new dates for 2022 gateway. Also, even though the email was dreadful, TAMU did monitor the click through (each student assigned a unique ID in the links so you can only guess what they are seeing).
Gateway students degree set to GEST initially, so for sure no more engineering.
Last two cycles the number of offers dropped likely only related to the pandemic. Normally they have 600 students. Besides taking 6 hours of cores, there are two LCCs so for a short summer II session it is pretty hectic. That’s why the GPA requirement (2.0) is not that high. These lucky students are led by PM (peer mentors) who are past Gateway students.
Very few engineering students not passing MPE may take M150 for summer II to try to catch the regular engineering schedule, that is after NSC advising and not very common option.
Gateway obviously is not offered to auto admit students. As far as trigger for review admits, there is no publicly disclosed rule. But past few years all Gateway students were all full-admit qualfied but some data from SRAR (may be getting a C? or PI just a decimal below the median) triggered it. That’s why TAMU has LCC to ensure Gateway students success in transition.
As for Blinn, those are fully qualified students more likely due to “spill over” (main campus run out of spots). So some majors (e.g. Construction Science) have no Blinn, either because the “spill over” is not a lot (doesn’t worth setting up Blinn contract), or the regular transfer barrier is not high (Construction Science regular transfer min GPA 2.5).
Hope that ease your anxiety.
C/o of 98 here. DD applied in August. She got the Alternative Admissions Decisions email this weekend. Guess that means she’s for sure not fully admitted? (She picked Allied Health 1st, Arch for 2nd). She did put Blinn Team on her application. This is all new to us……she’s our first.
She’s been accepted to Baylor (pre nursing) But we do want to see what TAMU says. Guess it’s not looking hopeful. Wish we knew sooner than later to make some plans.
Great info! Tho Hotard hasn’t been a dorm in quite some time. I believe it’s some sort of academic building? Perhaps that’s where the Gateway offices are? Or maybe TAP offices?
That dreadful email sent to everyone still waiting, it didn’t mean anything. The email was just for information only.
Last few years, many students didn’t know what those pathways were when offered, but admission office needed students pick their choices quickly. That’s why they sent out that email but of course did not convey them nicely.
Full admission spots are available.
Yes, not staying, TAPs working.
LCC is Learning Community Courses (ASCC 289 and UGST 001) both 0 credit hours
Normal or not, the interesting thing to me is that, from a PR standpoint, things do not seem to be going very well this year. No doubt, there have been a number of blunders by the AO this year. Starting with the “Admission Offered” glitch in September all the up to the “Alternative Admission Decision” email on Friday, it has been an emotional roller coaster for these kids, and not in a good way. I know I’m just one parent and nobody cares, but I am shaking my head over here wondering why the AO is not controlling the narrative better. Do they not know the PR is bad, or not care?
What I do know is this – if there is another week without significant movement on decisions followed by another AO Instagram post on Feb.1 saying, “There’s now just 3 months left to accept your offer of admission,” that would probably not be well received. B/c if that happens, applicants will likely bombard the ever living … ever loving … the AO needs a PR person … he!! out of the AO office with questions and concerns.
Thank you. I thought we would know more about this process being we are A&M grads. Things have certainly changed. 
@ashill77 , I do agree about the email sent out on Friday. That certainly did not make any parent/ child that is waiting for decision happy. However, with the pandemic and employees working remote/in person and some out on Covid, I would like to give them the benefit of doubt. I hope they are aware that the Friday email was a PR blunder and moving forward, any notifications that is sent out will be treated with great sensitivity knowing that emotions are running high and people are running out of patience.
I just checked my son’s financial aid on Howdy and his Maroon scholarship that was previously there is now gone. We were waiting for TAMU to receive and update the
NHRP award that he received from college board which should make him eligible for further scholarship. Is this normal to have a scholarship offer in HOWDY and then it be gone? Could they be updating the offer? I believe official scholarship offers are sent out in February correct?
I am also just one parent but have also been thinking that Texas A&M is an award-winning institution in so many areas, but their Admissions Office REALLY needs to get creative and improve their efficiency and sensitivity of communications. No matter that this is their “norm” and they SAY on their website that a decision may not be given until March. It shouldn’t be the norm and they can and should do better. Maybe they need to hire ten times more staff to go through the applications? When an applicant’s file is complete in August, it can be emotionally taxing for a teenager (and family) to wait for such a gross amount of time without any notification or status change.
@aalv Yes, most likely they are swapping/adding/changing a scholarship. They won’t ever just take one away, but replacing is common.
Is it possible that if your son is getting a National Recognition scholarship, that he then will not qualify for the Maroon Merit? I don’t know, just speculating. This is on their website “Students eligible to receive a non-resident tuition waiver by earning at least $4,000 in competitive scholarships each academic year are not eligible for the Maroon Merit Scholarship. In order to provide scholarship opportunities to the greatest number of students, Texas A&M does not stack Academic Scholarships. If you qualify for more than one Academic Scholarship you will receive the highest dollar-value scholarship only”.
My other son (twin) received an official scholarship offer by mail in December that included the National Recognition Scholarship as well as the Maroon Scholarship. My son now in question only had the Maroon scholarship in Howdy with no official letter, but he didn’t get the National Recognition award from College Board till a month after my other son, so TAMU hadn’t updated that yet and they said it should be updated by February when they send out the awards. I was checking to see if they had added the National Recognition Scholarship yet, but was surprised to see his Maroon Scholarship gone and nothing offered in Howdy today. So I am really hoping they are updating it and will still include the Maroon Scholarship he had before like my other son has.
NRS include OOS tuition waiver and likely not stackable with Maroon.
Not true. My twin and I are autos at UT and we found out our major in Nov, not “a couple of weeks ago”. But I do have friends that just found out a week ago. Depends on your major
That’s weird that you have twins who have received different notifications. I have heard several people say that scholarships that were in Howdy have disappeared, so you aren’t alone. Hopefully it’s a temporary glitch or they are updating to include more. Fingers crossed that it works out in your favor!