We were told in a TAMU Admissions meeting in the Summer, scores would only help and not hurt if you did not submit. They have her scores, though I don’t know if they even look when you check test optional… we did. I found this forum way later, to my chagrin. We focused on other parts of the application process because of this, she wrote own essay (no paid help, because she wanted to get in on her own merit.) We agreed. I will say, she does now have a TEAM offer (which she struggled with…thought she could have a full admit with her stats compared to others, but has realized it is great!(less $$ all of the benefits). We kicked ourselves for checking Test Optional in August…a lot of sleepless nights and worry, however…ask yourself and your child…
what is your ultimate objective? If the answer is a TAMU degree…it should help laser focus some decisions.
But I fully believe there are still good decisions coming for all…keep positive…keep praying, have a back up and put a deposit down at your back up…but KNOW back that it will be worth it when you get the Welcome To Aggieland email! which is still possible.
There are many pathways to TAMU and because of that, entering as freshmen or entering as transfer is not that big of a deal. TAMU admit around 11000 freshmen while taking in 3000 transfers on average of last five years. A considerable percentage of full admit freshmen got filtered out and replaced with transfers.
For instance, nearly half of student body is engineering, the ETAM process is the same for those getting full admit at College Station, TEAB, McAllen, Galveston and those 6 Engineering Academies community colleges. In fact, those at College Station may be in a little disadvantage because several ETAM classes are indeed tougher and more competitive.
Cream will rise to the top starting Sophomore year and even more so in Junior and Senior year. 34% or one-third of all engineering students at College Station got filtered out and replenished with TEAB, McAllen, Galveston and the 6 Academies. That’s a good game plan to tackle the auto admit law and only happen in TAMU. UT Austin doesn’t have ETAM, that’s why they only take in superb students and threw many auto-admit to Liberal Arts as a form of rejection.
The only complaint should be, as taxpayers, that filtered students waste public funds when they fail, q-drop or retake a class, but the opportunities (people here frustrated about) is always there and open for grab.
I hope all waiting will get their deserving spots. If students are not auto, as parents, the focus is better making sure students have plan B and C. It is not healthy if you see your child “deadset” on a school or a major but if TAMU is the goal, and if COM or transfer barrier is low, full Blinn is a breeze and saves a lot of money. For engineering, now is the time applying other pathways such as academies as you have seen many discussion before, the ETAM chances are equal.
By nature, PACE is similar to TEAM. In reality PACE is very limited and far less sincere, only 4 colleges participate and no major guarantee at all. PACE size is also very small ranging 400-800 over the years. Rellis is far more integrated than ACC to UT. Blinn TEAM along with Engineering TEAB cover almost every college in TAMU when including change of majors (COM).
The other similar pathways in UT (CAP) vs TAMU (PSA), many CAP participants also reflected that CAP offer is not sincere at all and success rate to UT is very low and narrow. TAMU PSA (and PTA) has a much better chance of admittance to TAMU.
this!!
Totally agree sometimes this thread can be a cautionary tale…. Apologize for misspelled words and bad use of grammar sometimes my small town education shows through
@Piknight I just spit out my coffee! 
Love it! You’re an incoming Mays parent, right?
Be sure you have joined this page (for admitted to Mays parents)-
No one actually knows if their 6A school kid could be top 10% or valedictorian if they switched to a small town school. Parents are biased to think that, but our kids could be bottom half. No way to really make that assumption. My husband is from a tiny dirt town, raised in a trailer park and has a Masters from A&M and is definitely smarter than me, a kid from a large suburban school.
Wow. I missed a lot of discussion yesterday while Prom Dress shopping. I agree with many comments, especially about having a backup. I do believe there should be a caveat to the top 10% law; students should have to have a minimal SAT/ACT score or some other testing requirement to be automatically admitted. It would just make it a more even playing field for all other non-public school students in the state. Texas schools either need to require standardized testing from everyone or just do away with it and have complete holistic review. The “test optional” had its time in 2020 when testing centers were not available, but that wasn’t the case this year. Recruiters saying test optional wouldn’t hurt you was a real disservice, because it seems like not submitting is just advertising you didn’t score well. If your student didn’t submit scores because they were not good, then you should expect to wait. I will add I understand the frustration. This process was excruciatingly stressful as a non public school student/parent, especially knowing my child would have been top 10% if we had continued with public school. During our journey, auto admit rules changed, and it was hard to know where the goal line was. Thankfully my DD met it; I believe that it was based upon her SAT scores and rigorous dual enrollment courses. She’s worked hard and is well prepared to be successful. But as intelligent and hardworking as she is, I remind her often that once she gets to A&M it’s going to be a whole new ballgame. There will always be someone smarter or working harder and she needs to be her best to reach her goals.
If CSTAT engineering has a 34% attrition rate after ETAM, wouldn’t UT still have a roughly 20% rate? It’s odd that UT has no extra entry points into engineering but A&M has many with hundreds of students in the pipeline.
You are correct, UT’s strategy is shrinking their engineering class without replenishing the seat.
The top 5% to 10% at my old 5A HS in East Texas wouldn’t compare with the same group at top suburban high schools like Seven Lakes, Plano West, etc. However, parents probably figure out that their kid might not make the direct admissions cut at one of two Texas universities if they don’t finish in the top 6-10%. In Seven Lakes case, one could go six miles down the road to Fulshear HS and compete in a school with average SAT of 1063 vs 1286 at SL. Both have A accountability ratings according to Texas Tribune. My old HS is just over the statewide average SAT, and lower than Fulshear HS, with a B accountability rating.
Do top kids from Fulshear, Diboll, Center, Snyder, Aldine McArthur and the like do well? Absolutely. A&M gives them opportunities to succeed. But the second quarter kid in some select, highly competitive high schools may have to go PSA at A&M for a year or go non-public or OOS and hope they were well prepared.
I feel like this coming week we will get lots of answers.
I was just reading some posts on Reddit and someone asked a question there I was also curious about and will ask here: Do we all think the TEAM/ Waitlisted people (1st quarter) have less of a chance than the ‘In Review’ people (1st quarter)? Is there a pattern that happened last year - where COMPLETE AND IN REVIEW kids – at this time last year – got in more often at this late stage than the TEAM/ Waitlisted folks? Or vise versa.
Here is how I would look at it:
- In-state vs out-of state and State school vs Private - for costs.
- Rather to a University directly rather go into a “gateway program” in another college with the possibility of admission to the university of choice after 1 or 2 years if certain conditions like “GPA” is met. I find that risky and not worth it. Ask yourself what happens if you don’t meet the conditions to transfer.
- Admission to the “Major” versus admission to the University College. Always chooses admission to the Major then you don’t have the headache after a year of making certain benchmarks to get into your desired major.
- Prefer doing degrees like Computer Science or Computer Engineering instead of specific or specialized ones like Cyber Security or Data Science.
- In Purdue University Computer Science is part of Liberal Arts and Sciences and is great
- Think of job prospects - what major and what city? Again, if you get into Purdue Computer Science Job Prospects are great and as good as CS from Austin or Georgia Tech, but then just a Liberal Arts from wouldn’t be as great and weather in Indiana versus Atlanta to Texas.
I do not think those that have received no movement are in the running for full admit. They could possibly still get team.
It just wouldn’t make sense for Tamu to hold onto full admits.
My kiddo would take TEAM in a heartbeat… but I have said that already. Lol
Edited to say -but I realize you said my kiddo has less of a chance since no movement at all.
Less of a chance at full. I think team may still come out for non movement peeps. At least I hope so.
I couldn’t do multiple emoji’s…
