I’m not a guru on scholarships at all. Someone else needs to answer this! I’m sorry.
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@ChristiR93 could you please explain a little further why you recommend someone with a 30 ACT (or equivalent SAT score) to take this Residual ACT? From what I can tell, the mid range (25% to 75%) of ACT scores for admitted students at TAMU is 26-31 (SAT range is 1160-1390). So a 30 would be on the high end of that range, which is really good, I think, and would be hard to beat without a good amount of prep. What am I missing?
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@aalv link should answer your questions, if not, there’s contact info where your student can reach out to ask specifics.
https://scholarships.tamu.edu/FRESHMEN/How-To-Apply#0-ApplyingforIncomingFreshmanScholarships
Here’s an example. U of Minnesota’s middle 50% ACT is two points higher at 28-33.
The link above shows the ACT range by major/college. In engineering, a 30 would be 25%ile but in some other majors/colleges, a 30 would be 75%ile and probably admittable early in the cycle, assuming they do a batch admissions process like A&M.
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For engineering, if non-auto admit, having a 31+ ACT (or 1410+ SAT) raises the chance (in state or OOS). Of course other factors (essays, ECs, NMSF status…) may affect the review admit process.
Texas has this auto-admit law so one cannot really take the median and mean data of ACT/SAT too seriously and think Texas standard is lower. There are a lot of auto-admit students in Texas decided not to prepare for SAT/ACT tests as these won’t affect their admission.
Two factors you can tell Texas is ultra competitive. First is population. Back in 1991, Texas population was behind New York state at 17M. Texas surpassed NY in 1993 and today Texas has 30M. The number of colleges hasn’t grown much in the last 30 years. Second is PSAT score index, Texas is nearly the top in nation every year, which shows if kids really prepare for PSAT they get very high scores.
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Anything to show that you will go above and beyond is where I’m coming from. I agree that a 30 is great in most cases. Engineering and Mays are extremely competitive. This student in particular was looking for a way to advance themselves in the process. This is a good way to do that based on what I said in that post. But do I think a Liberal Arts student with a top quarter rank and a 30 on the ACT should do the residual?.. answer would still be yes. It’s how bad does someone want it and what are they complacent with. If it’s not feasible to come to cstat to do it, then no problem, but if it’s possible… why not since we are still in a good timeframe.
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Don’t you think that, on average, top 10% applicants have at least as high of an SAT as those that did not graduate in the top 10%? I think the smaller town kids’ test scores are balanced out with top 10% suburban kids. I saw a UT study about the GPA performance of direct admits, review admits and CAP’d admits and all had average GPAs with 0.1 of each other. A key was that CAP’d students that ended up enrolling already proved that they were capable of college work.
In general I do. Many kids nowadays are very smart, they know when they are secure in top 10% and scoring 220+ in PSAT index for NMSF status, they do not need to take SAT/ACT seriously, especially when they have no plan to go out of state. I personally know quite a few like that.
He has taken the ACT four times. The first one was his best one! The score didn’t change all four times but in reading and English by a point or two either way….at least he is consistent 
So I am not sure if taking another test would help him or not at this point. Do you think a 30 is too low to get into TAMU engineering now?
And seems like there is not a ton of action this week in acceptances? Or is that just me being hopeful that a batch will come? Anyone??? Still waiting…….yawn…
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@Karandave ,we’re still waiting. We applied at UTD last week just as an option and DS got his acceptance email last night. Nothing from TAMU yet. My friend’s DD last year with same stats as my son heard back in 2 weeks. I guess TAMU has received a record number of applications this year since for most kids TAMU is the second option if they get capped at UT Austin.
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I’d bet he gets at least ETAM at Blinn or Galveston since he’s first quarter with a 30 ACT and great ECs. A 30 on the ACT is like a 1370 SAT and I know someone who got Galveston with a 1310 and possibly second quarter. Is your son taking at least Calculus AB now or previously as well as AP Physics? Strength of schedule also helps. I saw that your son’s majors are Aerospace and ME. I believe those are the toughest ones to get after ETAM.
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@ALN TAMU had 55k+ applicants last year. Not sure why you think everyone applies to A&M as a 2nd option/fall back if they don’t get into UT? A&M is also not waiting for UT CAP decisions, before sending out their acceptances.
I bet if I asked my Aggie’s friends (in their honors program, no less) how many applied to Texas, very few would say they did.
Two completely different schools-both excellent-but I assure you A&M isn’t everyone’s fallback choice.
TAMU also has the highest number of National Merit scholars in the state; consistently one of the highest in the nation every year.
BTW-I am not an Aggie.
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Right! My son isn’t even applying to UT and has absolutely NO interest in going there.
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IKR? Same with mine…she would’ve been auto admit at UT, I couldn’t even bribe her to apply, just to say she got in (to make her Texas Ex grandfather & uncles happy). Zero desire.
Two amazing universities, but completely different.
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Same. We actually expected to like UT and planned on her applying based on its reputation and ranking but after spending the weekend there and doing some research we discouraged her from applying and she agreed.
BTW I’m not an Aggie either. I’m not even from Texas so I actually wasn’t even familiar with any of the Texas colleges until we started researching and touring for my daughter. Based on our campus tour experiences and our research into the schools and towns they are located in, she applied to 4 colleges. UT was not one of them.
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Whoa! Disagree big time with @ALN. My DS did not even apply to UT. I’m sure it is a fine school, but just not for him. I am not an Aggie. In fact, nobody in the family is, but DS took an interest in TAMU, so we started researching it together and quickly fell in love. Now, if he could just get accepted … I wish TAMU had ED (Early Decision) or some other way of telling the school he will enroll if accepted.
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My comment was based on my small group of people I know who have kids applying to UT and TAMU as a second choice so no this definitely does not apply to everyone, sorry if it came out that way.
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For what it’s worth, that’s how I read your comment.
I am a Longhorn, and our son did apply to UT Engineering only because (1) it’s a good engineering school and (2) he could live at home for a couple of years to save $10+k/year. We’re not expecting he will get in, and if given the choice between TAMU and UT, he probably will choose TAMU.
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Expectations, class size and acceptance paths are different. Take engineering as example, UT admits applicants directly to major while TAMU has ETAM, so it will appear applying for Aerospace, Biomedical and Computer Engineering to UT more difficult and almost impossible to get in as review admit. TAMU engineering size is around 5000, UT is around 2000.
So it appears some high scoring auto-admit got capped by UT engineering (or “dumped” to COLA) got acceptance to TAMU general engineering, but in TAMU that student hasn’t actually received acceptance to major yet.
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