I am a junior in high school and dream of going to Texas A&M,Utd or Texas tech and would like to know my chances of getting into these school with my current stats:
(First time taking the Act) 23 composite score math:26 ,English 21, reading 19, science 24
I am ranked 80 out of 539
I play soccer and have up to 25 volunteering hour and I also tutor math at a local church also an honor student at my high school with a 94.7 gpa
I am also Hispanic (if that even means anything)
I would also like to know my chances of getting blinn teamed for A&M and if their slim I would be happy to know what act score would help improve my chances.
Will i gues no one will reply
I’ll reply!
Do you live in Texas or are you OOS?
Yes i live in texas
If you are a review applicant the competition will be very tough and if you get Blinn Team you’ll have to meet gpa and course requirements before you can transfer to main campus. You can guarantee your spot at A&M main campus with a 30 ACT. TAMU grants Automatic Academic Admission outside top 10%.
I’d suggest you put a lot of effort into preparing as best you can for a September retake of the ACT. 7 points is a lot to make up but it’s doable.
Thanks for the advise
My school is filled with cheaters it makes me so angry
Ok, I can chime in now also. I agree with @JAMCAFE. It looks like you will not meet the class rank requirements.
But the good news is that it looks like you a great kid and a hard worker. I really think you could crank your ACT and you can do it without an expensive prep class. What does your summer look like as far as work or travel or school? You need to set aside a SERIOUS study schedule. My daughter raised her ACT pretty significantly (raised English by 5 points and math by 4 points) with the following study method"
2 hrs
- Review a chapter in Erica Meltzer, do the work for that chapter. http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-ACT-English-2nd/dp/1484831454
Take an ACT English section test. Review the questions you got wrong and really learn the WHY of what you got wrong.
2hrs
2. Review a chapter in an ACT math study book. She needed a thorough review of Algebra especially.
-then take an ACT Math section practice test. Review and rework all the questions you got wrong until you really understand the concepts. She kept a large sticky note of formulas she needed to know. Do you have a good calculator?
Use either old ACT tests you find online AND the Real ACT Red Book of practice tests.
Also, she HIGHLY recommends the online ACT prep you can purchase on the ACT website. She said the repetition with the math was wonderfully helpful…with over 800 questions per section plus answer explanations. It was worth every penny of the 60 or so fee for the online prep.
3, Take a full length practice test at least once a week.
You could do this DAILY in the summer and then schedule yourself for the August ACT. If you really really want this and make the choice to doggedly pursue it, I think there is a chance you could get your score up. Even if you worked this summer you could devote 2 hrs a day to prepping. Determination is a powerful thing…please report back to this thread and let us know how you did! We will be rooting you on!
Also, I hear you on the cheating. I get whiffs of rampant AP cheating and it angers me. The best thing YOU can do for yourself is put your head down, stay determined and on track and prep daily and consistently for the next ACT test.
@carachel2 Solid plan. I’m going to cut and paste it to my notes for my S. He’ll be studying this summer for the ACT in Sep and Oct this year.
@STEM2017 …I hope it works! My D did take a prep course last summer but honestly, she is not a good passive learner for big review content like that. She went to the class, but admits she did not put in the work. She became highly self-motivated when she realized the only way to possibly go to the school of her choice was to get some merit aid. This is adapted from the “Xiggi” method I believe? I printed that method at and she kind of made it her own.
The key factor, at least for me as a parent…is this was HER decision. I did not have to nag her at all. She did all of this even with a full IB load and she works 8-15 hrs per week (she does not do sports). Your kid has to want this and they have to have a goal in mind.
She will be taking the ACT again in June because she wants one more point. Ugh! So ready for her to be done.
Oh…and I also recently got her the ACT Black Book and she said last night that it was VERY helpful.
Well i am going to work landscaping this summer for about 3 weeks and i have a decent calculater (ti inspire) and yea i cheating in my school has been bad especially this year. The number 12 in my class got caught which is good. for your advice did your duaghter use prep classes and since i have reduce lunch i have the online prep from the act website. I LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR REPLY SO much.
The trick, as exposed above, is to REALLY really look for WHY you got a question wrong - and do a bunch or similar questions until you get several in a row perfectly correct and fast.
If you can get a 25 you’d have a shot at Texas Tech.
Tutoring at church would count in your volunteer hours.
Having a job counts as a ‘strong’ ec but just three weeks over the summer (even if it’s in Texas heat) won’t make it as strong. Still valuable.
However, Texas public universities admissions are heavily based on class rank, so you may fare better with private universities.
St Edward’s is an excellent university for example, Texas Lutheran too. If you can push your act to 25+ Southwestern would be good, as would Trinity Texas or Hendrix; Birmingham Southern, Millsaps, Eckerd, Flagler, Oglethorpe, Roanoke, Virginia Wesleyan would all be possible and you’d likely get merit.
Many ‘top’ private colleges (like Southwestern or Hendrix) wI’ll want to see honors classes and a couple AP 's - does that represent your curriculum rigor well?
If you feel strong in some subjects, you could take subject tests. Those Would be free and you could take Spanish + 2others you’re strong at. You’d need to study of course but if you’re good at them it’s help your application at all private universities.
What major would you be interested in?
(keep in mind that you are unlikely to be able to choose your major at UT or tamu unless you’re interested in suvbjects less in-demand, IE., not business nor stem especially engineering ).
Are you a boy or a girl?
What’s your efc?
Have you discussed budget with your parents, and have you checked costs of attendance through the NPC (net price calculator)?
Your goal should be to apply to colleges with the lowest NPC’s.
If you can improve your standardized testing to above 25 look into Questbridge and Posse. Depending on curriculum rigor you could apply to universities that meet 100%need, as those would likely be cheaper than TAMU or CAP: Texas public universities are often unaffordable to kids in your income bracket so looking at private colleges may be a better bet.
I have taken bio 2 ap(99avg) and us ap (95avg) unweighted and the rest of my classes are honor classes. I will be taking phy ap, cal ap and duel credit english next year. I am a male and intend on majoring in computer science and not afraid in going in debt so yea i will be applying those schools. Efc is about 50000 per year including both parents. I did not think of about private schools i like the idea of going to south western and thanks for opening my eyes to those schools.is it a good idea to start geting recomendation letters right now
Wait… Your EFC is $50k/year?
What can your parents pay? What will they pay?
well they said they could help pay for my meal plan and possibly my room and board and they just got done with paying for the house and their cars
oh MYOS1634 i forgot to say am going to a leader ship camp this summer at st Edwards
You need to have a very specific budget talk with your parents. What is the dollar amount they will pay per year?
Tuition and room and board @ TAMU is estimated at 24-27K per year. Is that in the budget?
“I’m not afraid of going into debt.” - you should be!
You do understand there is a limit to how much you can borrow, right?
I did not know that and thanks. DO you have advice on finding scholar ships and when should i start applying for them?
oh and my parents are at work so yea I will try and about how much money are they willing to pay asap
Talk to them very quickly. Public universities in Texas will cost you 25-30k and you’re unlikely to get scholarships unless you don’t aim for TAMU /Texas Tech but rather Texas State or a directional UT.
Your efc indicates your parents can afford cost of attendance there and your stats are unlikely to result in merit, so if they can’t afford TAMU you won’t be able to attend even if you’re admitted.
You can borrow 5.5k per year. You’ll be expected to earn 3k toward college. Everything else is supposed to come from your parents. A few years back, Texas did away with most state grants and replaced them with state loans so you may qualify for those but you may not, so check. In all cases, your parents are considered the primary people responsible for paying your college costs.
(most colleges don’t care if they can’t, or if they have debt… so having parents without debt and well off would help you.)
Scholarships primarily come from the College so you need to apply to colleges that may give you one. You need to run the NPC and choose colleges where your test scores are top 10% or at least top 25%.
Some private universities give you ‘preferential packaging’ if you comenfrom 400 miles do you may want to look at colleges in the Midwest and South (Butler, Illinois Wesleyan, Iowa State, SIU Carbondale, Creighton, plus others already mentioned.)
Just checking : Is your efc 50k ? Or 5k ?