<p>Ok, I understand that TAMU has revised many aspects of the Honors program. It's a little hard to asses how competitive the program is since such a high percentage of the student body is top 10%. Can anyone give me an idea if my son's stats would be in line with University Honors acceptance?</p>
<p>Top 5% of his class at a small private college prep in Texas (auto admit to TAMU and UT)
ACT 32 Composite
GPA 4.0 unweighted, 4.6ish weighted.<br>
Has taken the most AP and honors courses available each year
NHRP scholar based on PSAT of 207 (cut off is 181 this year)
NHS
Good extracurriculars - band, cross country, officer of Spanish honor society
State level competitor in band and is in the local youth symphony
lots of community service
plans to study engineering but more interested in University Honors than Engineering Honors</p>
<p>Just trying to get a handle on the process and odds before the summer application season starts. He is also considering Barrett at ASU where his NHRP gives him a near automatic honors acceptance as I understand it. Mom (me) is interested in a good honors program with honors housing and good support for students making the transition from very small HS to very large U. :-) </p>
<p>My daughter is also NHRP and was accepted into the honors program this year. She’ll be joining the Corps though and will not be in honors housing. Unless things change for next year he’ll be accepted to honors.</p>
<p>My older daughter, now a senior Mech Eng. student, was in the Honors Housing her freshman year and loved it! Her stats were similar to your son’s stats except for the fact she went to a public Texas high school. Honors housing was where she made her friends and she felt very supported. Although A&M is a large university, she always told us the size didn’t hinder her. Advice would be, apply early in August!</p>
<p>My D too is in Honors and now a Junior. She also LOVED the Honors housing freshman year. She really “found her people”. Kids who were high achievers and serious about classes, but still liked to have fun. Good luck with everything.</p>
<p>@gobluemom85. My oldest son will be attending Texas A&M this fall and will be in the honors program. There were 35 students in his graduating class from BASIS Scottsdale Charter School. We visited ASU/Barrett and went to the ASU Presidential Scholars Dinner. We had an all-day visit to A&M last December, including meeting with the honors program director. My son was also accepted to Michigan, Purdue, Georgia Tech, and Texas. ASU and Texas A&M both provided full tuition scholarships.</p>
<p>Overall, Texas A&M is a better school than is ASU, My son will study Aerospace Engineering, which is top-notch. However, I rate the honors program as good, not great. Typically, only first-year students at A&M can live in the Honors dormitories. The facilities are also not as good as the Barrett facilities. Barrett has much more of a small college feel. Everything is brand new and is gated off from the rest of ASU. Outside of regular hours, only Barrett students, faculty, and staff have access. The dedicated support and counseling is outstanding. 12 of the 35 BASIS Scottsdale 2014 graduates will got to ASU/Barrett, including the Valedictorian. I know several students there now that graduated from BASIS in previous years and love Barrett, as do their parents. (Craig Barrett, the former Intel Chairman and Barrett Honors College namesake, is Chairman of the Board for the BASIS Schools.)</p>
<p>Every kid is different. My son just fell in love with A&M. Purdue was second, but only offered $10,000 per year in scholarships (same as Michigan). With two more boys graduating in 2015 and 2016, we could not afford either school. We are happy that our oldest selected A&M and even happier that it will be affordable. If either of the next two picks ASU/Barrett, we will also be delighted.</p>
<p>I just finished my first year in the Honors program. Loved the environment it provided in the dorms, for the program itself not too fond of it. Early registration is really nice, but if you are in trying to sign up for science classes like Chemistry or Biology they limit the number of people the let in during early registration so that can actually end up hurting you because your window will close while the department rationed the number of available seats.</p>
<p>I am actually an engineering student and have taken several honors courses like Engr 111/112 Honors and Ends 101 honors. The main thing honors classes provides for engineering students is a smaller class size, and yes their overall GPA tends to be higher. Whether that can be attributed to the group of the students in the class or the teacher giving Honors students a little benefit of the doubt and grading easier who knows? (I personally think it is some of both).</p>
<p>One thing I have heard is not to take an Honors Math course your first semester at the University unless you or your child feels VERY confident in their ability. I have a friend that took Calculus I twice in high school AB then BC, and then took regular Calculus I at A&M and still had a hard time. </p>
<p>Let me know if y’all have any other questions about the honors program or Texas A&M in general, would love to share my experience.</p>
<p>I don’t think this is true, beaudreau, unless things have changed very recently, and I don’t think they have. At TAMU, Clements is an honors dorm for upperclassmen. My son lived in Clements for his sophomore year and enjoyed it.</p>
<p>I would think your son would be accepted into TAMU’s honors program, gobluemom85, but of course, nobody here can really answer that question with any sort of certainty. His stats are good and, from what you post, he sounds like the type of student that is often selected for honors. </p>
<p>No problem, Beaudreau. It’s hard to keep track of every detail about every school. And I remember thinking just what you think about the honors programs at ASU and TAMU, in general. The ASU/Barrett program appears to be top notch!</p>
<p>I was in the University Honors for 2012. I think your son has a good chance, especially if he’s going into engineering. The support for them is much greater than for other majors (there was just one another honors student with my major and no upperclassmen to guide us).</p>
<p>As for the program, I’m not sure what’s changed since then, but the program in general seems to be very new and tentative. During my year student complaints got so bad that they allowed us to completely restructure meetings and honors assignments.</p>
<p>For certain types of students, the honors LLC may not work very well either. The social life of the dorms are very active and they do a lot, but they tend to favor the louder, more gregarious types. It was very hard for the quieter smart kids to find one another.</p>
<p>Honors living does come with perks. At least in Lechner, the dorm I was in, the rooms were the largest shared rooms on campus and are located in the quieter Northside right across from the dining hall and down the street from the engineering buildings. When I was in them, we had access to both dorms and one had a kitchen. Freshmen were assigned in small groups to Sophomore Advisors that are meant to be a mentor through the first year. The SAs make the honors LLC–if everything else in the program sucks, then the SAs at least can help you out. Honors priority registration is also a huge bonus. As said before, honors classes are smaller and tend to contain the same people that you’ve been grouped up with since high school. University and individual college honors students are mixed into the same classes. I couldn’t tell whether or not people who were only in college honors were also in the dorms.</p>
<p>Process has probably changed since my year. All I had to do was fill out a couple of supplemental essays in addition to the Apply Texas app. A whole bunch of us were “rejected” in the spring and then notified later on that they were waiting for us to accept their offer (I was not happy about this).</p>
<p>If he’s very ambitious and has a good idea of what he wants to do with his degree, go for it. The program is specially geared to incubate research projects as well.</p>
<p>My D is in Honors and lived in the Honors dorm her freshman year. It was great for her and she is the quiet type. Her best friends are the ones she met in Honors and she joined an Honors Student Bonfire crew, which surprised the heck out of me. She goes to football games and other Honors social events. She also studies a lot with them. The study groups haven’t hurt her GPA. She is a Jr. now with a 4.0 in a very difficult major.</p>
<p>I found the Honors dorm environment to be welcoming and quirky. The kids seem to embrace and celebrate their “Nerdiness” This is just what I saw, I’m sure it does not describe everyone. It was a very diverse group, which is some of the appeal I think.</p>
<p>"I found the Honors dorm environment to be welcoming and quirky. The kids seem to embrace and celebrate their “Nerdiness” This is just what I saw, I’m sure it does not describe everyone. It was a very diverse group, which is some of the appeal I think. " - That sounds pretty cool. </p>