I am a junior at a competitive high school in Texas.Tamu is my dream college I’ve done a lot of research over it and now I’m kind of nervous that I won’t get in. Right now I have a 4.5 weighted GPA / 4.0 on the regular scale. However the problem is I have a low SAT at 1080 and I’m trying so hard to meet the requirements I’ve even planning on taking the sat numerous times just to get into this college. Nevertheless I have 42 hours of community service , an active job , am an advanced competor for FTC and BEST robotics at my high school, and a member of NHS. I will be visiting the college for a tour this summer. Please give me feedback on my chances of getting into this college.
How competitive your high school is doesn’t matter; all schools are competitive in different ways. What is is your class rank?
You may want to take an official campus tour prior to summer, and definitely apply to multiple schools.
@Thelma2 can answer your questions better.
@TaiTayTye A&M will not consider your GPA for admission to the University. They don’t consider it because the standard that the GPA is derived from varies among school districts. The competitiveness of a school is also not considered.
What is your class rank?
When was the last time you took the SAT or is that your PSAT score?
With the test results, is a report that shows the breakdown of what the sub sections are measuring. The sub sections are broken down into several other sub sections. You need to look at this report. In fact, most schools offer an education session to go over the SAT with their parents.Go to this. If your school doesn’t have this, meet with your school guidance counselor. You need to understand where your weaknesses are and then participate in an SAT class or online program and study your tail off to improve those weaknesses. Do a little every day. Then take the test again. Actually, you need to look up all the dates it is offered and strategically plan to take it when your practice tests have improved your weaknesses. Leave room to retake it before the December deadline if you need more improvement.
If your competitive school does not rank, A&M will use your GPA and the grading profile provided by the school, combined with your SAT score to establish you a rank. You need that SAT score to be as high as you can get it. And you are going to need to study your weak spots to improve them enough.
Chances of admission are not very high for any review admit right now. And know, that because it is really tough for admissions, that does not reflect on you as a student or your capabilities. It is just difficult. There are tons of great colleges and universities in Texas where you can get a great education, so do apply to some safeties.
Another thought for a back up plan if you are not admitted to A&M or offered a pathway admission, is to go ahead and apply to a 4 year school that is close to you, live at home to save money, and whatever the major you want at A&M, follow the A&M Transfer Course Sheet for that major and plan to transfer after the first year. However, if you want Mays school of Business or Engineering or Visualization, those programs are not transfer friendly. Not impossible, but very difficult to get in.
You could also be offered Blinn Team https://tap.tamu.edu/Programs/TEAM or Gateway. https://tap.tamu.edu/gateway/
Other back up plans would be attending Blinn College and transferring and following the transfer course sheet or participating in the PTA program. http://admissions.tamu.edu/PTA
Here are the transfer course sheets for all majors to get an idea of what is required http://admissions.tamu.edu/transfer/majors
At the end of the day, you could accept a PSA offer if extended to you. There is a great thread all about PSA on this forum under Texas A&M.
It would behoove you to find out about all of these programs before decisions start rolling out (usually February for the majority of review admits). You want to know as much before hand instead of learning after the fact and needing to make a quick decision. Blinn Team offers are first come first served until spots are filled and each PSA school varies a little and everyone will not be offered all system schools to attend.
Do apply early, like the first week in July. Get your foot in the door with the application. However, your file won’t be read until you have the supporting documents submitted as you wait on getting a sufficient SAT score. You can upload that anytime after your application and it will all link up.
Make your essay meaningful and of who you are. Don’t say things you think they want to hear. Also, the format on Apply Texas is different than MS Word so write it in a simple text editor like word pad. Then proof it a million times before copy it into Apply Texas. Then proof it again to make sure nothing went missing.
Spend time on the extra curricular. List everything you did. You may know it all but they don’t. Too many kids don’t spend enough time on this.
Good Luck
@52AG82 My rank is in the the top 50 percent but I am trying to move to a public high school to try and get my rank higher because at this school it’s tough being that there are only 34 students in my graduating class and everyone is really smart. Also @Thelma2 I do have set up plans for If don’t get admitted into A&M I have a line of backups and I’m applying for all around the same time though some are less competitive than A&M , they all have the major I want which is Dental hygiene. Also my SAT is broken up as a 540 for math and a 540 for reading.
@TaiTayTye I feel for ya…I went to a very small, private high school.
Keep studying hard for SAT and ACT (if you haven’t taken the ACT, I suggest you take it, as well). Sounds like you’re trying and have plans in place. Finish strong!
Thank you so much @52AG82
@TaiTayTye When are you planning to move to a public high school?
A&M only considers the first six semesters of high school. They do not take your senior year into consideration at all. Your end of Jr yr transcript is the one that you will send in for application.
@Thelma2 I was thinking that if I moved to a public school and apply for tamu about after 2 months of being in the public school so i have time to figure out wat my new class rank would be. I know I have to use my junior year transcript that’s why I’m working really hard and I’m passing everything with A’s and B’s but in one AP class I only have B’s and C’s
@TaiTayTye you would literally need to transfer, like today. I know Friday ends a 6 weeks in our district, leaving 1 grading period left.
If you’re taking AP exams, not sure how that would work, switching schools?
@TaiTayTye, class rank would likely not be calculated again until after the December application deadline has passed. Your class rank at the end of this current school year is what’s going to be used for your application. That said, before you embark on a transfer to improve your rank, you’ll want to make certain that you’re actually improving your admission position (likelihood of being admitted). The fact of the matter is that you could inadvertently worsen your position, and you’ll want to avoid doing that. While moving from a very small class size to a much larger one could, by default, improve your rank, however, your GPA may (very likely) be recalculated. Classes get weighted differently from school to school. Some classes may even not count towards graduation. Further, things like letters of recommendation will likely be impacted. You’re unlikely to break into the top 10% of the next school if you’re not in the top 10% of your current school, so think carefully if you want to miss out on the last year with your peers in the environment that you’ve all grown up together in. It’s a very special time. And, without auto or academic admit, your chances via holistic review won’t materially change. TAMU admission officers understand the difference between a small class 50th percentile rank, and a large one.
Agree with @nomatter about class rank-our public school only updates rank 2x per year, starting with junior year. The grading scale at your current private school could be different than the public school (most likely it is), and you could essentially drop in rank.
And yes, highly doubtful anyone at the public school would be willing to write letters of recommendation for you, since they don’t know you.
Talk to your current guidance counselor and see what she suggests.
@TAITAYTYE I agree with everyone on here. Switching schools now is a moot point. Senior year has zero bearing as far as grades go. I suggest taking ACT as well. Your SAT is low, but you may do better on ACT. Getting all the facts about potential offers now (as @thelmas said) is a great idea. Best of luck to you and great job thinking ahead, just be sure you look before you leap!!!
@Thelma2 @Aggiemomhelp @nomatter @52AG82 Ty for all the information, this helps to change a few things and recordinate
Are you a Texas resident?
What is your class rank?
What are your SAT or ACT scores?
Depending on the answers to the above, you may fall under the automatic top 10% or academic admits (however, these do not necessarily assure admission to your desired major). Otherwise, you would be competing for the remaining space left over after the automatic admissions.
You got lots of info on the TAMU board, where people are really knowledgeable. You won’t get a more palatable answer asking again. Look at your other options. Community college included. Prep hard for ACT and SAT resits. Look at colleges where your stats fit. Is dental hygiene even a 4 yr thing? " the major I want which is Dental hygiene"
@ucbalumnus I am a Texas resident, in he top 50 percent of my class and my SAT score is a 1080 which is a improvement from my PSAT score of 940 however it is still unacceptable for me.
I am considering A&M, however looking at the average SAT scores I am quite discouraged because my score is 1080 while i know the University uses the unweighted GPA on the 4.0 scale, the average GPA there is a 3.65 while my Gpa is a 4.0 on the unweighted scale , I am wondering if I’d have any chance of acceptance with such a low sat score but a high GPA? I also volunteer (about 32 hrs right now) , have an active job, am a FTC and BEST robotics competitor (with my school) with advances to state competitions, am in the top 50 percent at my school and a member of NHS.
@TaiTayTye hate to be blunt, but trying to be truthful-50% class rank and 1080 SAT won’t get you into TAMU, and probably not even a PSA offer. You’ll definitely want to apply to a variety of schools.
The transcript you submit with your application is end of junior year, including your highest ACT/SAT scores. TAMU admissions guidelines can be found on their website, even Google and mentioned on campus tours.
This year was so competitive, we saw kids in the 12% range, with very high SAT/ACT scores + hundreds of hours of community service only get PSA offers. Yes, it was that competitive.
If you are not in the top 10% - I’m afraid those test scores are going to be too low @TaiTayTye - I would spend the summer doing some serious test prep - and see what happens then.
But my daughter with an SAT score almost 200 points higher and an ACT of 28 (29M 27E) with a class rank of 40% (now 38%), with 8AP classes - got PSA.
UT and TAMU are not the end all be all in terms of public schools in Texas. They are great, but there are other school that are wonderful too. What do you want to major in? I would look for the top 4 schools in Texas with the program you are interest in. My kids’ school offers dental tech certification (and pharmacy tech) in HS.
Sometimes when you are in high school - it’s hard to see past the hype of the sports teams and the word of mouth from classmates. Be your own person and take a look at each school individually and evaluate it based on where you see yourself in the future.
@BlueBayouAZ I want to get my bachelor’s of science in dental hygiene