—ACT: 24, retaking in September and October
—Class Rank: 261/999 (As of the end of last semester)
—GPA: 3.3 UW, 4.0 W (As of the end of last semester)
—Extra Curricular: Member of Kiwanis Key Club, Interact Club, Vice President of Spanish National Honor Society, Vice President of National English Honor Society, Member of National Technical Honor Society, member of Science National Honor Society, interned in a hospital NICU/Labor & Delivery ward in summer of 2017, interned in the early learning center of a local church for summer of 2017 and 2018. I have over 400 volunteer hours from my freshman year to now. I plan to get more.
—Work: 1 year retail, current job (Old Navy) and 4 months fast food (Sonic)
—ETC: I have received AP credit for United States history. I took four years of foreign language (Spanish). Two of those years were Pre-AP and one was AP. My average across all four years never went below 84 and I am not a native speaker. I have been a dancer at my school for 4 years.
I fell in love with A&M College Station this summer, but I don’t have the best statistics. I know I can increase my chances by retaking my ACT. My class rank/GPA, however, will not update until December 15th, after applications are due- that may not be able to change. What are my chances of getting into A&M now? And if I get my ACT up to a 27 or 28? Alternatively, what are my chances of making the Blinn team? A&M is one of the few schools that offer my major so this is really important to me.
@ElizaAnn I think you will need to get your ACT score up to at least 30 or get a 1360 on SAT to have a decent shot at Blinn Team. A friend of my son was top 25% but had an SAT score below 1360 and was offered Blinn Team. The good news is that if you are not offered a spot inCollege Station there are other pathways such as PSA or PTA (if offered for your major). If your goal is to be an Aggie, there is always a way for those willing to work hard to get there. It just may require a 1 year pit stop along the way.
Microbiology- Texas State and UT Austin have it, but A&M is a lot closer to home for me and would be a lot more practical. Texas State is definitely a backup school though.
Getting into TAMU as a Review Applicant is tough, about a 13% chance. It just gets harder and harder each year.
My oldest daughter had scores at the Academic Admit for Fall 2012, but was just outside of top 25%. and she was offered Full Admit for Fall 2012. My youngest daughter had scores a bit below the Academic Admit scores for Fall 2017 and was below 50% in rank, but her SAT/ACT scores were in the average range for TAMU. She was offered Blinn-TEAM for Fall 2017. And that worked out well for her and is a great way to be an Aggie in Aggieland.
If you can improve your SAT/ACT scores to the Academic Admit score, that can help a lot even if your class rank is below Top 25%. Look at your previous tests, identify your weaknesses and try the Khan Academy prep online.I have heard that this really helps. Neither of my girls took any prep for SAT/ACT as they were “too busy” but if I had another child in HS, they would be on Khan Academy!
Schedule an official campus tour on a regular school day at TAMU and schedule a meeting with an adviser in your major. Also, when scheduling that meeting, ask if there is a class that you can sit in on. All of this contact will show that you are serious about TAMU and give you the opportunity to really see if you feel like you “fit in” at TAMU.
Get your Letters of Recommendation from people who know you well, who work in your target job or had that major or are a HS teacher of yours and it is also helpful if at least one of your LORs come from an Aggie.
And if you get denied or offered PSA, don’t worry about it, just make great grades and transfer asap.
One of my younger daughter’s HS teammates had both parents and at least one grandparent who were Aggies, a lot of ECs but she was denied admissions to TAMU. So she is at Blinn College working on a PTA in her major, living in CStat and enjoying everything possible. She will still graduate eventually with a TAMU degree and Aggie ring. That is what matters in the long run.
@ElizaAnn Being right at the 26% mark will definitely go against you as will your ACT of 24. Like you said, getting it up to as close of a 30 as possible will definitely help. My son last year was top 14% with 28 ACT and a great LOR from a Vice Chancellor at TAMU. He was offered full admit. Someone else had lower stats across the board but also a LOR from a Board of Regency person at TAMU and he got in. LORs are important if you can get a good one. Review admits were a small percentage for this current freshman class. Rank and scores account for 50% of the equation.
If you can, try taking the residual ACT at TAMU. You can google it. They score it within a day and round up. You cannot write on the test, just FYI. But… taking it here shows your dedication/desire to truly attend TAMU (scores only apply to TAMU).
Your ECs look really good though as does taking Spanish for 4 years. I wish you the best and please keep us posted!!! Dance on!
@AggieMomhelp I’d love your advise on my DS’s situation.
He is finishing high school this semester.
Already has 15 hours dual credit with a 3.8 gpa at Lone Star. The one B he has there was one point off from an A. He took 2 classes from this prof, Dr Livingston, and has a gleaming LOR from him.
He will have 25 hours DC after this semester including physics.
His SAT is ave for TAMU and TAMU ranked him 25%.
He is applying for Spring admission for BS in Viz. he never took the ACT, took SAT over a year ago.
Extra curriculars are great but don’t know if they really help.
He’s an Eagle Scout, was School president for a small classical school, has won a few rhetoric competitions this past year, played competitive basketball for 4 year, is a life guard now & waited tables at Pappadeaux.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
@cpacestx So he’s top quarter…yay, step 1. Dual credit won’t matter to TAMU when assessing him. I’m not even sure they look at class rigor, which I think is not “fair”. The fact he’s coming in Spring vs. Fall with most freshmen is in his favor for sure! His ECs and LOR sound perfect. Sounds like he has a really good shot at full admittance. I’m not sure I’ve seen any stats for Spring fresh admission. @Thelma2 do you know about this?
Also, major is irrelevant. You either get into TAMU or you don’t. If he gets in then he’ll be placed in first choice major if open. Otherwise they go to option 2 and he can try to change majors after being at TAMU.
Not much help, I know. Sounds like he’s busted his butt! You should be very proud! Please keep us posted!
@AggieMomhelp@cpacestx I do not have any stats on spring freshman admissions because, as you say, the ones we see are fall incoming freshmen. I just looked at the Spring 2017 Enrollment report and there were 144 first time college students enrolled for spring. The report does not say the qualifications of these students, i.e., gap year, top 10%, academic admit, or other first time freshman.
From what I gather, is that A&M doesn’t consider the rigor per se as comparing kids from school A to school B but they do use it to compare how a student compares with others from their same school and how they compete against their peers with the same resources.
As for review applications, the rank and test scores are viewed together, and they make up around 50% of the decision. The essays, personal achievement, etc. make up the other 50%.
When they look at the rank and test scores, they determine a projected GPA they would earn at TAMU. They use algorithms to combine a student’s rank and test scores and it produces 2.9, 3.0, 3.1, so on and so forth. Once they see what a student’s projected GPA is, thry begin weighing all the other components.
I would imagine it is similar to how UT uses their Academic Index (AI) and Personal Achievement Index (PAI) and it’s all graphed out and where you hit on the graph, determines your admissions decision.
@Thelma2 Thank you for your amazing insite!
I’ll look up those indices.
Since my son was homeschooled till he started classes at our CC, Lone Star. TAMU gave him a class rank of top 25% I guess based on his Lone Star gpa, 3.8. His SAT is average & so he’s outside of the acedemic admit window.
He never took the ACT.
I have one more at home,16 yo, that will definitely take the ACT!
I’m learning a lot through this process.
If he’s not accepted, he will take an ACT review course and see how high he can get the score.?
@cpacestx Most homeschoolers are given top quarter. His Lonestar GPA isn’t taken into consideration since he is not a transfer. He can still take the ACT and if you are close to College Station, he can take it there and it is scored within a day. http://testing.tamu.edu/Exams/ACT
@cpacestx : What was your son’s SAT score and sub scores?
If you have the chance to have him take the ACT at TAMU campus, that could really work out for him and possibly bump him into Academic Admit! It is awesome for him to to have that possibility.
I learned something new from @Thelma2, I didn’t realize that most home schooled students were give Top Quarter ranking by TAMU. I thought that they just reviewed them on a case by case situation. I guess that they can’t put all of them into Top 10% either. I guess it gets complicated.
Home schooling has always intrigued me, but my husband wanted our girls to go to a public school. I think I would have loved to have been home schooled myself! But that was in the dark ages, so very long ago!
We know someone who is a very talented musician/dancer and is mathematically gifted too and was home schooled so she could pursue all of her interests. She was offered full admit to UT for this current Freshman year.
I recently spoke with a now retired former teacher of my younger daughter and that woman’s grandchildren are being home schooled. Even though their mother was also a teacher from the same ISD, she decided when she had children that all of the paperwork made teaching not so much fun anymore so she decided to home school. With so much available online now, it has been great for them.
@Thelma2 &@ AggieMomAgain Thank you both for the insight! Interesting that they would give all homeschoolers top 25%. Homeschooling varies greatly and is TOUGH the high school years in my opinion. Finding the right teachers for higher level courses can be stressful.
But the ability to choose those teachers has been awesome. 2 years ago we were invited to sit in on HBU honors classes. I had to practically tie my daughter’s hands to the desk as she was prepped to answer the questions in lecture.
She’s now in the honors college for King’s College NY.
For my DS, I don’t know if he should take time from current course work and prep for ACT now or not.
I read that the Viz department takes only 5 to 15 per semester. I need to verify that as it seems like a low number and was curious if they were referring to the Master’s program. If the numbers are correct, then I don’t think he gets in this round and the ACT will be required to push him into the Academic Admit category. Thank you both for all your information it helps calm my nerves.
@cpacestx I must correct you. I said most, not all.
There are indeed great variations in home schooling and A&M takes these differences and variations into account. In applying to a highly competitive flagship university, a lot of the home schooled students are very competitive applicants. But not all.
Advice please?
My son applied to TAMU for Spring 2019. From what I’ve learned here and on TAMU site, he is a review admit & will either get PSA, Blinn team, or not accepted.
He is a H.S. senior graduating Dec 2018 . His gpa is from community college classes ( Lone Star, 15 credits) 3.8.
His SAT is mid range & he was homeschooled prior to this. TAMU put rank top 25%.
His extra curriculars are great, Eagle Scout…
He wants Viz which is competitive & PSA/ Blinn team won’t help.
So, if what we predict happens and IF he gets Blinn or PSA, would it be best to not accept and just take ACT for a high score ( at least above 30)? He’s taking it for 1st time Oct 27th but if not high enough, he was planning on continuing the prep & retaking.
2)Thoughts on the strategy of taking more CC credits. Even with good grades in CC, this doesn’t seem wise as the SAT or ACT score seems to count more especially for competitive programs like VIZ.
I know each admit cycle brings diff applicants and so no guarantee he’d get a chance at PSA or Blinn team for Fall 2019or Spring 2020.
3)Also, any penalty for reapplying more than once?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
@cpacestx just let him know that he cannot write on the test at all. They’ll give him scratch paper! Test will be scored and uploaded next day typically and they round up. at 29.25 is a 30!
