<p>Hi, just wondering if eligibility to enroll in honors courses and live in honors housing is somehow confirmed in the acceptance letter or somewhere online? No word of it in his acceptance letter. </p>
<p>Do we find that out later? From reading the website, I believe if S is offered an honors scholarship then he will be honors eligible. S is eligible to be considered for the scholarship. </p>
<p>I emailed my questions to the honors office a couple of days ago and have not heard back. </p>
<p>Excellent question. I’ve been wondering also. On the website, the only information I’ve seen is that if your GPA is 3.5 or more you are eligible. For incoming freshmen, I think I read that you also had to be top 10%, but I’ve been looking at multiple colleges for info, so don’t quote me.</p>
<p>Someone on this forum mentioned an honors form, but I think that doesn’t exist. Everything I’ve read and heard at my visits says they automatically look at you for honors. I don’t think A&M honors college is as defined as at some other schools.</p>
<p>So if someone knows more, please let us know!!!</p>
<p>Just got off the phone with Honors. There is no notification process or application process per se. If in top 10% of HS and ACT >28 or SAT CR/M > 1250 (570 min on each CR and M) then the student is eligible to take honors courses and live in honors housing (space dependent). </p>
<p>So, I asked, if my son has a 32 ACT and 1350 SAT and but is not in the top 10%, should he talk to an honors advisor? She replied, that he could do that at the new student conference when he registers for classes. His HS is our local competitive Catholic prep school and he is in the top 1/4. </p>
<p>My thoughts are that housing will be determined way before then. I think a visit to TAMU’s honors office is getting booked on the calendar … A personal visit might turn this “maybe” into something closer to a “yes”. Its worth a try …</p>
<p>Thanks for the info! This is one of the schools my DS is considering also. Sure would be nice to know more about scholarship offers. Guess we wait until April to consider options. Unfortunately housing options will be limited if we wait that long, so putting in deposits might be an option. Most will refund deposit, but not application fees associated with housing.</p>
<p>We went ahead and plunked down the $325 for housing. $300 is refundable before May 1. I thought $25 was a reasonable “hold” fee for our spot. We are waiting to hear from UT Austin, and waiting, and waiting, it seems. The more time that goes by, the more I have felt like TAMU is the better fit. However, my S gets to choose.</p>
<p>S also waiting to learn whether he is eligible for Honors. He has a 32 on the ACT but is in the top 11%. Last week I called Honors to ask if they would accept his Senior year first semester transcript as it would bring him up to top 10% if not better and they advised to speak to the Registrar to have his file updated. Have not done that yet as am waiting on our school to have his ranking compiled. S is also very interested in the Business Honors program and Scholarship for OOS.
He has been accepted to TAMU and Mays Business school.</p>
<p>eaglemom, unfortunately I don’t think there is any way to know if there will be space for him in the honors housing community until much later since they prioritize based on certain classifications (national merits first, scholarship-holders second, etc.) </p>
<p>I think you did the right thing by putting down the deposit. You can get it back if he elects to attend a different school, but since part of the priority is determined by housing application date, it seems smart to do so.</p>
<p>Interesting, my son had very similar stats, but we didn’t think about asking for an exception. He wasn’t really interested in honors, but I have heard good things about the program.</p>
<p>Please report back if he gets in. Our public HS has many kids outside the top 10% with those kinds of stats and some of them might be interested in the honors program.</p>
<p>Update: I received an email from the Honors office as well. Here is a quote:</p>
<p>“Our incoming freshman eligibility standard currently requires that a student be in the top 10% of her graduating class AND have a minimum 1250 SAT (Critical Reading + Math, min. 570 ea.) or 28 ACT (English + Math, min. 27 ea.). While these cutoffs establish an ability baseline, they are less a measure of ability than an enrollment control device. At these cutoffs, we can reasonably expect about a quarter of the incoming freshman class to be eligible, which roughly corresponds to the number of honors seats available to freshmen.”</p>
<p>He went on to say that we could talk to an honors advisor about an exception.</p>
<p>More information from honors website:</p>
<p>Honors housing is offered to all recipients of the honors scholarships. </p>
<p>For a student that is outside the 10% in a college prepatory environment Houston, almost all AP classes 3.85 GPA and matching test scores on mark for AP Distinguished status, National Merit Commended, 2180 overall and 1480 M/V, terribly disappointed that Texas A & M does not take look at extraordinary extracurriculars, and high scores as an indication of intellectual/academic strength. Texas A & M tied for #1 on my list of colleges after my summer visit. What I see is that they’re not as interested in you even if you outscored all but one of the “top 10” in your class - honors is more interested in the rank and not willing to look at other factors like the pool that you were competing against. Texas has moved to making this the most important factor. With my leadership on and off campus, (some of the top decile do zip or a single activity) and a brother dying of cancer with nurses/hospice in my home for last 14 months. I am amazed that several other more selective colleges have accepted me into honors & more willing to let me participate, and live in an academic dorm which is a huge priority for me, than Texas A & M which ranks lower than the other 3. Frustrating!!!</p>
<p>Texas moved to the top 10% automatic admissions to all state universities in 1997 to ensures geographic and ethnic diversity at Texas A&M & University of Texas, the two flagship state universities as well as all state universities in Texas. It was put into place as opposition to affermative action from a legal case Hopwood vs. Texas.<br>
It surely isn’t perfect, but it is not Texas A&M or TU wanting this change - it is a Texas State Law.</p>
<p>Students at Texas A&M can move in and out of “honors” classes as long as they have a 3.5 GPR at TAMU. Of course, that doesn’t qualify them for the Freshmen Honors Scholarships or give them Honors dorms. Students that are not honors eligible will not be able to register for honors classes at their new student conference (most will be full anyway). Once a student achieves honors eligibility, he can register for honors courses. It is not a formal honors college as some universities have. I would spend some time looking online at TAMU’s honors program website. They have several categories of honors. It is highly competitive to gain admission in the Mays Business Honors Program. </p>
<p>Definitely put the housing deposit and preferences in right away… Dorms fill up, especially the good ones. Your ability to get your dorm will be based on when your housing application and deposit is received. The deposit is refundable, the $25 processing fee is the only part you may lose if you don’t attend…</p>
<p>^I interpreted the little green flier they sent, re housing, this way:</p>
<p>As giving said, they prioritize based on classifications. And then housing application and deposit dates are secondary–for those classifications that get first priority.</p>
<p>For instance, if NMF’s get first priority (I don’t have the paper in front of me, but I think that’s what it said), then as long as NMFs make their housing deposits by May 1, they’ll still have first priority. In other words, if you’re NMF and that’s the first priority, there’s no need to make the housing deposit just yet.</p>
<p>Did I get that right? Did others read it the same way?</p>
<p>(btw, raging elephants, I hear you too. It doesn’t seem fair. My son had a similar sort of disappointment with a different school. Not in terms of honors, but in terms of a certain scholarship he was coveting. Won’t go into details. But he was similarly disappointed. The game isn’t always fair. And in the colleges’ defense, it IS hard for them to look at all these applications, and all their variables, and, without truly knowing the candidates, rank them to find “the top.” Not enough time in an admissions cycle to truly “know” people, but more importantly, no real way to know or understand each applicant from a few pieces of paper. We’re trying not to take it personally at our house. Different schools will value different things – and that’s their prerogative, I suppose.)</p>
<p>Simplelife, my son’s letter said that the deadline for guaranteed placement in honors housing is April 1st: </p>
<p>“Honors Housing will be filled by students who accept their scholarship and admissions offer, complete a housing contract, and apply to the Honors Housing Community by April 1, 2011…”</p>
<p>Bad news for son, who wants to compare all offers and won’t hear from one of his top choices until AFTER April 1st (Notre Dame uses snail mail.) What to do…</p>
<p>^Oh, yeah. You’re right. It does say April 1st. I was chiming in by memory – which is often faulty these days! :)</p>
<p>Anyway, my point was … if you’re NMF, then as long as you pay your deposit by April 1, you’ll have priority housing over non-NMFs who pay the housing deposit in, say, January. Right?</p>
<p>I do know what you mean, though, about the inability to make a decision prior to April 1, when some schools don’t give you their acceptance decision, much less financial aid packages, until AFTER April 1. But at least NMFs can put off the (still refundable) deposit until closer to April 1 … I think. </p>
<p>Am I reading that correctly? For the kids on the priority assignments – NMF, Honors eligible scholarship recipients, and then Honors eligible students who select “Honors Housing” will have priority, no matter when they make their deposits (well kinda), as long as those deposits are prior to April 1. True?</p>