Admitted Texas A&M University, Class of 2028

My son got his engineering honors acceptance today. He is not NMF/NMSF.

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Awesome!! Game changer-makes Engineering a little bit ‘smaller’, early course registration and many times better profs.

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Awesome!! Wondering if he was Commended?

He was Commended, but was not auto admit to honors from what I understand for Commended. :woman_shrugging:

Thanks! Wondering because my son will be the same next year!

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My son got waitlisted; anyone have any idea likelihood on later being activated from it into honors?

Waitlisted for Engineering Honors? Didn’t know that was a thing! I’ve only heard of ‘you’re in’ or ‘you didn’t get accepted’.
I would assume no Waitlist movement until after May 1 at this point, when everyone has made final college decision.

Yep it’s real, Aggie #2 is in the same boat. Never heard of it before.

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Just curious…. Would more than one come in? For instance, one from the college and one from the school?

Scholarships? Yes, doesn’t happen too often, but yes, student could get multiple. A&M does t stack academic scholarships, but major/college scholarship is in a different ‘category’.

My Aggie got President’s Endowed (PES) and Mays specific (Business HNR major) scholarships, and later some other random ones.
Very important for student to ‘accept’ all scholarships/awards in Howdy (under FinAid tab).

Your student got Lechner, correct? I personally know 2 students who initially received McFadden and Lechner, and end of July were offered Presidents Endowed. There are deadlines to accept, and most likely PES students weren’t checking Howdy often, missed the deadline to accept.
There’s ZERO tolerance for missing deadlines, not submitting thank you notes (if required).

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Thank you. Yes, she got the Lechner. I’ll have her check again.

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Probably too soon for anything else. Just have her check FinAid tab once a week during summer. If she’s not in an HNR program, wouldn’t count on a scholarship from college/major.

Definitely needs to be checking Howdy and TAMU email daily, starting April 1. All communication goes to the student, she’ll get a super important NSC Checklist, and tons of other info.

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@FriscoDad @ChristiR93 I have a question about when my daughter should send in her AP scores. She was accepted back in September and registered for the June NSC. She hasn’t submitted her 8 AP scores yet and is currently taking another 5 AP exams in her senior year. Is there a rush to send them in? Also, any insights on the strategy for claiming AP scores throughout her college years? Thanks.

No rush in sending them in and no problem to send them in.

As for when to accept… there’s no one right answer. Very individualized.

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Definitely wait to accept, until talking to advisor at NSC. Like @Christi1993 said, there’s no rush, and you want to be strategic in using them.

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Your student can send all AP scores after senior high school year. College Board will send all scores at once (and actually the process of excluding a particular score is very complicated).

Once TAMU receives the scores, it will show up in Howdy with a list of TAMU classes ready to be claimed. Don’t touch those as once claimed, the process is not reversible. Student can claim any time while in college before graduation. Sometimes students decide to have at least one easy core curriculum class in a semester and may choose to take the class at TAMU.

During advising, student can just tell the advisor that he or she wants to decide claiming the credit or not later if there is no prerequisite concern.

If your student get financial aid, it is important most aid requires student taking 12 hours towards their major. Not just any 12 hours.
For example, if a student claim away 3 hours of Creative Arts via AP Art History (ARTS 149/150), later student wants to take an easy class (PERF 200) to prop up GPA or balance out a tough semester, Howdy (and advisor) may overlook and allow students to register for PERF200, but then financial aid will fail because student only have 9 hours eligible for financial aid. (As ARTS 149/150) already satisfy the Creative Arts requirement. Students cannot pick which class to satisfy core curriculum requirement, it is first recorded-first counted.

From cost point of view, students can take classes not in their degree plan (as long as they passes through the registration system) out of their own interest. As you will see tuition cost between 12 hours and 15 hours are not that much.

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Yes. This is very true. And they can only take a limited number of classes beyond their degree plan. If they have more than 30 excess credits they get charged out of state tuition. My daughters degree plan doesn’t have any electives and her degree plan requires 8 semesters (8 sequential studio labs) and she doesn’t need enough credits to fill 8 semesters (due to 30 dual credits) so she had to add a minor. She needs at least 12 credits each semester for her scholarship and has to do 8 semesters for her program so her advisor said to add a minor so now she has more classes on her degree plan that she can use to fill her schedule for her scholarship. She only claimed one of her AP classes the rest were not on her degree plan.

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I really loved my 4 years in college and have encouraged my kids to not get a bunch of dc credit so that they could take those classes at a college…. They will have plenty of credits from AP and IB. They can sprinkle in as needed if they want….I realize everyone has different outcomes and timelines that they are working towards and I appreciate that Texas A&M supports numerous pathways….

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All degrees are 8 semesters or 120 credits with some being a little more like engineering. I’m confused with what you’re trying to say here. Some don’t have wiggle room with many electives tho.

Also DC and AP credit do not count towards the 30 credit excessive rule.

Typically it is all about credits and number of semesters is irrelevant. With most degrees you can graduate early if you earn all the credits early. But since her program doesn’t allow that she had to find a way to fill her schedule so she had to add a minor to fill 8 semesters fulltime. Going part time isn’t an option to keep her scholarship and graduating early isn’t an option per her degree program rules She could have graduated in 6 semesters easily if she had a different major. In her major even change of major and transfer students have to do 8 semesters in visualization from when they start the viz degree program even if they have already done two years at A&M or elsewhere doing core classes or whatever and they don’t need the credits so they have to find a way to fill 8 semesters fulltime. There are 8 studio lab courses that they have to do sequentially. And you have to fill the rest of your schedule with other core and viz classes. So students who enter viz, with credits whether as freshman or transfer or change of major, core complete or even just partially complete , have to find other classes to take and they can’t fill their schedule with a bunch of classes not on the degree plan so they have to add to their degree plan by adding a minor or two. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t take dual credits or change their major or transfer it just means they will need to add a minor or two or double major.

So yes Dual credit doesn’t count towards excess credits but If you need a bunch of extra credits to fill your schedule for four years rather than graduate early you can’t just fill up your schedule with a bunch of extra classes that interest you. You can only take a limited number and in limited circumstances that aren’t on your degree plan. I have met several people whose kids ended up with excess hours and had to pay out of state tuition their last semester! And people who lost financial aid because they had less than 12 credits on their schedule for the semester from their degree plan and filled the rest with classes not on their degree plan. It highlights the importance of understanding degree planning and not just counting on the advising department!

Whereas We visited the public health degree program with my high schooler and I asked if he would run into that issue with their program and they said no. He can graduate early
(4 semesters) since he will be entering with 60 credits. Their program isn’t designed to require a minimum number of semesters unlike visualization.