TAMU Class of 2023 - Admission Decisions/Discussion

Colleges & Universities Texas A&M University
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@BlueBayouAZ : I hope you are correct, but I wish they had just required all OOS applicants to go through the review process and require the Academic Admits to be TX residents instead of doing away with the whole category.

I would think that having an Academic Admit category would make the work load of the TAMU Admissions Officers a slight bit easier instead of having to review everyone who is outside of the Top 10%. Why they would want to make the process harder on themselves baffles me.

I hope that TX doesn’t lose more of the best and brightest to other states which don’t have the same number of highly qualified HS students as found in TX. The population of TX is huge and the number of high performing students is far higher than elsewhere. So those schools throw money at TX students. And then those TX students who go OOS often don’t return to TX, even while the overall population of TX keeps growing as people move here from all over the world.

@AggieDreamin : I feel your pain. My youngest daughter was 3.5 unweighted gpa and 4.7 weighted gpa and she was ranked 53% of her HS class. Thank God she was offered Blinn-TEAM for Freshman 2018.

I really don’t understand why a HS gpa of 3.5 isn’t considered worthy. If someone earns a 3.5 at TAMU, they are ALL considered as graduating Cum Laude, not just the top X percent.

Students can only control the grades they earn themselves, not the grades earned by their cohorts. If everyone does the work and earns the grade, it just means the class has a bunch of smart, focused people.

From TAMU website:
"Graduation with Honors
Undergraduate Students
To graduate with Latin honors requires a minimum of 60 passed hours at Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University at Galveston, or Texas A&M University at Qatar (excluding Credit by Exam and Graduate Level courses) with a minimum GPR of 3.500. The specific honors levels are as follows:

3.50 - 3.69 GPA = Cum Laude
3.70 - 3.89 GPA = Magna Cum Laude
3.90 - 4.00 GPA = Summa Cum Laude"

Graduating Cum Laude at TAMU is much more valued than graduating Cum Laude at Podunk U.

But for HS students, they have to play the “switch HS” game in order to increase their class rank. But will they actually be ready for the rigor of TAMU if they switched to Podunk HS to get into the top 10% ?

It benefits NO ONE if only HS class rank is taken into account when students with 3.5 at one school are Top 10% or above and 3.5 at another school IN THE SAME ISD are not even in the top half. If TX switched to making Academic Admits required to have two out of these three requirements: Top 25%, OR unweighted gpa 3.5 or higher, OR SAT/ACT high scores, that would keep people from having to play the game of switching schools to get into the top 10%. but instead, they are doing away with Academic Admits and I think that is just sad.

And likely to make the admissions process take a lot more time in the future.
Just my 2 cents.

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@AggieMomAgain , I totally agree with your assessment about class rank and it sounds like we could be in the same school district. My daughter’s high school had 14 national merit semifinalists (43 commended). The next high school that came the closest had 5 semifinalists/10 commended. And, that high school has a similar population size, both are 6A. There are 6 high schools in our district. A 3.5 unweighted does not get you into the top 50% at her high school. I know of many kids who transferred to one of the other high schools before junior year so they could get into top quarter or higher.

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@SpeediTortoise We asked admissions the same questions. They said it should take 3-5 business days.

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I feel your pain @AggieMomAgain @AggieDreamin. At my school our class rank out of 638 students is so competitive that even having a 3.5 gpa gets you barely the top 40 percent sometimes. Our student body is over half asians which makes it very competitive with everyone striving to get the best grade possible. But another school in the district having that gpa can get you in top 10-15 percent for sure. I am top 34 percent (221/638) in my school with a weighted gpa of 3.75/4.0 while unweighted 3.5/4.0 on 4 point scale. Someone tell me those numbers arent good? I know some of my friends in other schools in my district with similar stats that are in the top 10 percent. Its frustrating because I am graduating this year with magna cum laude of 94.5/100 gpa in my school. I believe ranking is just rigged for large, competitive public schools and is not a true measure of success instead gpa should be looked at more carefully. I believe A&M and every other school in texas like UT should make a standard gpa with the choice of rank to make admissions more fair for everyone and leave everyone happy at the end. Like doesnt A&M know which schools are truly competitive in ranking based on past cycles of students so that they can admit students carefully based on the rigor of the curriculum at your school opposed to someone with no rigor in their school and easy to crack the top 10 rule. And people always saying that every school is competitive and whatever but my school truly is and I feel the pain and regrets. I advise anyone that wants to go to top schools in texas to go to less competitive ranking schools to have a chance because Im out here sweating to the fact I might not even get accepted to A&M with my excellent stats as people would say. And additionally if I don`t get accepted to A&M, I am going to have to go to UH and then I guess stay there all 4 years since transferring into UT or some other school is just impossible nowadays which would mean all my hard work at my school will just go down the drain. But life is what it is no turning back.

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@AggieMomhelp I just asked my daughter and she thinks May 1 is date to accept NSC. For sure May 1 starts binding housing contract.

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@thelma2 Thanks for the info. But it seems like there is no computer engineering at Galveston and if i complete my AP and skip classes what will i have to studying for a year!?

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@thelma2 Here are my stats!

When did you apply: 10/10/2018
When did you get your UIN: 10/16/2018
When did you receive your admission decision: 02/19/19 — Engineering at Galveston…
GPA-3.41(as reported by TAMU)
Are you an Auto-admit or Academic Admit or Review Admit: Review
Major/College of Choice: Computer Engineering
Class Rank: 1st Quarter
SAT (with Sub Scores) 1190 EBRW-520 Math-670
IELTS overall- 7.5
IELTS reading - 7.5
IELTS listening - 8.0
IELTS writing- 7.0
IELTS speaking- 7.0
I am an international Freshmen Student. From India…

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@Sriramkrish0110

You are not going to be allowed to skip taking two math and two science and the there is no AP test for either engineering class.

You should not accept any AP credits before your NSC. If you do end up accepting AP credit for Calculus I and II, you will still be in general engineering and required to take two additional math classes. Engineering doesn’t allow for you to skip the first year with high school credit. Same for the Sciences. If you have AP credit for Chemistry and Physics, you will take additional 2 additional sciences.
These additional classes are ones they require, not ones you get to choose.
In the link below where it talk of required courses, if you claim AP credit, the additional math and science classes listed are what you will take in the first year of general engineering
https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/entry-to-a-major/general-engineering-program/index.html

The following links are about the A&M Engineering Program

INTRO TO ENGINEERING
http://catalog.tamu.edu/undergraduate/engineering/

Entry to a Major
https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/advisors-procedures/entry-to-a-major

ETAM https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/advisors-procedures/entry-to-a-major.html

Application Preview https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/advisors-procedures/entry-to-a-major/application-preview.html At the bottom of the page is a sample application

Resources for ETAM
https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/advisors-procedures/entry-to-a-major/resources.html

4th semester general engineering
https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/resources/fourth-semester-general-engineering-students.html

Engineering housing LLC https://reslife.tamu.edu/living/llps/available/engineeringvillage/

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I’m doing Blinn team and then hoping to transfer to Mays. I need to have a 3.8 GPA for both campuses. Is grade letter based or number based? Could you get low A’s and still have a 4.0?

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@Sriramkrish0110 Only your first year will be spent in Galveston or until you satisfy the general engineering core classes and successfully Enter To A Major. Your earliest attempt will be April of your freshman year. Major decisions are released in late June. You then will register for your classes for fall and will transition to College Station for the remainder of your degree.

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@texantexantexan yes. An A is an A. 4.0.

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@AggieMomAgain I’m in the same boat. My school had 57 National Merit Semifinalists this year. It’s impossible to be top 50%.

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@tamu23plz 57 National Merit semi-finalists from 1 graduating class?? Wow‼️ Amazing, but yes, kills chances for everyone else. Wow.

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My daughter’s high school consistently ranks in the top 5 in Texas. In her senior class this year, there were 32 National Merit Scholar semifinalists out of a class of 248. All this is to say I feel the pain of many on this thread. After 9th grade and then again after 10th grade, our family discussed the possibility of my daughter switching schools to the less competitive neighborhood school to improve my daughter’s class rank. But she was firm that she didn’t want to go this route because she had worked very hard to get into the magnet school where she is getting a top-notch education. Until recently I wasn’t sure we made the right decision. Seeing her get CAP’ed at UT made me question that decision even more. And we still anxiously await the TAMU decision. However, I’ve come to terms with the path my daughter chose. I realized that even if she had been top 6%, UT would have been under no obligation to offer her a spot in the Jackson School of Geosciences where she wanted to study Geology. They might’ve shunted her into another program she didn’t want. I’ve also been thinking about the relative we have who attended a less competitive high school and is currently struggling in her first year at TAMU. I think it comes down to this: would your child rather struggle in 9th grade (which my daughter absolutely did) or struggle as a college freshman (which she may still do – although probably not as much as if she had attended the neighborhood school). My conclusion is that no matter where my daughter ends up for college, the 4 years she spent at an ultra-competitive high school have prepared her for a bright future. But more important than what I think is that my daughter is happy with the path she chose and okay with the consequences of that choice. And for everyone in the same boat as my daughter, I know your futures will be bright as well!!!

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@cmehope Agree!! My daughter has sacrificed a LOT during her 4 years, but all on her-end goal to get automatic admission to the schools of her choice. And we hear from every neighbor that is in college-they have been fully prepared for college work, due to the rigor from our high school.
That is where the Top 6/10% rule fails-it lumps all students into the same category. Top 6/10% in a small town isn’t always equal to Top 6/10% large Houston/Dallas/Austin (etc) suburb public schools.
I don’t know the answer, but the system isn’t always fair…
Good luck to your daughter…sounds like she’ll succeed wherever she goes!

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My kids are in one of the districts mentioned here - I had never looked at the rank profile of any of the other high schools. My daughters 3.795 weighted (3.3UW) currently has her sitting at 38% (up from 40.1% end of junior year). That same rank would have her in the top quarter of another school in our district. But my daughter’s school has 96% going to college. The other school has only 76%. I think their were 11 NMSF at their school this year.

Nothing in the admission process is ever going to be completely equal - you just have to hope it is fair and not biased.

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@tamu23plz You must be at the same school as my daughter. It’s ridiculous. But, I do think the Texas universities know this about your school and consider that when they review a student from the school. If it’s the same school as my daughter, this is why they recently changed to non-ranking in hopes of forcing a hollistic review.

The problem with TAMU is that they still apply an algorithm and then decide for themselves what quartile to list you as, which seems detrimental for students from such competitive high schools. She’s still waiting for TAMU. UT Austin, UTD, Tarleton and SHSU have already accepted her, but TAMU and the corps of cadets’ Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band have been her top choice.

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My daughter’s school also switched to non-ranking. As we all know, TAMU assigns a rank, and I believe UT does, too.

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My daughter received her Team offer on Wednesday and the screen flipped over to the “Congratulations” screen this afternoon. I am so excited for her. Our son is a freshman at TAMUG-Maritime. I guess we need to buy more maroon!

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Looking at GPA’s it seems like comparing apples to oranges. The only way you can make a 4.0 in an onlevel class is to make a 100 at our school. A 90 is a 3.5. doesnt seem right to compare to any 90 is a 4.0.