@AggieMomhelp @AggieMomAgain No nsc button still there. If i click it & schedule new student conference are we committed absolutely or can you change before the may 1 universal accept deadline. Talked to admissions & they said you’re not comitted you just loose your deposit but it was a kid.
@DrMcSwag : I can’t seem to post links here, but if you check out the FAQ page on the TAMU NSC website, the 5th FAQ is:
"If I register for my New Student Conference, am I bound to attend Texas A&M University?
We interpret registration in a New Student Conference as a confirmation that you will be attending Texas A&M. If you decide not to attend after registering for a conference, please withdraw your application via the Howdy portal. Your conference fee is, however, non-refundable."
Since your daughter is truly on the fence, I would go ahead and register asap for an NSC if you aren’t worried about losing the fee if she decides on TCU. Try to get as early a date as possible. The NSC dates will get full the longer you wait, and she could end up with a date in late Summer, which isn’t ideal from just a temperature point of view!
Check out the NSC web page for lots of great info.
@AggieMomAgain ok imma lock in now. I want A&M just don’t want to push her too much. Not worried about deposit thanks!
@DrMcSwag My son also was planning on biomedical engineering when he was in high school so we did a good bit of research on it at the time. As it turned out he changed his mind to mechanical. One thing that sold my son on tamu’s program was the research programs available for undergraduates to participate in and the caliber of the faculty. That is one easy comparison tool you can use in comparing two school’s programs; look at the faculty in the department and notice where their degrees are from and what research they are doing. The biomedical department at tamu is fairly small so the class sizes stay small. They always fill up in the first round of ETAM so you will not get in if it is not your first choice. A large percentage of the students are planning on going to medical school so they have it all worked out what classes you need to take in addition to the degree and there isn’t many. If you look at the average grades each semester for the required courses on the biomedical degree plan they are mostly very high; so it seems once you are in, keeping up good grades is very doable. Lastly engineering honors courses are available to non-honors students as long as they have a 3.5 gpa or higher. So if she chooses to apply to engineering honors, which she can if she maintains the 3.5, she will not be behind in collecting honors courses because she can already be taking them.
Yes, I recently got offered the PSA and I have heard something about sitting out the fall semester but still applying for the spring and was just curious about it because it is less competitive by doing so.
@AggieMomhelp We went to a Blinn TEAM meeting (for students who received TEAM offer) hosted by the director of the TAP program at A&M in Houston last week. He stated a change they’ve recently made is that students wishing to go fully to A&M before the 2 years is up just request a change of major. They should complete at least 2 full semesters in TEAM program and fulfill any requirements of their intended major… But if they do that, they do not have to apply as a transfer student anymore because they’re already A&M students.
@52AG82 @jimmy567807 The regional advisor I spoke with didn’t give the impression that it was ‘easier’ to get in at Spring admission cycle. He did acknowledge application numbers were significantly lower than for Fall admission but then everything remained the same in terms of auto and academic standards /requirements for GPA & test scores etc. He was quite adamant that review candidates just applying again with the same as a previous application would NOT yield a different outcome. He also emphasised the importance of doing something purposeful with that Fall semester and not just taking time ‘off’
@somewhereintexas that’s definitely a new thing. That’s great though! Do keep in mind, you aren’t guaranteed a change of major even if you’re a full admit at TAMU. It’s soooo different than when we were in school. No more being whimsical about it! lol
I lost count of how many times I changed majors back in the day. I was always on the hunt for the major that required the least math! Times have certainly changed for my Aggie sons. I deplore the Top Ten rule - it hurts kids from competitive high schools (my son’s class has 62 National Merit Scholars) and instead of accepting kids who will make good Aggies, the school ends up with a lot of students who want to change the culture to be more like some bland University of Fill-In-The-Blank.
@DrMcSwag
Our son is in the same situation as your daughter…trying to decide between TAMU and TCU. We currently have a freshman at TCU & he’s had an awesome experience…however, time is running out for our senior and he’s gonna have to DECIDE very soon!
I know that this is going to sound blunt. But anybody that decides to go to texas a&m or ut should just go to a less competitive high school to ensure auto admission and have no worries. I am still angry at how a&m doesnt even consider competitive schools and the students that arent in the top 10 but should be including myself based off of gpa and other factors but there is nothing unfortunately to do about it and it is what it is sadly. I wish they would look at your gpa and convert from one scale to another like its not that hard come on. I have a 94.19/100 gpa in top 33% and should easily be in the top 10 % in a neighboring high school in my area maybe even top 5 based off of people I know who would be in the same position as me if they went to my school. Like most of the people in my school got capped at UT and PSA at A&M so they basically all mostly going to one yr college campuses with hopes of transferring in later. Choose what high school you want to go to as more asians (over 50% of student body) indicate high competitiveness at my school especially no offense. Whatever you do dont go to a competitive school unless you think you could really do it but there are only a few of us. I should have moved after my freshman year but I didnt and look at where it has gotten me at the moment struggling to decide what college is the best for me. Now when I tell people that I didnt get into a&m or ut and am going tamug route via engineering pathway they look at me surprised because they expected better of me and I tell them its because of the extreme competitiveness of my school which is best top 10 public high schools in texas. This is the true definition of competitive high school that colleges and other people dont know about. I know I shoul still be blessed about the tamug since after one year I can go to cstat but one year in a different campus is still a deal and not easy to forget. In the end do what`s best to go to your dream colleges and go to a high school you truly will love that is not too competitive and stress free for you to do good academically for your future colleges. Class of 2019 was different for everything.
@sma1234
I hear you loud and clear. My son had a 101 GPA at a non ranking high school and if he went to our local public school/ not that competitive/ he most likely would have been top 10% and auto admit. In someways the top 10% rule does feel like a game. I guess you can tell people that look down on your offer that out of 50,000 applications only 4% received your offer. Hold your head up high and know that you are an accomplished student with a bright future. A&M and UT are not the holy grail.
@sma1234 I understand the competitve frustration but honestly… get ready. If you thought high school was competitive, you haven’t seen anything yet. Tamu UT etc are extremely competitve and the profs don’t care who ya are or where ya come from. So buckle up and view it as your HS has prepared you to be competitive and others that may have had an easier hs experience may not be as prepared. The cream always rises. The timing of when you rise up is up to you
@AggieMomhelp yes!!! I couldn’t have said it better.
@sma1234 TAMUG is considered full admit I believe. That is quite an accomplishment. They just don’t have enough room for everyone in Cstat but it is the same type of offer. Congratulations! You should be proud!
@BarbieK & @sma1234, “competitive school” really isn’t a euphemism for “higher IQ” or even “more ability”. It’s a code word for “wealthier, suburban, whiter” school. I know… My URM student goes to one of the most “competitive schools” in this state (very wealthy suburb of Dallas/Ft.Worth). This notion of, ‘just go to a less competitive school to game the system to get what you were entitled to by birthright’ is a sentiment that gets espoused, frequently, when the holistic admission outcome at a Texas flagship isn’t what was hoped for.
The Top 10% rule is supposed to be, by design, blind to “competitive school”. Going to a wealthier, suburban school, where you have more advantages than rural, inner city, and poor(er) suburban schools doesn’t make you smarter. It means that you have more advantages to begin with, whereas the less advantaged students are no less intelligent or able, but success and opportunity isn’t spoon fed to them. Still, everybody has to play the hand that they are dealt. All schools are not created equal, and that is a fact. The Top 10% rule allows students in any one environment, with whatever advantages and/or constraints exist, to compete with their peers with the same advantages and constraints. They prove their academic mettle over YEARS, rising to the top of their classmates, in their environment. If you had the opportunity to go to some other school that you feel is less “competitive”, you would have also had to live with all of the “less competitive” constraints, in teaching, in opportunity, in advantages, and become just as ‘uncompetitive’ as your peers who you are suggesting didn’t deserve the spots that they earned at UT/A&M. And, like those alleged, “less competitive” students, you had the exact same opportunity at your “more competitive” school, with more advantages, more opportunity, to out compete the Top 10% of your peers. It’s not even remotely impossible, but everyone cannot, and will not achieve it. But, everyone has a fair shot.
I get the frustration of not getting the desired outcome from the holistic admissions process. We’re not guaranteed to always get what we want. But, please, don’t denigrate the hard work that other students have put in your expressions of frustration. The Top 10% rule has been around for a long time now. A large percentage of enrolled students at A&M and UT are Top 10%ers from around the State. They are A&M. They’re clearly able, and successful. This is evidenced by the fact that many want to join them.
@nomatter thank you for expressing EXACTLY what I’m feeling! We, too, live in a very large, competitive school district, zoned to a very competitive, multi ethnic high school. We chose to buy our home, specifically for the schools. I wanted my children to be challenged academically, have many extra curricular activities and be exposed to many nationalities. It certainly hasn’t been easy for my daughter-for 4 years she has often been the only Caucasian girl in her AP classes-but that level of competition is what drives her. She knew in 9th grade she would have to work extra hard, giving up socials and sporting events, many sleepless nights, to make sure she was Top 10% (in fact, she’s Top 4.5% currently). She set a goal, and she reached it-she wanted to apply to many schools and have her pick. She would never have even applied to UT or A&M, had she not had the required automatic scores. I’m always stunned at the kids who apply, don’t have the required scores, then gripe about not getting in?? Rules are in place for a reason, and every school can set their own guidelines, admission guidelines. There are lots of great public and private universities in the Great State.
With a state the size of Texas, there must be rules in place, like Top 6/10% for UT and A&M, otherwise the campuses would be well over 100k.
It is true that a Top 10% student from a rural town may not have the same gpa as someone from Allen, Westlake or Plano HS, but every public school needs to have the same playing field.
Life isn’t fair. Ever. But it certainly isn’t fair to belittle the students who have worked their tails off, earning top scores/ranks. Every student had the same opportunity to work just as hard. I don’t regret our decision one bit, sending our children to competitive schools-they will be well prepared in college…and the real world.
It is impossible for everyone who makes good grades to graduate in the top X percent of their HS. Students can control the grades that they earn, but they have no control over their cohorts. If there is a huge number of high performing students at a school, then not all can be in the top X percent. I am not belittling the students who earn their way into the top X percent. It takes a lot of extremely hard work and sacrifice to get there.
I just wish that there was a way for all students with a good gpa to have also some recognition for their effort. They say that gpa isn’t a factor in the holistic review process and I don’t think that is fair. I think class rank, gpa and standardized test scores should ALL be factors in the holistic review.
At TAMU, everyone who has a gpa of above 3.5 graduates with a degree of Cum Laude, and a higher gpa earns a higher level of distinction. Not just the top X percent, everyone with the required gpa has earned the distinction.
I would think that a degree which has a level of distinction on it is more valued when being evaluated for grad school admissions or some jobs. Why isn’t a high gpa a factor in undergrad admissions? The college gpa is a huge or MAIN factor in whether someone can earn ETAM for Engineering or change majors, so why isn’t it a factor in Freshman admissions? Simply looking at HS class rank and standardized test scores doesn’t give the whole picture of the student.
@AggieMomAgain I think it is because at tamu every student has an even playing field for achieving those grades for ETAM. When they compare high schools across the state, there are vastly different policies to how they grade and one high schools A could be another school’s B+. That is why there are standardized tests across the country to level the playing field for every student trying to gain admission into colleges are professional schools.
@nomatter I think you misunderstood my point like we all know that someone in the top 30 percent in a very highly competitive high school with a good gpa can be easily top 10 in a less competitive high school. In my opinion less competitive schools are ones where I’m talking about are still good but not that competitive. Going to a somewhat competitive school is good for a good environment but a highly competitive school is just bad for you.