TAMU Class of 2024 - Admission Decisions/Discussion

Colleges & Universities Texas A&M University
1401

I want to echo what AggieDreamin is saying about holistic admission weighted heavily on stats.

Please do not think I am being negative or discouraging. This is just how I wrap my head around a non-transparent process that can leave a lot of high performing students without their desired outcome.

This is last year’s admitted data.
2019
49,700 total apps
26.4% - Top 10% 13,100
10.9% - Academic 5,400
4.7% - Review full 2350
6.0% - Review Alternative 3000
(23,850 total or 48% admitted - 23,733 or 56.8% admitted in 2018)

Only 2350 students were admitted to college station out of review. Just think about how few kids that really is. If you look only at review candidates, and take auto and academic admits out of the mix - you are looking at about 17% getting full or alternative admission.

There were roughly 31200 review applicants in 2019. You get that number by looking at the whole number of applicants minus the Top 10% and Academic admits (Review Full and Review Alternative - plus the 25,000+ PSA and denied.)

So 7.53% of review applicants were granted full admission. And 9.62% were given alternative admission. So in total 17% of review applicants were granted full admission, Gateway, Blinn TEAM or the engineering academy. In other words - less than 20 percent of all review applicants were granted admission.

Our students on this forum have really solid stats and would do well at TAMU. My daughters come from one of the “highly performing” schools - like lots of other kids in this board do. I look at things analytically. If TAMU is accepting 17% of review candidates - how does an application stand out if you are not in the top 17% of your graduating class and top 17% of test takers. What additional content is on the application? Athletic skills that allow you to play on a D1 level? ROTC scholarship and plans to serve, first generation college student, attend a 20th century scholar school?

Plus engineering is a whole separate beast - with at 74% acceptance rate due to all the different full admit pathways. So some of the review alternative stats above are the engineering academy at Blinn. Meaning that the the percent chance of being admitted review as a non engineering major is even a little less than 7.53% and 9.62%.

But the great thing about TAMU is that they really make an effort to have clearly defined paths like PSA and PTA to get to college station. And they seem open to transfers too.

1402

@BlueBayouAZ i totally see where you are coming from and you definitely have some great points. I just have a hard time grasping the fact that the SAT is so extremely important when other things (in my opinion) are more important like high school courses rigor, grade in general, etc. My daughter is a first generation college student and we are so proud of her through all of her accomplishments. Does being first gen. Really make a big difference? I was reading up on it and I couldn’t really find a good answer.

1403

I can only base my opinion on what TAMU reports to the Common Data Set. (Section C7)
http://dars.tamu.edu/Student/files/CDS_2018-2019.aspx
And they say first generation is “Important.” Other items classified as important are Geographical Residence, State Residency, Volunteer work and Work experience.

Very important items are rigor, Class rank, standardized test scores, extra curricular activities and talent/ability.

My kid got PSA with 28 ACT (29M, 27E), 1270 (670M, 600E); 40% (3.8 GPA) rank; 8 AP classes, AP Scholar with Honor, 3 previous TAMU academic summer camps, NHS, Girl Scout Gold Award, etc.

And there were multiple people on the 2023 thread with similar, if not better stats, that also got PSA.

I think the point many people are missing - is there are way too many qualified kids than spaces. There are a ton of kids with the rigor and extra curricular leadership.

They only admitted around 17% of review candidates last year

1404

@bargainshopper75 You are correct in that many majors don’t allow more than 60 credits to change major. But I have found it limiting to students to fill their schedule each semester. It’s hard to take 5 of your major type classes at one time as a freshman or sophomore. You need those filler/easier core classes to help out… not to mention, it’s hard to actually get that many classes in your major as a freshman or sophomore.

And then there’s actual applying to tamu in general… you limit the admissions options to primarily full admit or nothing. You could probably do PTA, but I’m not sure (PTA and PSA are not the same thing.)

Again, this is only my opinion. My son came in with only 12 credits and I’m happy with that. Those that come in with over 30 have limited their ability to change their mind on major (and trust me, so many change their major after freshman year). I’d actually be curious of the stat on that.

1405

Thanks @AggieMomhelp -
that’s helpful insight about the incoming credits.

For AP credits - the advice I hear is to hold those credits (don’t redeem all AP upfront). Instead, redeem them as you go, based on Advisor guidance & benefits each semester.

For Dual Credits - I think they all automatically transfer in, so no ability to hold some back. But Advisor can still help determine which apply to Core vs. would go toward electives.

My daughter has about 1/2 of each, so we will definitely have her hold the AP credits and redeem each semester as needed.

1406

@BlueBayouAZ - Completely agree. The issue with Texas A&M (and U of Texas) is that demand is so much greater than supply. These schools have to make a decision based on the information that they have. In the end, to these schools, they will fill up (with tuition paying students) with no problem. Notice Texas A&M does not recruit (they don’t need to) like other schools. My son continues to get personal phone calls from schools like AZ State, OK State, U of OK, The Ohio State University, etc. While getting no calls from TAM.

Need more data? An ACT of 30 gets you accepted to Texas A&M (no guarantee of getting into engineering) and an ACT of 31 allows you to apply and interview for the CEAT scholarship (which could be full ride) at Ok State. My son has almost full ride scholarship offers at other schools but no/limited scholarships at Texas A&M.

It all boils down to supply and demand.

1407

To piggy back onto that UTD has a reputation for having high scores because they “buy” NMF and other scholars with generous scholarships. NMF is a full ride. But with them it looks like a 35 or 36 will will get you $8000 a semester - a little over tuition and fees - but not room and board. 34 is $5000 a semester - so that doesn’t cover all of tuition and fees. 32 and 33 will get a couple grand. But a 30 or 31 is probably does not get you scholarship money there.

They are still getting many students, without giving scholarship $$$, that got CAPed at UT or PSA at TAMU.

Texas has that deep of an academic talent pool.

1408

@AggieDreamin daughters 1st choice is Interdisciplinary Studies for Elementary Education and 2nd choice is same but ESL for Spanish dual language.
Yes our family is Christian!!! Our plan is to equip her as much as possible by getting her signed up for Impact and encouraging her to go through the two Christian Sororities on campus that Blinn girls can participate in IF she doesn’t get admit at TAMU right away!
Aggie Dreamin- any thoughts of churches and community would help a ton! We plan to visit some this spring and stay over and let her visit some churches just to have knowledge to make decisions before moving there!
Would love the apt complexes that you recommend!!!
Still weighing if accepting TAMUG offer or Blinn is better? Any thoughts?

1409

@n2jesus4life – Impact is a great program and would be great for anyone going either directly to TAMU or Blinn! Unlike Fish Camp anyone can attend.
https://impactretreat.com/

For all the housing intel and opinions on Blinn vs TAMUG…I DM’d you. It was a bit long so didn’t want to necessarily post here unless others are interested.

1410

When did you apply: July 27
Class Rank: First Quarter
SAT (with Sub Scores): 1300 (680 Math, 620 Reading&Writing)
When did you receive your admission decision: N/A
Are you an Auto-admit or Academic Admit or Review Admit: Review
Major/College of Choice: Mays

1411

@n2jesus4life has she done young life at all? Brazis valley young life is huge here. There’s also Breakaway at reed arena every Tuesday night. Message me if you want more details on either.

1412

@AggieDreamin can you send or post the information on Blinn and living arrangements across from A&M campus I am interested in a plan b as we wait our holistic decision

1413

Just got accepted!!
Application turned in Dec 1st
School was nonranking (OOS) but I got assigned 1st Quarter
SAT: 1450 (780 English/670 Math)
ACT: 33 (36 R, 36E, 32M, 28 S)
Received my decision today (December 14)
Don’t know what kind of admit I am
Major is Animal Science

1414

Congratulations! (You are an academic admit).

1415

Congrats.

Also the housing across from tamu. The rise. The stacks. Aspire. Then just behind Northgate (party street) there’s the domain. Traditions and a couple of more I can’t think of.

1416

@AggieMomhelp For those of us who applied before the October 15th engineering early app deadline, will we hear news this coming week, and if so what day ?

1417

@tamu2024hopeful Did anyone reply? If so what did they say?

1418

When did you apply: Oct 15th (Early Decision)
Class Rank: Top 10% (34/371) GPA: 3.7 weighted 5.01 unweighted (In-State)
SAT (with Sub Scores): 1140 (I know this is bad but might retake it for Academic Scholarship)
When did you receive your admission decision: Oct 17
Are you an Auto-admit or Academic Admit or Review Admit: Auto-admit
Major/College of Choice: 1st: Chemical Engineering 2nd: Mays

Clubs: Student Council(Secretary), Class Council(Secretary), Key Club(Treasurer), Mu Alpha Theta, National Honor Society, National English Honor Society, National Art Society, etc.

Extracurricular: 4 years in Varsity Tennis, 3 years in Varsity Choir

Senior Year: AP Calculus AB, DC English, DC Biology, DC Government/Economic

Colleges: I got accepted into 6 different colleges but Texas A&M is my top choice

After reading all of the comments, I felt worried because of my SAT score was not that great and neither was my GPA. I’m still in the Engineering review and I was wondering to see when will the decision be made for me. And I am also afraid that if I didn’t get accepted into the Engineering School, would I lose the chance of getting accepted into the Mays Business School?

1419

I am curious, have there been any decisions on review candidates, other than engineering? Did any of Mays or Liberal Arts come through already? Or did I miss them passing by on this Forum?

1420

I believe in late Oct. there were reports of one or two exceedingly close to auto/academic admit review candidates admitted to Mays. They were people who applied in July. Sometime in November recent auto/academic admits (so applied Oct. or later) who had Mays as their first choice reported getting being admitted to their second choice major.

If the pattern of the past few cycles holds true - that means Mays has reached capacity. The past few cycles Mays and Visualization reached capacity before the end of November.