Totally agree and understand it is going to take the Leg getting involved. The State has 30 million people now and they need to adjust. I think the idea of an auto admit is fine and I think they definitely need to give In State kids an advantage as they currently do. It’s just the math doesn’t work for Top 10/6% anymore and it is going to result in more problems.
A&M probably needs to move to the same policies as Texas on some of this as well. They should shift away from Rolling Admissions and having Majors simply go first come, first serve.
Agree here as well. EC isn’t getting you admitted but it helps for the Scholarship/Honors stuff. It’s nice admissions wise but if you don’t have the grades, rank, test scores, and rigor it certainly won’t overcome it. Those spots are getting tighter and tighter outside the Top 10%.
As far as engineering goes, holistic, well-qualified students that dont get admitted can apply to one of the engineering academies and take the same classes as freshman general engineers and go through etam and get on the main campus sophomore year. No, its not the freshman year they wanted but there is a definite way to get into engineering.
For that matter, any exceptional student who is not admitted as a freshman can transfer in, if they have done well in the transfer sheet requirements. Mays and Viz are probably the hardest to transfer into, but lots of other majors are relatively easy if thats what the student wanted.
Engineering academies are a great option for a lot of kids. I know a few that have gone that route and been very successful. One started at Kingsville, worked their way to CS, and now they have a Master’s and are going to Med School.
I hate it when kids put so much emphasis on the “college experience” without putting much thought into why they are actually there, to get a degree in a field they can have a career in and prepare them for life. Often those kids that had to scrape a bit to get there end up the most successful.
My eldest is at Galveston (which is GREAT as it is actually an Adjuct of CS so you get football tickets and a Ring) and loves it. A bunch of those kids do the one year and transfer in.
ETAM also drives part of this. A lot of kids wash out Freshman year creating spots for kids from the Academies. While it’s frustrating as a parent and student to have to keep proving yourself in the end it does add value to the degree. It forces kids to compete and stay on top of things all the way through college, no easy rides.
That said I do think they should have some ways to qualify out of ETAM, probably for kids who get Eng Honors. It basically forces those kids who could move into Calc II or beyond to retake their Math and the same for other classes so they can get the grades assured for their major. That wastes their time and money and makes it harder on the kids who are taking those classes for the first time because it messes with curves and puts them at a disadvantage. It’s crazy that it doesn’t matter for ETAM puposes if you are taking Math 151 vs 308, especially because A&M has you take a math test to evaluate where to put you already. My younger son will basically just retake what he took Sr year as a Freshman just to be sure he can rock out his grades but that’s not really a good system.
He should be NM Commended but not NMSF. His index was a 210 I think. But I thought that didn’t really count for much of anything? He doesn’t fit any of the special recognition categories. And yes, we have definitely discussed the Hullabaloo Band! He’s a basketball nut so that would be a great option.
NM Commended is for sure a ‘plus’! Depending on how many NM S/F apply/accept, if there’s room, he could be eligible for President’s Endowed, Lechner or McFadden scholarships.
If he does get Commended-I think that comes out in September-be sure he sends in that info.
We have a friend who played in Hullabaloo Band a couple years, and absolutely loved it!!
@sbhubbell yes, part of the regular scholarship application. Of course rank, scores, resume, extra curricular, etc are all part of it; I think NM S/F automatically qualify.
Don’t discount NM Commended, it definitely won’t hurt. BUT, next to positive he’ll need to be auto admit to be considered (Commended or not).
Well he was one person out after fall and it looks like he’ll have straight A’s this spring. He has heard of some kids struggling with Bs and maybe even Cs in classes like APUSH so he’s hopeful he can move up into the top 10%. I didn’t realize it was necessary for those scholarships, that’s really good to know!
@AETX can’t answer for certain on that.
And i could be wrong on needing to be auto admit to qualify…but I’ve never heard/seen anyone that wasn’t auto admit get PES/Lechner/McFadden.
And I think it’s worth mentioning that literally hundreds-if not thousands-of valedictorian & salutatorians EVERY year never receive ANY scholarships from TAMU.
Isn’t there a new homeschool law, that kinda sorta gives auto admit?
There is a new law that allows homeschooled kids to be assigned a top 10% ranking based on their SAT scores. The admissions information on the TAMU site has a sentence about the law, but it does not state the required test score for the upcoming admissions cycle.
I spoke with the VP and Exec Dir of Admissions a few weeks ago. They can’t post the test scores because they change yearly based on that year’s scores. I don’t think they’ll ever post it.
I don’t think the ranking assigned using the test score for auto admit purposes would also be used to rank a homeschooler as though they came from a regular high school class.
They told me that they create a sliding scale yearly. They take the top 1% auto admit scores, then the top 2% auto admit scores and so on until they get to 10%. They then use that scale to rank the homeschoolers’ test scores in the Top 10%.
