Need to look at the new music building at A&M my understanding is it is primarily for the band, but all other music groups have access. Their are a lot of options at A&M for music besides the Corps Band.

I always told my daughter to at least look before you scratch it off the list, we went to Austin and as soon as she saw all the tent cities around campus and the guy peeing on the building on Guadalupe she said nope not for her. Interesting enough she thought she would love Georgia but did not like the vibe, She really liked Auburn but ended at A&M due to proximity to home. she is an only child and grand child so she was worried about being home sick.

Thanks for the heads up.

Initially posted on the wrong thread, but my son has been admitted and is in Eng review. He's very happy.

Any thoughts on time frame for the Eng review?

For those meeting the Early Action deadline for Engineering, they will hopefully hear something by mid-December.

Congrats! My recollection is that National Merit gets you a nice scholarship from A&M / UT, and a whole lotta full rides from "lesser" schools looking to pad their NM stats. (OU invented this strategy, best I remember.) Supply and demand, to some extent.

Thanks. Yes, he will get some guaranteed $ from A&M. Based on what I'm reading, I don't think he will get anything from UT just based on National Merit. He may get some $, but UT doesn't participate in the National Merit program anymore.

Yes, there are a couple of schools locally that have great packages. TT will give full cost of attendance which is very tempting, but it's obviously not the quality of school A&M is...UT Dallas provides almost full cost of attendance and they are actually a very good program. Not quite to the level of A&M, but not far off.

Got his TCU acceptance today.

Echo the "probably nothing from UT" for nmsf.
Daughter was nmsf and received combined package exceeding cost of attendance (guaranteed study-abroad, etc) from TAMU.
Nothing from the Longhorns.
Of the schools that roll out the red carpet for nmsf, TAMU is an exceptionally good choice.

Macarthur said:

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Tech offers full cost of attendance for national merit finalist. UTD and UNT do, as well.

https://www.depts.ttu.edu/admissions/NationalMerit/

https://honors.utdallas.edu/nmsp/scholarship

https://www.unt.edu/nationalmerit

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JT88 said:

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Echo the "probably nothing from UT" for nmsf.
Daughter was nmsf and received combined package exceeding cost of attendance (guaranteed study-abroad, etc) from TAMU.
Nothing from the Longhorns.
Of the schools that roll out the red carpet for nmsf, TAMU is an exceptionally good choice.

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If I may ask, what did she get beyond Presidents Endowed? My son has that in his portal. Did you do anything separate to apply for them?

Obviously want to maximize what he can get cause he has a sister in college and another coming a couple of years behind him...

Richag04 said:

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Macarthur said:

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Tech offers full cost of attendance for national merit finalist. UTD and UNT do, as well.

https://www.depts.ttu.edu/admissions/NationalMerit/

https://honors.utdallas.edu/nmsp/scholarship

https://www.unt.edu/nationalmerit

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Yes, we considered all of those. He has decided he wants to go Engineering so that's why UNT is out.

UTD was def a consideration, as was TT, but my son sees the ranking of A&M's Engineering compared to the others and A&M is closer to home which is important to him.

Presidents endowed.
Electrical and Computer Engineering
NM Recognition Award.
NM Recognition Award Supplement.
National Merit Sponsorship.
Engineering Study Abroad Scholarship
Academic Scholarship Study Abroad

She ended up going elsewhere. I am not saying that is what TAMU offers all NMS, just that is what they offered her - based primarily on NM status.

Cool.

How were those presented?

Did they show up in her portal?
Did they show up at diff times?

Just trying to understand the timing of everything.

The offer was made in a letter sent to the house dated October of her senior year in HS.

Cannot speak to portal as I never saw it and she doesn't remember (2013).

Macarthur said:

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powerbelly said:

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Quote:

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UNT (strong music program)
Tx State (decent music Geology)
UT (music & science)
TCU (family legacy)

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Of those options, UT all day, but if he is a Merit finalist there will be good scholarships available that should even the cost quite a bit.

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Yes I would agree with that. As much as I do not like the university of Texas, I know how great of a school It is. However I have read a lot about how stingy they are.

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Agreed. My daughter was a brainiac in high school (A&M Consolidated). Top 5% with a ridiculous GPA. Two sport athlete. Club sport star on a terrific national team. 33 ACT. Biochemistry major at UT. The reward from UT? A "whopping" $5,000. Wow!

It's all coming together now.

He's going to get $ for NM
He's getting some from engineering.
Hoping to hear about a bit more $ in the coming weeks.

Gonna accept A&M soon and apply for honors engineering.

Got CAPed at UT. We would have chosen A&M anyway because of the $.

Accepted at TCU but they don't really have engineering.

Waiting on Rice, but not feeling strongly about that and would most likely choose A&M anyway because we won't get any $ from Rice. And that cost is insane, considering A&M's engineering is rated higher.

We are very happy about him being at A&M Engineering!

Congrats man! Hoping my son can do the same: admission to engineering. Don't care for scholarships at this point. That Aggie engineering diploma will cover that many times over.

My son got into Engineering Honors. Whoop!

Macarthur said:

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powerbelly said:

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Quote:

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UNT (strong music program)
Tx State (decent music Geology)
UT (music & science)
TCU (family legacy)

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Of those options, UT all day, but if he is a Merit finalist there will be good scholarships available that should even the cost quite a bit.

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Yes I would agree with that. As much as I do not like the university of Texas, I know how great of a school It is. However I have read a lot about how stingy they are.

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You are correct. My daughter was "all world" at A&M Consolidated. Top 1% of her class. Two sport athlete. Lots of clubs and organizations. Plenty of off-campus volunteer work. What did UT offer her while other schools Auburn, Georgia and Arkansas - we're offering at least a 1/2 free ride? $5,000. That's it.

Congrats on your son's accomplishments!

Doing honors engineering will set him up tremendously.

I would give a word of caution against doing environmental engineering though. I taught engineering ethics as a grad student TA and got to see the cross section of all engineering majors during the highs and then lows of oil prices in 2014-2016.

Environmental engineers were hit very hard, even with petroleum engineers. Environmental engineer fresh outs come in two flavors: those that want to do governmental work to save the coasts/environment and those that want to get attached to an oil/gas company on the operator side.

Those who wanted to save the world always and I mean always, were incredibly bright in my classes that I taught. Easily some of the smartest kids in the room full of smart kids. But they were all locked into a fight for a small amount of governmental jobs doing what they wanted. They all realized they were was tough road ahead of them and were in the process of expanding their job applications. Those that wanted to join oil/gas and environmental containment stuff were fighting for reduced hiring as well.

If that is what your son is dead set on doing, that is awesome. I would recommend looking on indeed at environmental engineering jobs and see if the job descriptions match up with what he thinks enviro is.

Also, I would recommend your son do a masters degree. He's going to have a lot of college credit hours helping him out early. He could easily do the 5 year bach+masters program or do a two year masters attached to the end of his bachelors. Personal preference is to do a M.S. and actually write a thesis, but industry doesn't care. (Writing a thesis actually teaches you the lessons grad school is supposed to teach, just doing an M.E and taking more classes doesn't).

Just some food for thought. Congrats again!

Thanks. He is considering Aerospace or the dual Aerospace Mechanical....not sure the exact term.

I think a masters is a strong bet.