AllTheFishes said:

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double b said:

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bmks270 said:

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University admissions are very subjective.
I know of lots of great students that didn't get accepted to places that is a bit shocking. All ended up doing great however, because they make themselves, not the particular university.

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That is mainly true for the very selective institutions (less than 20% acceptance rates), but those students typically possess very impressive academic resumes and test scores. Their essays and unique backgrounds essentially separate one candidate from another.

Texas A&M is not in that category of schools. Historically, we've admitted more than 60% of our applicants, although Blinn Team primarily inflates those numbers. So traditionally, a solid academic student coupled with equally good test scores and essays could feel confident about their admissions chances. At the very least, receive Blinn Team.

I think what happened this year is that Texas A&M admitted way too many students last year and a larger percentage matriculated than expected. The main campus welcomed 11,100 new students this Fall 2021 semester. For the Fall 2020 semester, TAMU enrolled 10,039 students, and that's an 11% increase from the previous year. No school plans to increase their enrollment by that much.

Overall, I don't think TAMU was expecting such an increase from the following year, coupled with a continued rise in applications due to Test-Optional policies, and you have this calamity of admission decisions this year. Texas A&M was going to continue to recruit their designated populations in hopes of increasing those numbers, which unfortunately, came at the sacrifice of suburban schools for this admission cycle.

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Can You shed some light on this for the current year. Seems things have not changed much but my view is narrow.

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I don't have access to any official numbers yet, but typically schools that join Common App see a nice bump in applications. Due to this, I anticipate that students from the suburbs of Texas will find it even more challenging to be accepted.

The dirty secret for those who want to go to A&M but don't get it is to transfer in. Go to Blinn or another university, make a 4.0, and apply to A&M. Make sure you meet all of the required classes for admission before you apply. A lot of students do not make it for various reasons and admissions will backfill classes with transfers. You may be closer to being a Junior, but if you want to be at A&M there is a way. If you compare a New Student Conference to Ring Day, the participants are very different.

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That said it doesn't make it any less frustrating to see how differently A&M treated us vs other schools. Ark and OU gave him admission almost immediately with nearly instate tuition, they are actually cheaper than A&M for him to go to. Tech called him to accept him and offered him money within a few days of applying. LSU acts like a stalker. A&M? If you don't call and push and do it on your own they DGAS. Even then no one seems to have influence with admissions and the secret sauce they use and believe me I tried everything. It's so short sighted to treat alumni and their kids that way, just beyond stupid. Doesn't mean they have to let them all in but part of the application involves talking about your connection to A&M so they know and they still do nothing. Freaking communicate. Have a Corps buddy as well who has a daughter that is going to Indiana Business on scholarship but got freaking PSA from A&M after zero responses, there goes another regular Aggie donor and his daughter that would have been an amazing Aggie.

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Those schools that actively recruit like that do it because they have to compete for top students, A&M doesn't. There are more than enough top quality students that are begging A&M to accept them regardless of scholarships and fan mail.

Question for those that may have experienced this in recent years.

Senior, not top 10%, applied in time for early action engineering. Initially it was posted that EA would be announced mid-December. That date came and went and it changed to mid-December but you will hear by mid-January. The latest is that EA will hear with regular admits as late as the end of March.

Is this typical or something new? If new, is it anything more complicated than because we can?

I get it and A&M has a luxury of applicants but it's frustrating. The longer it takes the easier it gets for all of us to get comfortable going elsewhere. Bummer family wise but oh well. Not a lot we can do I guess.

TIA

The last remaining full admit decisions will come out in the next 2-3 weeks. After that, you will either receive BLinn Team or Summer Gateway.

So the odds are pretty slim if haven't already heard from Engineering, but it's not impossible.

Thanks for the feedback. Appreciate it

Are you referring to all full admit decisions or only Engineering?

sosolik said:

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Are you referring to all full admit decisions or only Engineering?

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Yes, full admit decisions for all majors.

double b said:

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The last remaining full admit decisions will come out in the next 2-3 weeks. After that, you will either receive BLinn Team or Summer Gateway.

So the odds are pretty slim if haven't already heard from Engineering, but it's not impossible.

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Where is that information coming from?

AllTheFishes said:

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double b said:

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The last remaining full admit decisions will come out in the next 2-3 weeks. After that, you will either receive BLinn Team or Summer Gateway.

So the odds are pretty slim if haven't already heard from Engineering, but it's not impossible.

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Where is that information coming from?

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From 17 years of experience in the industry. Texas A&M typically shifts from full admission decisions to alternate pathways by mid-February. The admissions office aims to complete all their decisions by mid-March.

I guess I'm a little surprised being a larger than normal applicant pool and over 9K admissions packets yet to even review, https://www.thebatt.com/news/a-m-expected-to-release-final-admission-decisions-by-march/article_451ddbc4-9d34-11ed-9a28-77f2bdc065ea.html

This isn't a normal year with almost 20K more applicants so I thought the normal dates would be skewed some.

That mid-March deadline is no different from previous years. By the 2nd Friday in February, all full admission decisions were made, and then for the next four weeks, all the remaining options were released. I'm pretty sure they will release admission decisions in a similar manner this year.

Also, I'm positive that the increase in applications came from TAMU joining Common App this year.

Ok, that makes sense I suppose. I imagine they have filtered the applications initially to evaluate those with the higher chance to get a full admit first and the rest after that.

If you are offered "Consider TEAM and Waitlist", "Consider Team" or "Consider Waitlist Only", why would you not choose the first one? Is there a disadvantage to choosing the first one versus the second one?

Does anyone happen to know if there is a benefit to going the Galveston route vs Blinn Team. Specifically for engineering kids

This thread may be useful to you. They talk Blinn TEAM and waitlist toward the bottom.


https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/texas-a-m-class-of-2027-official-thread/3603888/3059

My son (just barely outside top 10%) was accepted to UT-Austin this week. Wait-listed at A&M. Not complaining, not mad. Just stating what should be obvious. Blinn JC vs UT-Austin? My daughter graduated from A&M. My son will graduate from UT.

My son's application for this fall just changed in the TAMU system. It changed from fall application to summer semester and from business or psychology to GEST. He received a letter in the system, but it is not clear.

Would this be an early indication he is in the Aggie Gateway to Success?

Nervous and have to know, can't wait. Any insight?

If you haven't already, I would read through the link that was shared above. From what I gather, it means he was offered Gateway.

Just found out he is in Gateway! Which sounds like a great program for him!

DANG said:

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Just found out he is in Gateway! Which sounds like a great program for him!

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My daughter did Gateway last year. It is an incredible program. It really sets the student up for success and transitioning from home to College Station. They have a really high success rate and it makes the transition in the fall so much easier.

Congrats!

DANG said:

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Just found out he is in Gateway! Which sounds like a great program for him!

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Last year they had a 98% pass rate from the gateway program.

My brother just got notice he is being "considered" for Texas A&M Engineering at Blinn. Any idea on when he should get a decision either way?

It was a week or two from that email to our son receiving confirmation back. His original message in portal said pick from 3 options but was not an acceptance at that time. I believe it was Blinn, Galveston, or McAllen.

Found out he got Blinn on Friday.

1Aggie99 said:

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Does anyone happen to know if there is a benefit to going the Galveston route vs Blinn Team. Specifically for engineering kids

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Depends on your kid and situation. My eldest is a Freshman at Galveston doing Marine Transportation and loves it. Much smaller than CS and profs are approachable in smaller classes. Treated just like the CS kids, actually get first pull on football tickets (my son got 1st Row, 3rd Deck twice as a Freshman last season). It's a more laid back atmosphere and much easier to focus on studies imo, my son was a decent student in HS (A's and B's) and got a 4.0 with 17 hours and is taking 22 hours this Semester. The beach and fishing are fun as long as you keep it in balance and there are a lot of dead periods. Biggest downside is there is much less going on than CS in terms of activities and fewer overall options, it's 2400 vs 70k. One of my son's buddies already got his Engineering acceptance for CS and is going next year but you have to work. My son stay in Galveston because of his Major (going to watch him march in the Mardi Gras parade Saturday!) and he is all about the ocean. A lot of kids though are just there to study hard and transfer to CS so they won't be alone.

Blinn is great as a transition to CS because you are there and so close to it. Blinn Team is outstanding because you are basically a regular A&M student only you get to take some of those weed out Freshman classes with 50 people instead of 300. You get to do basically everything else. If you know you want to be at CS it's probably the way to go. Margin for error for Engineering is really small though but the same would be said for Galveston.

I would recommend visiting both and talking to the Departments and it should be clear what feels right. Galveston is really underrated because it isn't as big and flashy as CS but the education is great and you don't get lost in the fray as easily. They are seeing more kids that actually go from Galveston to CS and then back to Galveston now. BTW, the Marine Engineering Technology and Ocean Engineering programs are some of the highest demand of any major in the A&M System with very high pay. Still there is something about being in College Station and all of the opportunities there.

AllTheFishes said:

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double b said:

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The last remaining full admit decisions will come out in the next 2-3 weeks. After that, you will either receive BLinn Team or Summer Gateway.

So the odds are pretty slim if haven't already heard from Engineering, but it's not impossible.

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Where is that information coming from?

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This is exactly how it played out last yr. Spring break last year was when A&M finally informed the masses that they did not get in.

TAMU1990 said:

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The dirty secret for those who want to go to A&M but don't get it is to transfer in. Go to Blinn or another university, make a 4.0, and apply to A&M. Make sure you meet all of the required classes for admission before you apply. A lot of students do not make it for various reasons and admissions will backfill classes with transfers. You may be closer to being a Junior, but if you want to be at A&M there is a way. If you compare a New Student Conference to Ring Day, the participants are very different.

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What is a new student conference? You need 90hrs at A&M to get your ring correct?

My kiddo will transfer in as a junior, a yr ahead of pace with all of the HS dual credits (should be a sophomore).

Reading this thread gives me heartburn. I feel for those who didn't get in and probably should have. My kids will be third generation Aggies if they want to. I'm living proof that anyone can get in if they really want to.

I was not even top 75% of my graduating class. SAT? Ha! I don't even remember the score but it wasn't good. I was Marine Corps Infantry material and that's exactly where I went.

After the Marines I enrolled in Blinn with the hopes of transferring to A&M. It didn't start out great. I think I got a 60 on my first writing exam. I was crushed. I really put an effort into it but was lost on how to succeed academically. I spent the next 3 months in writing lab at Blinn and was able to turn that first 60 into a B for the class.

Fast forward two more semesters plus summer school and I had a 3.8 GPA with a 4.0 in my History classes which was the major I was applying for. I was accepted into A&M the spring of 2005. Graduated 2008. Married a Salutatorian Aggie 6 months later. Both of us graduated debt free. One due to an Uncle Sam and the other scholarships and work.

Reading this thread gives me all sorts of emotions. one, I can't understand how any legacy Aggie who wants to be one would simply give up after not getting an auto enroll. Which is ok, everyone isn't me or Vice versa. Two, my kids will never stress about A&M. If they truly want to be an Aggie that's what they'll be, no matter the start. Three, get your **** together A&M, there are some damn fine legacy kids that will mean much more to A&M's future than a well written essay. Finally, if my kid has to claim to be a monitory lesbian then so be it.

Ours would have gone tu if he stayed in state. GT was his backup. ATM had no chance and they didn't help their case. We were disappointed at their lack of effort and awareness, the kid didn't care outside of it being his first acceptance letter. A lot of our friends kids go to ATM. It is not an unpopular choice for most.

HECUBUS said:

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Ours would have gone tu if he stayed in state. GT was his backup. ATM had no chance and they didn't help their case. We were disappointed at their lack of effort and awareness, the kid didn't care outside of it being his first acceptance letter. A lot of our friends kids go to ATM. It is not an unpopular choice for most.

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The A&M experience / communication was hands down the worst of all the schools our daughter looked at. Texas does a far superior job.

NomadicAggie said:

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I get it. It's supply and demand. Just unfortunate after so many years of supporting the school thinking my son would one day follow me, to watch him walk away disappointed. It is what it is. We'll turn our attention elsewhere.

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Both of my kids are children of Aggie grads with three degrees and walked away, and I'm glad they did. One is a successful intellectual property attorney, and the other one is a university administrator. Neither of them needed A&M to do that. Sadly, in my opinion, A&M has lost its way. Think about moving on to what might be a greater adventure.

There were just shy of 60K applicants this year. That is a lot to sort through. Applicants who were accepted and decided to go elsewhere recently is starting to create some activity and kids waiting are starting to be accepted finally. Most of what I am seeing lately are engineering applicants being accepted. Not much anything else.

Yesterday said:

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Reading this thread gives me heartburn. I feel for those who didn't get in and probably should have. My kids will be third generation Aggies if they want to. I'm living proof that anyone can get in if they really want to.

I was not even top 75% of my graduating class. SAT? Ha! I don't even remember the score but it wasn't good. I was Marine Corps Infantry material and that's exactly where I went.

After the Marines I enrolled in Blinn with the hopes of transferring to A&M. It didn't start out great. I think I got a 60 on my first writing exam. I was crushed. I really put an effort into it but was lost on how to succeed academically. I spent the next 3 months in writing lab at Blinn and was able to turn that first 60 into a B for the class.

Fast forward two more semesters plus summer school and I had a 3.8 GPA with a 4.0 in my History classes which was the major I was applying for. I was accepted into A&M the spring of 2005. Graduated 2008. Married a Salutatorian Aggie 6 months later. Both of us graduated debt free. One due to an Uncle Sam and the other scholarships and work.

Reading this thread gives me all sorts of emotions. one, I can't understand how any legacy Aggie who wants to be one would simply give up after not getting an auto enroll. Which is ok, everyone isn't me or Vice versa. Two, my kids will never stress about A&M. If they truly want to be an Aggie that's what they'll be, no matter the start. Three, get your **** together A&M, there are some damn fine legacy kids that will mean much more to A&M's future than a well written essay. Finally, if my kid has to claim to be a monitory lesbian then so be it.

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I'm a recent a&m grad and I lurk around here every once and a while. I am a strong advocate that if you want to be an aggie and are worried about grades etc, apply to a&m galveston and spend a semester there then switch like I did. Started out smaller, made good grades with smaller classes. still got to pull for tickets and it's still a&m. Was a good stepping stone. Feel free to send me a PM. i've helped lots of young future aggies on this path and I hope others here can agree with me on this.

the math SAT is easier now.

I got a 680 back in 1987, got accepted to every school I applied to, except U Chicago.

No one scored perfect SATs back then, friend scored 1500, highest I heard, another 1250, 1250 was like you could get into any school you wanted to. Another friend from Bellaire scored 1375, those were the highest scores I heard of back then.