We live in Utah and she is about to start freshman year in high school. As I understand it now, if she gets awarded at least $4k in scholarships from A&M each year,she would get in state tuition. Also understand all out of state applicants are considered on the "holistic review" regardless of class rank . Based on prior threads it seems like scholarship money is next to impossible obtaining for your typical student. Without living in TX, is there any other way to get in state tuition at A&M or is that pretty much it?

The only other one I know is the patriot scholarship for corps of cadets. I think you have to be in rotc/nrotc.

Just curious, what major is she interested in? If anything other than an engineering major, it's hard for me to see the value of spending the extra money out of state. My best friend, also an Aggie, just dropped his kid off at University of Utah. Great deal for him, almost free and his scores and grades weren't really very good to begin with.

I know that's an option. Pretty sure if she is still a dependent and parents/guardians live out of state, without a certain amount of scholarship $$$, she wouldnt be classified as a Texas resident. Even saw a company in Austin that helps parents establish residency for child by buying property in child's name among other things which seems like a PIA.

I agree, definitely would not be Engineering or anything like that. She just turned 14 and is about to start her Freshman year, she is all over the place. She has expressed interest in Orthodontics, but it could be something different in a few weeks. We live in the Ogden, UT area about an hour north of Salt Lake. Utah State University is in Logan an hour north of us and is a great little college town, she could always be an "Aggie" there, haha.

When I was at TAMUG, they guaranteed any out of state student who maintained a 3.5 GPA that scholarships would be awarded in future years to maintain in state tuition.

I had "out of state" friends who came in on scholarship and went the residency route after their freshman year. They had to maintain a part time job, rent an apartment, live in Texas for 12 consecutive months, work in TX over the summer, and get a TX drivers license. They were able to remain dependents on their parents tax returns for the purpose of health insurance.

It may help her case, if she networks with the TAMUG admissions department before she applies. If A&M is her first choice, let them know and make it clear that she needs in state tuition to attend.

There were a ton of out of state parents on the Class 2027 boards who were surprised and complained at how very little their brilliant student received. Looks like a bunch of hoops to jump through for OOS to get in-state tuition which I think is how it should be in any state.

Corps scholarship is the easiest path, but she has to be willing and able to do the corps.

National merit almost guarantees a scholarship, so start her on her vocabulary words and math now. Math is only fun when you're good at it, so go over what she will be learning each week on Sunday and maybe even have her do as much of her homework Sunday evening as she can. Once she's good at it, work on getting fast at it. Make sure she's on a path to take the most difficult math and science classes her school offers.

BTHOtrolls said:

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My suggestion is to also look into the Galveston Campus.

I was also an out of state student. The Galveston Campus had a lot more scholarships per applicant to facilitate in state tuition.

Your daughter can use the time at Galveston to knock out pre requisites and become a Texas resident.

If she wants to transfer from Galveston to college station then the process is no different than if she were to start at college station and change majors.

If she knows her preferred major at College Station then Galveston advisers can help with picking the right courses to satisfy pre requisites.

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Big fan of Galveston as well. My eldest son is a Sophomore in MART there which is an amazing program but they definitely work with kids trying to get to CS. Much easier environment to adapt to college as well, largest class is probably 75 and most are in the 20s. The campus is on Pelican Island so it's isolated but also 5 minutes from being in town so super safe. Only about 2500 students and you can walk and get around so much easier than CS, you don't just get lost like it is so easy to do in CS. You also get first pick on football tickets, my son was between the 40's on the 3rd Deck basically every game as a Freshman and front row twice.

It's definitely a lot quieter and laid back though with a fraction of the clubs and activities. My son has embraced it and is taking heavy course loads (22 hours last Semester, 20 this Semester) and will graduate early. Know a lot of kids that have transferred up to CS though and are also doing great.

I also know a lot of kids that went to CS and have struggled. It's just so damn big now and going up and taking a bunch of Freshman classes with 400 students and a million distractions is a lot to adjust to. A kid has to be very self reliant to succeed in that environment.