Let's get a list going and hope the admissions people see this thread.

To start with:

1. Test optional in 2026 is just embarrassing.
2. No SAT super scoring is a mistake - it makes our average SAT look low compared to the many other universities that take super scores.
3. Not having an Early Decision option is a mistake that harms yield.
4. ETAM discourages certain applicants that are set on a specific engineering discipline.
5. I get conflicting info on whether the university tracks demonstrated interest, but that should definitely be considered in admissions.
6. Shrink the top 10% to top 5%. If we can't eliminate the 10% rule, we can reduce its impact.
7. Get rid of the lingering DEI efforts that have been renamed or otherwise hidden from view.
8. Carefully review and maybe reduce the number of students coming from China. Why are we training our hostile competition?

Buck Turgidson said:

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Let's get a list going and hope the admissions people see this thread.

To start with:

1. Test optional in 2026 is just embarrassing.
Completely agree
2. No SAT super scoring is a mistake - it makes our average SAT look low compared to the many other universities that take super scores.
Completely agree
3. Not having an Early Decision option is a mistake that harms yield.
Not a fan of ED as it favors students who don't have to worry about funding, esp at public schools. That said it may be fighting against the tide as it isn't going anywhere.
4. ETAM discourages certain applicants that are set on a specific engineering discipline.
ETAM itself is not so bad but it needs an overhaul. More exceptions such as acceptance to Eng Honors or GPA/SAT etc. Also they need to add in an "intent" in applications and factor that in with admissions. Since "intent" is not considered you end up with an unbalanced class instead of considering that 80% of kids want 5 Majors. Hate seeing kids who want to study Mech E get 3 Semesters in and have to scramble to major in whatever is left and they didn't realize how competitive it would be. It also is a big negative that students feel they need to retake Sr year to protect their GPA which feels like a waste of time and money but the risk is just too high otherwise due to ETAM. That also blows the curve for other students.
5. I get conflicting info on whether the university tracks demonstrated interest, but that should definitely be considered in admissions.
There are some state law issues to consider here.
6. Shrink the top 10% to top 5%. If we can't eliminate the 10% rule, we can reduce its impact.
Best solution is to get rid of it. Next best is to shrink it. If we are stuck with it we need to do what Texas does and say auto only gets you in Liberal Arts and every other major you have to be accepted separately. Or at least make Mays have a separate admission like Engineering and probably same with the Sciences.
7. Get rid of the lingering DEI efforts that have been renamed or otherwise hidden from view.
We have made progress here but always more to do.
8. Carefully review and maybe reduce the number of students coming from China. Why are we training our hostile competition?
This is happening because of H-1 reform and other issues.

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I commented on your thoughts above. I'm a big advocate of the Georgia Tech admissions calendar:

In State EA Deadline Oct 15, Results mid Dec. Thus all In State find our sooner and have an advantage in admissions vs OOS.

OOS EA Deadline Nov 1, Results late Jan. Results are AFTER RA Admissions closes so they know at least how many they have to compare with and general quality of RA. It's harder for OOS but at least they find out soon with EA and it gives the school the benefit of knowing their total pool before making decisions

RA Deadline Jan 1, Results in March. You have to be really good to get RA admit to GT.

Our Financial Aid needs massive reform as well. It's basically National Merit or Corps and most of it goes by means testing. We are losing droves of great students because of this. My son's school used to have 20 or so of the T10% go to A&M, now it is low single digits and mainly folks with strong Aggie ties. Other schools are either higher ranked or throw lots of money at them. It's why my son is at NC State on a full ride in spite of his Aggie brother, both Aggie parents, and Grandad who was a Yell Leader. We also need to be realistic that most kids who are accepted at A&M also are accepted at Texas at that level and to someone with no dog in that fight they are picking Texas 9/10 if the money is the same. It wouldn't take much for us to peel off a lot of those kids.

We do a horrible job of recruiting top students. My son got far more stuff from Harvard and Yale than A&M as a Top 5% kid from a top Texas HS. It became a joke after a while. A&M had to work really hard at losing him and making him feel like they couldn't care less if he came. All of the efforts are towards First Gen and lower income students, Engineering Academies for lower ranked students, and National Merit (which really doesn't get much of a scholarship either).

Our admissions and financial aid offices barely know the literature on the web. I swear I talked to half a dozen during my son's process and I knew more than any of them and often was telling them their own policies. That was often after waiting forever to finally get someone to talk to. Lots of enthusiasm and little knowledge. I remember going to GT and walking in and getting someone immediately and they quickly grasped everything I was asking about and offered suggestion after suggestion. Same with most other places we visited and contacted. Texas sucks at this too btw. They make it all too clear that they have plenty of applicants and couldn't care less about you. We should want the best students in Texas to come to A&M and realize that those students have a LOT of options.

top 10 needs a minimum sat score. You do that and it thins the herd a lot and gives more spots for kids who are outside top 10 but can be successful at tamu. make it 1200. Bring back academic admit (top quarter but 1350 sat). My son got in the last year we had that - HS class of 2020- and did great at tamu.


This top 10 and in thing puts kids at tamu who are not going to succeed. So you have a bunch of kids leave and then space for a bunch of kids to either transfer from juco and PSA. How about making it the goal to have kids get admitted as freshmen who can succeed and finish at tamu instead of the shell game we have now.

How about replacing the Associate VP for Enrollment Management? Not that it's all his fault. A&M grew far too quickly under John Sharp, and offers too many pathways (Blinn TEAM, PSA,, engineering academies, etc.), but the admissions process compared to our peers is a joke.

aggie93 said:

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Buck Turgidson said:

---

Let's get a list going and hope the admissions people see this thread.

To start with:

1. Test optional in 2026 is just embarrassing.
Completely agree
2. No SAT super scoring is a mistake - it makes our average SAT look low compared to the many other universities that take super scores.
Completely agree
3. Not having an Early Decision option is a mistake that harms yield.
Not a fan of ED as it favors students who don't have to worry about funding, esp at public schools. That said it may be fighting against the tide as it isn't going anywhere.
4. ETAM discourages certain applicants that are set on a specific engineering discipline.
ETAM itself is not so bad but it needs an overhaul. More exceptions such as acceptance to Eng Honors or GPA/SAT etc. Also they need to add in an "intent" in applications and factor that in with admissions. Since "intent" is not considered you end up with an unbalanced class instead of considering that 80% of kids want 5 Majors. Hate seeing kids who want to study Mech E get 3 Semesters in and have to scramble to major in whatever is left and they didn't realize how competitive it would be. It also is a big negative that students feel they need to retake Sr year to protect their GPA which feels like a waste of time and money but the risk is just too high otherwise due to ETAM. That also blows the curve for other students.
5. I get conflicting info on whether the university tracks demonstrated interest, but that should definitely be considered in admissions.
There are some state law issues to consider here.
6. Shrink the top 10% to top 5%. If we can't eliminate the 10% rule, we can reduce its impact.
Best solution is to get rid of it. Next best is to shrink it. If we are stuck with it we need to do what Texas does and say auto only gets you in Liberal Arts and every other major you have to be accepted separately. Or at least make Mays have a separate admission like Engineering and probably same with the Sciences.
7. Get rid of the lingering DEI efforts that have been renamed or otherwise hidden from view.
We have made progress here but always more to do.
8. Carefully review and maybe reduce the number of students coming from China. Why are we training our hostile competition?
This is happening because of H-1 reform and other issues.

---

I commented on your thoughts above. I'm a big advocate of the Georgia Tech admissions calendar:

In State EA Deadline Oct 15, Results mid Dec. Thus all In State find our sooner and have an advantage in admissions vs OOS.

OOS EA Deadline Nov 1, Results late Jan. Results are AFTER RA Admissions closes so they know at least how many they have to compare with and general quality of RA. It's harder for OOS but at least they find out soon with EA and it gives the school the benefit of knowing their total pool before making decisions

RA Deadline Jan 1, Results in March. You have to be really good to get RA admit to GT.

Our Financial Aid needs massive reform as well. It's basically National Merit or Corps and most of it goes by means testing. We are losing droves of great students because of this. My son's school used to have 20 or so of the T10% go to A&M, now it is low single digits and mainly folks with strong Aggie ties. Other schools are either higher ranked or throw lots of money at them. It's why my son is at NC State on a full ride in spite of his Aggie brother, both Aggie parents, and Grandad who was a Yell Leader. We also need to be realistic that most kids who are accepted at A&M also are accepted at Texas at that level and to someone with no dog in that fight they are picking Texas 9/10 if the money is the same. It wouldn't take much for us to peel off a lot of those kids.

We do a horrible job of recruiting top students. My son got far more stuff from Harvard and Yale than A&M as a Top 5% kid from a top Texas HS. It became a joke after a while. A&M had to work really hard at losing him and making him feel like they couldn't care less if he came. All of the efforts are towards First Gen and lower income students, Engineering Academies for lower ranked students, and National Merit (which really doesn't get much of a scholarship either).

Our admissions and financial aid offices barely know the literature on the web. I swear I talked to half a dozen during my son's process and I knew more than any of them and often was telling them their own policies. That was often after waiting forever to finally get someone to talk to. Lots of enthusiasm and little knowledge. I remember going to GT and walking in and getting someone immediately and they quickly grasped everything I was asking about and offered suggestion after suggestion. Same with most other places we visited and contacted. Texas sucks at this too btw. They make it all too clear that they have plenty of applicants and couldn't care less about you. We should want the best students in Texas to come to A&M and realize that those students have a LOT of options.

---

Bingo. My son graduated from Consol, had a GPA deep into the 3.__s and scored a 33 on the ACT. Both parents graduated from A&M (me twice). Nothing from A&M. Not a dime. He went out-of-state with a full ride, admission to the Honors College, class selection (even before the athletes), smaller, personal class sizes, fully paid out-of-state trips as part of his curriculum, and a carefully monitored mini-thesis program that led to publication.

With as much $$$ swimming around for non-academic endeavors, it appears that we may have lost our way when it comes to the focusing on the REAL mission: recruiting, nurturing and empowering the finest people who will represent themselves and the university in a stellar manner throughout their lives.

Not just TAMU but eliminate from initial consideration any Top 10% that are here on their parents' H1B visa.

We live in Frisco and those kids disproportionately focus on grades and aren't well rounded. Good for you knowing how to kick ass on schoolwork. But you haven't Americanized and there are other nits I could pick on top of all that.

CaptAmerica03 said:

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@aggie93, helpful information, and much appreciated. I will admit that that demographic's refusal to Americanize adds to my frustration. Much bigger issue than just schooling and approach.

Yes to Arkansas and OU becoming far more popular choices. My oldest didn't really want to consider those two in large part because so many kids from his high school go there now. He doesn't really have enemies and plays varsity baseball, so not really a lack of social ability so much as wanting to move on from folks he likely won't stay in touch with anyway.

I don't know how to weigh his A&M chances as he is not Top 10 and agree that that is rally the biggest impediment to great kids missing out on a shot at being an Aggie. Not all Top 10% kids are equal, and plenty are very average compared to the quality of kids A&M can get outside of that parameter. He will have 24 hours of dual credit done and has an unweighted 4.0. Test score is solid to good, but not great. Lots of service hours.

My kid may get in anyway but will be later in the fall or beyond and may well affect his chances to live on campus.

Good news about an Arkansas or an OU is far more like-minded kids are going there as a result of the difficulty of getting into A&M. Have also heard that Tech looks a lot like A&M's makeup from when I was there (Class of '03) for similar reasons. And as much fun as it is to make fun of them, the campus is better than I anticipated and they have a growing network.

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FWIW my older son was in a similar dilemna. He had a longshot at College Station but was admitted to Tech, OU, Arkansas with scholarships making them cheaper than A&M. He chose A&M Galveston and did Maritime Transportation. Fast forward. Most of his friends went to Arkansas and have graduated. Couple went to Tech, a couple went to A&M, couple to Texas. Most did Business and Science/Pre Med of some sort. All had to hustle hard to get first jobs not making much but they are on a path. All are good kids and will end up doing well eventually.

My son got his Aggie Ring and went to Aggie football game (often Front Row, Galveston picks before CS). Social life was limited but the classes were small and relevant, he loved it and hated the idea of being in an office. He had 4 offers for 6 figures at graduation and works for a tanker company 60 on and 60 off. He'll be pushing $200k by the time he is 24. He is "living" at home for now because he's either gone at work or traveling most of his off time. His ast 2 months he did a Cruise, Cabo, Vegas, and a trip to Ohio to see a friend. Previously he did Europe. Already booked Australia for his next time off this Fall. He's saving a crazy amount of money and will buy a house or condo next year with his bonus and have a couple of his buddies rent from him. He also paid off his student loans in a few months and he's building up his retirement accounts like crazy. He's truly living the dream and honestly he loves his job and doesn't even feel like work to him. Virtually all of his buddies that graduated with him are in similar positions.

Great thing is he can keep upgrading his license and make Master/Captain before he is 30 and then decide he can stay on the water and make huge money or go work on land for an O&G or Shipping company and make strong 6 figures if he wants to be home at night with a family.

It wasn't always easy and he had to make some sacrifices but damn it's paying off. I just see so many of his friends going the traditional route and they will be fine but I am just boggled more kids don't go the Maritime route. You have to like the ocean, doing some physical work (now he mainly supervises), have a very responsible attitude, and be willing to give up a lot of the normal "college experience" but not many places you can make that kind of money and have that level of job security and options and you don't have to be an elite student.

Life is choices.