COL Hawes is the right guy to speak with for sure.
For those of us olds who don't really understand how the admissions process works today, he can definitely help with that.
Having gone through the admissions process twice in the past decade with my two kids, let me offer some free advice.
#1 - Apply early. My Class of 2017 kid applied in September and got accepted within about two weeks. I was really surprised how fast it happened. Applying early also gives you enough time to make sure your application is complete. My Class of 2020 kid did not get into Texas A&M due to the fact that her High School Transcript was never received. And by the time I found out about it, it was really too late for anything to be done. Turns out what the High School had sent in was something garbled and illegible.
Part 2 of applying early, my Class of 2017 kid also applied to that orange school in Austin. She did wind up getting accepted into the Nursing Program at Texas but, they didn't send her an acceptance letter until maybe late February or early March. So by that point, she already had six months of being accepted to Texas A&M so she didn't even give t.u. a second look.
#2 - Make sure your kid's application is complete. This includes making sure that A&M has received the latest versions of test scores, etc. My Class of 2020 kid refused to listen to dad about prepping for the SAT and wound up taking it 3 times. First time was something in the mid 1200s because she didn't finish the test. Second time was something in the low 1300s because she finished the test but didn't do any preparation. 3rd time was in the mid 1400s because she finally listened to dad and studied.
Sounds great in theory but... what I found out was something to the effect of the third time you send your scores to a school, you have to pay $5 or something like that. Anyway, the long and the short of it is, Texas A&M never received her 1400+ SAT score. The only two schools who got that were Colorado and VMI which, not surprisingly, were the only two schools she got accepted to.
#3 - Take a look at some other schools. Don't have your son put all his eggs in the Texas A&M basket. If he's serious about serving in the military and wants to do a full time Corps of Cadets program. Have him take a look at schools like Virginia Tech, Virginia Military Institute and The Citadel. In addition to those schools, when my Class of 2020 kid did the Virginia Tech spend the night with the Corps, some of the other kids were looking at North Georgia and Norwich.
I was very happy when my oldest got accepted to A&M but, with only applying to two schools, she took a huge risk. On the other hand, my youngest applied to 7 schools and I was absolutely devastated when she didn't get into Texas A&M but, I will say that I have been absolutely thrilled with her decision to attend VMI. It was definitely the right program for her. So it all worked out in the end.
Virginia Tech is probably the most apples-apples comparison to Texas A&M with respect to your son majoring in Engineering. My youngest majored in Mechanical Engineering at VMI but they didn't have many other Engineering choices besides Civil Engineering whereas Texas A&M has many flavors of Engineering.
#4 - Be prepared for the questions from other Aggies, friends and family if your son does not attend Texas A&M. This was the most frustrating part. The number of family members, friends and other Aggies I know, who wanted to ask a million questions about why my youngest did not attend Texas A&M.
Folks who didn't go to A&M is one thing. You can usually just get away with telling them that admission to Texas A&M is very competitive these days and it's very difficult to get accepted. That is a true statement and that is good enough for the masses by and large.
But, all the Aggies you know who took 7 years to graduate and were part of the 2.0 & Go crew, those are the ones who have the least amount of understanding of the current admissions process. And that goes doubly if they don't have any children themselves, or if their children are still in Elementary School, etc., etc., etc.
Anyway, long winded rant but I thought you might appreciate some of the angles to consider.
You mentioned that your son is homeschooled so I don't know much about that. In our case, my kids did the International Baccalaureate (IB) program and applied to Texas A&M from overseas. That type of diploma is more accepted these days but it was still pretty new when my oldest applied.
Good Luck!
