Sorry for the rant but I think we are and it makes no sense. Rolling admission is something schools with low applicant flow and extremely high admission rates do in order to try and accept students quickly in order to try and recruit them. That makes no sense for a school like A&M.
It creates lots of chaos and confusion as well. Kids feel they need to rush their applications in August and miss out on an extra shot at an SAT and ACT. They don't have time to get some recognitions and awards in the first couple of months of their Senior Year to add to their app. It creates the mad rush for housing and for colleges like Business to fill up (at least Engineering is Holistic).
Personally I think we should do what Georgia Tech does. In State students can do early admission on Oct 15 and get a decision in a few weeks. OOS can do the same Nov 1. Then they have a Regular Admission cycle. Straightforward and in line with other good schools and with an advantage to In State students.
I'd love to get rid of the Top 10% rule as well but that's another topic. I just don't see any way that Rolling admissions is beneficial for A&M outside of spreading out the admissions cycle longer I suppose. The more I have gone through the process with my sons the more I realize A&M seems to do so many things that are counterproductive in how we admit students and how we charge fees and give out scholarships. It's as though we design everything to be as confusing as possible and counter to similar schools while charging more than other states in spite of having a $20 Billion endowment and generous alumni. All the things we do hurt our rankings as well by exaggerating our acceptance rates. Then we have programs like ETAM with no exceptions so an elite Engineering student has to take pause because it impacts how they schedule classes and forces them to risk being able to major in what they want.
Other good schools don't do this.
It creates lots of chaos and confusion as well. Kids feel they need to rush their applications in August and miss out on an extra shot at an SAT and ACT. They don't have time to get some recognitions and awards in the first couple of months of their Senior Year to add to their app. It creates the mad rush for housing and for colleges like Business to fill up (at least Engineering is Holistic).
Personally I think we should do what Georgia Tech does. In State students can do early admission on Oct 15 and get a decision in a few weeks. OOS can do the same Nov 1. Then they have a Regular Admission cycle. Straightforward and in line with other good schools and with an advantage to In State students.
I'd love to get rid of the Top 10% rule as well but that's another topic. I just don't see any way that Rolling admissions is beneficial for A&M outside of spreading out the admissions cycle longer I suppose. The more I have gone through the process with my sons the more I realize A&M seems to do so many things that are counterproductive in how we admit students and how we charge fees and give out scholarships. It's as though we design everything to be as confusing as possible and counter to similar schools while charging more than other states in spite of having a $20 Billion endowment and generous alumni. All the things we do hurt our rankings as well by exaggerating our acceptance rates. Then we have programs like ETAM with no exceptions so an elite Engineering student has to take pause because it impacts how they schedule classes and forces them to risk being able to major in what they want.
Other good schools don't do this.