TexasAg95 said:

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aggie93 said:

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TexasAg95 said:

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One very simple thing that would thin the herd of top 10 and make things more fair for kids from tough high schools would be to one, institute a minimum SAT score for the top 10 percent, and two, bring back the academic auto admit (top quarter with a 1350.). My son was in the last group to get that and it was fair. He had a bad semester his sophomore year and blew his chance to be top 10. But he knew if he made a 1350 he'd get in. He busted his butt and got it.


The way admissions are now-

Top 10 at any school gets in , period.

• this results in a good chunk of kids who aren't going to succeed at A&M getting in automatically
• also results in a good chunk of kids who are just outside top 10 , who cant get in auto, but have what it takes to succeed at tamu

So what do we do?

• set up a "PSA" and "Blinn team" program where the kids who SHOULD get in auto have to go , to wait for the kids in group one, the autos who really shouldn't be here, for them to flunk out and transfer.

It's a big giant waste of time and energy but boy tamu gets to brag about "First Gen" and demographic numbers. Even though some of those kids shouldn't be here in the first place.

Why is there room for thousands of students to transfer in to tamu every year, why is there enough room for them to guarantee PSA spots if the freshman class is full? Because they know a big chunk of the auto admits won't be able to cut it and will transfer out.


How about a goal of, choosing the kids who can succeed at A&M from the start , instead of this giant shell game of thousands getting admitted and then leaving and then thousands being put in PSA and then get in? Simply having a minimum SAT score to be top 10 auto would achieve this.

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One issue is you would need the SAT to be higher. Over 400k grads from Texas high schools now and that doesn't count oos, homeschooling, or most private schools. Auto admissions really aren't practical anymore unless it's far higher than it is now like Top 5 percent of maybe Top 2 percent with a 1450 SAT. The solution is more holistic and then it's about what is prioritized.

You point out the problem with Blinn and System admits though. We should be doing it the opposite way but they care more about bragging about 1st gen and other numbers in admissions and less about outcomes and getting the best students. The reality is most 1st gen students from a bad school are set up to fail or have to overcome a lot to succeed. If those kids were in Blinn or System schools though they'd be more likely to graduate and do so with a meaningful degree. We aren't supposed to state the obvious though because it's much better to ignore uncomfortable truths.

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I bet if you made top 10 percent simply need to make 1300, it would thin it considerably. Make it top 10 need to make 1300, top 25 need 1350 (old academic admit). That would free up a lot of spots for
"holistic" review.




Texas A&M is so difficult now, if a kid can't make a 1300 or something similar on the SAT, they are going to struggle.

And the thing is, like you said, the best thing for many of the "1st gen" freshmen would be to start at a smaller system school and see if they can handle college. If they can, great. Come on.

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Problem is you would have far too many auto accepts and thus make it so that anyone who didn't get that rank and score is screwed. It needs to be higher for auto if we are doing auto. You don't want an "auto" that 50k students in Texas qualify for and we already have over 40k with Top 10%. Our peer schools don't do large scale auto admit for that reason. We are simply too strong of a school now. There is no easy button with auto admit and it's getting worse as Texas is over 31 million now.

Personally I think AP scores, esp in STEM subjects, are a better measure than an SAT. You aren't going to be able to get a 5 on Calc BC if you haven't studied and are really good at math. SAT mainly tests for IQ and test taking skills. Class rank and GPA Is simply too messy with thousands of high schools all with different levels and systems. That said there isn't a magic bullet in today's world and we need to look forward and look at what schools like Georgia Tech and Florida and others do. That's why you have to have a level of holistic. You want kids who pushed their rigor and still made grades. You want kids that can show on multiple levels they are prepared for A&M level coursework. We also should absolutely have each college admit students separately like we do for Engineering, especially Business. First come is an insane policy.

There are plenty of examples we can follow from our peer schools but A&M seems determined to do things differently and act as if that's always a good thing. All it does is limit us by losing out on many of the best students in Texas and frustrating former students. One thing I realized long ago was A&M has many policies that take former students and their die hard support for granted and they only change when they feel threatened. Lots of examples with Corps policies over the years as a great example. The school would take on policies to change things gradually and eventually they would go too far and get hit back by the big donors and shift back to an extent. Admissions is simply another battlefield but one that most former students don't understand as clearly. Hearing that the guy who runs admissions went the nontraditional route makes a lot of sense as he is looking at things through his own lens, the problem is that route doesn't work well for a school with the resources and prestige of A&M. Thus we get the less for more and frustrate almost everyone.

cavscout96 said:

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GoAgs92 said:

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• Class Rank: 76% of admits are in the top 25% of their graduating class.
• The Rest are athletes.

(1290 SAT = top 10%) for homeschoolers...wtf?

if you're not top 25%...don't waste your money or only apply during the free week.

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this surprises me. I didn't think they were still doing an SAT -> top X conversion anymore.

is that policy or just where they are currently landing.

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They have come up with some weird formula for homeschool that actually incentivizes someone from a difficult school district to homeschool.

My kids go to a private school. One of my kids made a 1290 on his SAT and he's nowhere near the top 10%. The other made a 1470 on the SAT and he is not in the top 10%, either. He is "EXTREMELY close", like he might be the first person outside of the top 10% (and maybe by the end of this year he'll be top 10%).

In my opinion, a 1290 is a ridiculously low score to automatically qualify as top 10% just because you're homeschooled.

combat wombat said:

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My kids go to a private school. One of my kids made a 1290 on his SAT and he's nowhere near the top 10%. The other made a 1470 on the SAT and he is not in the top 10%, either. He is "EXTREMELY close", like he might be the first person outside of the top 10% (and maybe by the end of this year he'll be top 10%).

In my opinion, a 1290 is a ridiculously low score to automatically qualify as top 10% just because you're homeschooled.

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For the UT - Austin, homeschool students need to earn a 1580 to be considered for automatic admission. However, to be fair, they're admitting students similar to the top 5%.

I feel like with the demographics in this forum, some nuances of the Top10% are lost. Would a pure meritocracy be better? Of course. However, not all students in Texas come from a level playing field. There is a huge divide in the quality of high schools and it wouldn't be fair to admit everyone from the suburbs of Houston, Dallas, Austin, etc with their 20 AP classes and 1400+ SATs because it's a state school and they have to accept kids from "lesser" high schools.

My kids are in one of these low-tier high schools. They have taken 2 APs and that's all that's offered so they can't compete on that front. Kid 1 got 4s and kid 2 got 5s. The school barely offers calculus and it's a struggle to even get on the right path to take it, and it's dual credit, only one semester senior year.

Kid 1 has a 1440 SAT and my sophomore just got a 35 ACT. Their high school regularly has students in the top 3% (10 students) who have not even scored a 24 on ACT. It's really dismal. All that to say that even coming from this lack of opportunity, my kids can definitely compete on intelligence but they have not had all the academic opportunities of a large suburban upper-middle-class high school.

So that's the kind of thing the Top 10% is supposed to address. I agree that 10% is way too much, and there should also be an ACT/SAT bar of some sort.

I agree that A&M should be with the Florida/Georgia/Tennessee tier of the SEC instead of sticking to nonsensical outdated admissions processes.

StellaLuna said:

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I feel like with the demographics in this forum, some nuances of the Top10% are lost. Would a pure meritocracy be better? Of course. However, not all students in Texas come from a level playing field. There is a huge divide in the quality of high schools and it wouldn't be fair to admit everyone from the suburbs of Houston, Dallas, Austin, etc with their 20 AP classes and 1400+ SATs because it's a state school and they have to accept kids from "lesser" high schools.

My kids are in one of these low-tier high schools. They have taken 2 APs and that's all that's offered so they can't compete on that front. Kid 1 got 4s and kid 2 got 5s. The school barely offers calculus and it's a struggle to even get on the right path to take it, and it's dual credit, only one semester senior year.

Kid 1 has a 1440 SAT and my sophomore just got a 35 ACT. Their high school regularly has students in the top 3% (10 students) who have not even scored a 24 on ACT. It's really dismal. All that to say that even coming from this lack of opportunity, my kids can definitely compete on intelligence but they have not had all the academic opportunities of a large suburban upper-middle-class high school.

So that's the kind of thing the Top 10% is supposed to address. I agree that 10% is way too much, and there should also be an ACT/SAT bar of some sort.

I agree that A&M should be with the Florida/Georgia/Tennessee tier of the SEC instead of sticking to nonsensical outdated admissions processes.

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The argument is to have that context in holistic admissions not to keep kids from bad high schools out of A&M. If your kid is maxing out the rigor and performing well above the norm on their SAT that is a great indicator they are ready for A&M level coursework. The problem is the Top 10% rule doesn't just admit your kid, they admit the other 30 kids (you said Top 3% were 10 kids so I'm assuming that's close to the math) who you said didn't even get a 24 on the ACT and likely didn't get 4's and 5's on their AP tests if they took those 2 AP's offered at your school. Still the last kid who just got in under the wire of the Top 10% who may have gotten a 1000 on their SAT or a 20 on their ACT and may not have taken an AP gets admitted into Mays (which is first come) where they are going to go up against kids who went to the top high schools and have a dozen or more AP's and got a 1500 SAT. They are not set up for success.

There are many ways to look at rigor in context of what a kid was offered, how motivated they were to push themselves to be prepared, how they were able to compete, what types of activities and honors they have that are relevant to their major or show they have an affinity for what they are going to study along with the grades and rank and test scores.

So out of those 30 kids there are likely a few that are ready for A&M and will do well but most will not. Focus on finding the right ones and don't use a blunt tool like Top 10% that may get some of the qualified kids but also gets a lot of kids who aren't. Sad thing is a lot of those kids are smart kids too but they would likely do better in a program like Blinn Team or the System schools with a path to College Station.

One of my buddies donated a scholarship to A&M over 15 years ago. It's a 4 year renewable scholarship. A&M has given that scholarship to kids who are Top 10% primarily from underperforming HS's. Only 1 kid has actually been able to make it 4 years, the rest have lost the scholarship or flunked out completely.

I want all those kids to succeed. I want the kids that are prepared for A&M to get in and to choose A&M. I want the kids who are interested in A&M but aren't ready to have a path. Other peer schools do a much better job at this than we do because they don't use a blunt instrument like Top 10%. Those schools make it a priority to get kids from rural and underperforming schools as well but they work a lot harder to select the ones most likely to succeed and help them to get there.

A couple of years ago I went looked at the statistics for TAMU top 10 admits. At the time, I believed that the top 10 admits must have a huge washout rate because many kids from lower performing schools were being admitted automatically. I was actually quite surprised because top 10% admits weren't washing out at a higher rate than any other category of admitted students.

Anecdotally, my niece graduated in the top 5% of her public high school in Galveston. She's a bright girl. However, her high school did not prepare her for college. She would've been an auto admit to UT Austin or Texas A&M in College Station. She wanted to stay closer to home, so she went to U of H; she really struggled at U of H. I expected her experience to be the same for a lot of the top 10 admits at Texas A&M. It wasn't. At least not based on the numbers available on the A&M website.

Auto admit for top 10% from any Texas public high school should continue? No. I think SAT test scores should be considered in line of your class rank but there should be some minimum combination of class rank in SAT score required.

combat wombat said:

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A couple of years ago I went looked at the statistics for TAMU top 10 admits. At the time, I believed that the top 10 admits must have a huge washout rate because many kids from lower performing schools were being admitted automatically. I was actually quite surprised because top 10% admits weren't washing out at a higher rate than any other category of admitted students.

Anecdotally, my niece graduated in the top 5% of her public high school in Galveston. She's a bright girl. However, her high school did not prepare her for college. She would've been an auto admit to UT Austin or Texas A&M in College Station. She wanted to stay closer to home, so she went to U of H; she really struggled at U of H. I expected her experience to be the same for a lot of the top 10 admits at Texas A&M. It wasn't. At least not based on the numbers available on the A&M website.

Automated from any Texas public high school should continue? No. I think SAT test scores should be considered in line of your class rank but there should be some minimum combination of class rank in SAT score required.

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Most still graduate overall but most are also from good High Schools that go to A&M still. What you also see is many that change majors. Always hard to point to a single factor which is the point I'm making really. Every kid is different and that's the issue. If you use one factor as the guide you will end up with a lot of mistakes no matter if that factor is a good one. It's not like I think it would be a better idea to only look at SAT scores either. You set up a list of priorities and look at the whole picture, that's the best chance of success.

Unfortunately we do the same thing with merit where being a National Merit Semifinalist is the gatekeeper for virtually all A&M merit scholarships of significance. Thus how you did on one test your Junior year in High School matters more than anything else. No one else outside of Tulsa and a couple of other lower rated schools do this and it's part gimmick and part laziness. At a T20 school being NM is a "nice to have" at best and not something they focus on. This is very personal to me because my son had a diabetic episode during his PSAT and had to take the test with his blood sugar above 400 and just missed NM and got Commended. He had a 1510 SAT and an incredible resume but that crushed him. So he took a full ride at NC State. Ironically he talked to a kid this week in North Carolina that is NM and A&M is offering him close to a full ride vs NCSU which is offering him nothing and he was selling him on A&M (though my son is very happy at NC State). A&M is coming after this kid from OOS hard because he did well on that one test but none of the other schools he was accepted to are because his main qualification is being NM (he's not Top 10% of his class btw). That's the type of thing that happens when you look at one factor as far more important than the overall picture but other schools do look at that bigger picture. A&M likes to brag about how many NM kids we have when it does nothing for us in rankings or prestige.

your post was screenshotted and taken to Instagram.
:-)

https://instagr.am/p/DXMelOhjvGR

Can someone break it down for me in layman's terms? My son is a diehard Aggie (both parents are Aggies). He attends Strake Jesuit private school in Houston (1200-1500 kids). He's a freshman in honors Math, Science, English and History. Big into sports - currently a 4.2 GPA. He's a good student but is well rounded and won't be top 5%. Makes A's and B's and I'm fine with that. Only wants to go to A&M … would do Blinn team but won't do outside of CS at a system school. Interested in Engineering or Business. What should be the plan for him to get in?

- sounds like moving to small town or homeschool is advantage (but that's not gonna happen)
- should he prioritize honors and AP classes? Even if he can make higher grades in regular classes?
- does he need to pick a major outside Engineering or Business for easier route?
- does joining the corps help?
- obviously scoring as high on SAT as he can is important
- Applying early as possible sounds like advantage
- how much does being a donor help?
- what else did I miss?

I have a college freshman at another school and my eyes were opened last year to what a game this had unfortunately become. I refused for us to play the game and it hurt her. Don't want to make that same mistake again …. He's too good of a kid and too passionate about the Aggies for me to make the same mistake

Curious about the above profile as well…pretty much summed up my younger son and daughter.

Only other question is out of state and there is no class rank. Our school district does not even track class rank…you can't even find out or have any access because it doesn't exist. We are top district in Kansas. (Blue Valley Schools in Overland Park).

At our kids' school, a lower grade in an AP class is offset by a 10 point difficulty bonus when calculating their GPAs. To get the highest possible GPA the kids need to get a 93 or higher in an AP class. Schools look for kids to take the most rigorous classes available to them. I would urge your kids to take as many AP classes as they can.

Colleges may recalculate the kids' GPAs. However, our school uses a grading system that closely resembles what's used by colleges. Our school calculate a weighted GPA and an unweighted GPA on a four point scale. Then they calculate a weighted GPA using 100 point scale to determine top 10%. The AP class bonus points definitely make a difference in the calculation of GPA for top 10%.

The kids who aren't taking AP classes are at a disadvantage when it comes to top 10% my daughter is making 100s in most of her classes but all of her grades are usually 97 or better. However, because she did not take AP Spanish 3 this year, she's not sure whether she'll end up in top 10% at the end of this year, but she should catch up by the end of junior year.

My daughter is annoyed because kids taking AP Art are going to get the same GPA bump for an A in that class as she's going to get for taking AP Chem or AP PreCalculus.

Our children's school does not rank the students. They do ranked top 10% because state law requires it. But otherwise no rank. They say it's a benefit to the students because it forces colleges to evaluate them holistic quickly rather than looking at them as a number.

combat wombat said:

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My daughter is annoyed because kids taking AP Art are going to get the same GPA bump for an A in that class as she's going to get for taking AP Chem or AP PreCalculus.

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My kids that are taking AP and dual enrollment are annoyed that the kids signed up for the Magnet program are getting a free A in AP Seminar and AP Redearch. The offset is the magnet program kids arent allowed to take dual enrollment.

- sounds like moving to small town or homeschool is advantage (but that's not gonna happen) Strake is very well known and well regarded. That should be taken into consideration in a holistic review.
- should he prioritize honors and AP classes? Even if he can make higher grades in regular classes? Take all the AP and honors courses possible except maybe where he might drop to a C
- does he need to pick a major outside Engineering or Business for easier route? Transferring into Business or Engineering is not easy. If he is set on either of those, start out applying for what he really wants. However, if he isn't really set on a major and is just dying to go to A&M, maybe he can pick something else.
- does joining the corps help? Don't know these days. It used to help a little.
- obviously scoring as high on SAT as he can is important I'm still trying to get a straight answer on where your SAT starts to help your application.
- Applying early as possible sounds like advantage Yes. I've heard conflicting info about whether you should shoot for the first day or just get it in by mid September.

A few comments on AP classes. For admission, the scores attained on core curriculum AP tests should be a critical component for college admittance to any school, especially in a holistic review approach. The AP tests are administered on the same date to all schools and covers the same information regardless of what high school or state you reside in. This would be a great predictor of college success since alot of high school grades/success are earned thru cheating, especially since COVID and the carryover of this behavior has persisted, regardless of what your kid tells you.
Silver lining of taking AP tests, even if not admitted to your school of choice, if your student achieves a 3 or higher, college credit is earned. I have 2 children in the last 3 years graduating high school each with 30+ hours of AP + dual credit college credit earned, thus saving me $25K x 2 = $50K. This was done during normal school hours, no summer school, no mini-mesters, no outside/online of regular school hours. On a side note, incentivizing anything as we all know will increase productivity and improve success. So I let them both know in 8th grade, every "3" or higher scored on an AP test would earn them $250....as you can see from numbers above, a damn good investment on my part

Buck Turgidson said:

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- obviously scoring as high on SAT as he can is important I'm still trying to get a straight answer on where your SAT starts to help your application.
- Applying early as possible sounds like advantage Yes. I've heard conflicting info about whether you should shoot for the first day or just get it in by mid September.

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I've been wondering about the SAT/ACT score too. The top 10% thing really skews what an average SAT/ACT is at A&M because kids in the top 10% dont need it and can be admitted with any score.

We're in a weird situation where my kids are considered Texas residents because my home of record is still Texas, but they dont fall under top 10% because their highschool is out of state. His ACT is 27 and her SAT is 1230. Both are planning to retake this summer.

Multiple advisors ( from multiple departments and the Corps) at A&M told us having the application in on day 1 was not needed (or recommended) but having it done by September 1st/Labor Day was recommended.

PerdidoKey2030 said:

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A few comments on AP classes. For admission, the scores attained on core curriculum AP tests should be a critical component for college admittance to any school, especially in a holistic review approach.

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Everything I have seen is that the AP test score has no bearing on holistic review, it's taking the AP classes and the grades that are considered. Anyone have further insight?

I have been told for years that joining the Corps has no influence on admission.

I have a class of 29 kid that is a fish (along with a class of 25 graduate). On the SAT/ACT score, we were told by A&M 1400/31 is what you should be targeting to be safe for full admission. Based on the experience of friends + some parent message boards the past few years, getting decently into the 1200s is where it seems to start to help you potentially get Blinn Team. My fish daughter has a few friends that were mid to high 1200s and all got Team, albeit these were very strong Plano West kids with strong course rigor and strong ECs, just not top 10% at a HS where each class is typically 5% NMSF. But mid to high 1200s seem to be where they start getting a better chance from what I have gathered.

That said, the competitiveness of admission is growing by the year.

Exactly, the AP test scores have no bearing but WOULD be the best measure of college readiness since everyone takes the same test on the same day, every year.

ArmyAg2002 said:

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PerdidoKey2030 said:

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A few comments on AP classes. For admission, the scores attained on core curriculum AP tests should be a critical component for college admittance to any school, especially in a holistic review approach.

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Everything I have seen is that the AP test score has no bearing on holistic review, it's taking the AP classes and the grades that are considered. Anyone have further insight?

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They don't but they should. How many AP's you have taken and which ones do matter though because that shows rigor. They look at rigor in context of your school though. Take the most rigorous classes available. Still they don't put much weight on the AP scores even though they give you credit. Makes no sense and it's not an A&M thing, other schools are the same.

Stats for my kiddo's application to A&M for Fall 26, submitted early as soon as apps opened.
Competitive 6A high school (ding for being in 30th%), >1300 SAT, >4.0 GPA, 6 APs, 4 Varsity letters (2 sports).
Interested in the Corps. Great essay (subjective, but the kid has been through a lot).
Parents both Aggies, along with extended family.

Applied to Mays. Offered PSA. Got merit and college of choice out of state. Goodbye to A&M.

Wow. I know your son will do well, but sounds like a loss for A&M.

I agree with the poster above who said A&M is more interested in "diversity" and First Generation students than anything else.

I taught AP English at a "diverse" 6A high school in San Antonio and I have seen variations on this story for over thirty years.

I concur. Kiddo did a campus visit and Spend a Night with the Corps...and received nothing, zero, zilch, nada, from A&M recruiting. On to the next adventure.

TowGun93 said:

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Stats for my kiddo's application to A&M for Fall 26, submitted early as soon as apps opened.
Competitive 6A high school (ding for being in 30th%), >1300 SAT, >4.0 GPA, 6 APs, 4 Varsity letters (2 sports).
Interested in the Corps. Great essay (subjective, but the kid has been through a lot).
Parents both Aggies, along with extended family.

Applied to Mays. Offered PSA. Got merit and college of choice out of state. Goodbye to A&M.

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Sorry to hear that but I am sure he will do very well. It's a very common tale. Unfortunately for Mays especially if you aren't Top 10% there are just very few slots since they go by first come (which is insane) instead of a separate application like Engineering. That's why you see kids get into McCombs and not Mays even though McCombs is technically higher rated and half the size. I really hope they make reforms.

BTW, the other good alternative is Galveston. Maritime Administration is an excellent Business degree and you have the option to transfer to Mays in CS potentially (know a kid who did this last year and switched after 1 Semester). That said I completely understand why your kid doesn't want to do it and there are lots of other good business schools out there. I wish him the best!

Thanks for the well wishes, and yes, I tried the Galveston angle to no avail.
Hard to sell when my son knows peers with lesser GPA/SAT scores that got in (Mays specifically).
Seems to be no rhyme or reason, other than your mention of diversity and 1st Gen, which aligns (albeit anecdotally) with my son's observations.

I, too, hope A&M changes their admissions policies. Can't do anything about it now, and honestly don't know how we (as parents) could have advised him better other than to tell him not to play sports....but there was no way that was an option.

Best wishes to all who the parents that will face the Non-Top 10% Aggie admissions enigma going forward.

For those that are encountering these admissions road blocks, are you looking at any of the in state privates vs out of state publics?

SMU, Baylor, and TCU are still top 100 schools (TCU may be slightly outside of that) and often give handsome merit scholarships... Personally I would tend to believe that the in state alumni network of these schools, though smaller, is still considerably better than an NC State, Auburn, etc etc-though that is purely conjecture on my part.

BoDog said:

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For those that are encountering these admissions road blocks, are you looking at any of the in state privates vs out of state publics?

SMU, Baylor, and TCU are still top 100 schools (TCU may be slightly outside of that) and often give handsome merit scholarships... Personally I would tend to believe that the in state alumni network of these schools, though smaller, is still considerably better than an NC State, Auburn, etc etc-though that is purely conjecture on my part.

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My neighbors/friends send their kids to OU for the most part.

I have three high schoolers, two of whom are about to be seniors and will be applying come August. However, I would absolutely consider SMU for my daughter, especially since they offer merit based aid (which is becoming more rare). One son is not looking at any other in-state schools because of his intended major. OU would be a safety school and he will also apply to Auburn and Clemson. My other son is only looking at A&M and maybe Rice as far as in-state options. We are wary about how extra-woke Rice has gotten in recent years and its a bit of a reach anyway. Almost every other option for him is an out of state public university with strong engineering (Purdue, School of Mines, Michigan, GT as a reach).

Depending on intended major, there's nothing wrong with SMU, TCU or even Baylor if you can get the cost down. We would rather go out-of-state than TT or UH but you make your own call. If you are looking at Computer Science or similar, UTD might be a good in-state option. Luckily for me, none of my kids has any interest in UT.

BoDog said:

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For those that are encountering these admissions road blocks, are you looking at any of the in state privates vs out of state publics?

SMU, Baylor, and TCU are still top 100 schools (TCU may be slightly outside of that) and often give handsome merit scholarships... Personally I would tend to believe that the in state alumni network of these schools, though smaller, is still considerably better than an NC State, Auburn, etc etc-though that is purely conjecture on my part.

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I think a lot of that depends. I can definitely attest to being impressed with the NC State network for my son already at least in Engineering which is their feature. It's got a strong national reputation and my son had 3 internship offers after his first year to choose from and could have gotten more. It's especially strong in North Carolina. One thing about NC State and Auburn as well is they are very different in terms of setup than Alabama and UNC which have both have very small engineering programs. If you are attending a public school in those states (or in Georgia with UGA and GT or Virginia with UVA and VT) and are wanting to be an engineer those are the schools to go to. Obviously you have schools like Duke with Pratt but they are extremely selective and only have a few hundred grads per year.

If you aren't engineering that's a different ballgame. Those schools still have good alumni networks though overall but strongest regionally. As for in state Private schools they have their own networks as well for sure but are going to be strongest regionally as well. None of the Texas private schools outside of Rice (which is more like Duke) and maybe SMU for Business have a strong national reputation. They aren't bad of course but the main value would be living in Texas. If you want to be in Fort Worth then TCU is great. SMU for Dallas. Baylor is more Texas wide. Then you have some interesting ones like Trinity that have their own network as well.

The Non Engineering Publics from OOS (Arkansas, Ole Miss, Bama, etc) all have networks as well but not as strong as A&M's. Those schools also tend to have very big Greek programs.

aggie93 said:

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BoDog said:

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For those that are encountering these admissions road blocks, are you looking at any of the in state privates vs out of state publics?

SMU, Baylor, and TCU are still top 100 schools (TCU may be slightly outside of that) and often give handsome merit scholarships... Personally I would tend to believe that the in state alumni network of these schools, though smaller, is still considerably better than an NC State, Auburn, etc etc-though that is purely conjecture on my part.

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I think a lot of that depends. I can definitely attest to being impressed with the NC State network for my son already at least in Engineering which is their feature. It's got a strong national reputation and my son had 3 internship offers after his first year to choose from and could have gotten more. It's especially strong in North Carolina. One thing about NC State and Auburn as well is they are very different in terms of setup than Alabama and UNC which have both have very small engineering programs. If you are attending a public school in those states (or in Georgia with UGA and GT or Virginia with UVA and VT) and are wanting to be an engineer those are the schools to go to. Obviously you have schools like Duke with Pratt but they are extremely selective and only have a few hundred grads per year.

If you aren't engineering that's a different ballgame. Those schools still have good alumni networks though overall but strongest regionally. As for in state Private schools they have their own networks as well for sure but are going to be strongest regionally as well. None of the Texas private schools outside of Rice (which is more like Duke) and maybe SMU for Business have a strong national reputation. They aren't bad of course but the main value would be living in Texas. If you want to be in Fort Worth then TCU is great. SMU for Dallas. Baylor is more Texas wide. Then you have some interesting ones like Trinity that have their own network as well.

The Non Engineering Publics from OOS (Arkansas, Ole Miss, Bama, etc) all have networks as well but not as strong as A&M's. Those schools also tend to have very big Greek programs.

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Good read. My point is that if I plan to live in Texas post graduation (and not an engineering major) it would seem that the in-state privates would serve you better - assuming there was large merit aid included.

And applying for early action at those privates. My son was hyper-focused on A&M and only applied early for OOS for solid backup(s). Later applied RD for SMU on a whim and got in but the finances didn't work out. Might have been a different story if an early app had been submitted? He's happy with his situation, which helps me get over more of my own BAS :-)