Thriving In This Year’s Texas A&M College Admissions Process

all right welcome we're so Overjoyed to be with you to talk about a t a topic near and dear to our heart which is thriving in the Texas A&M college admissions process a couple of housekeeping details number one we are recording this webinar and we will be sharing it tomorrow in a follow-up email along with our guide to applying to A&M and a couple of other resources um number two many of you are veterans of all things Zoom um we want to answer your questions as best as we can some of the questions end up being super personalized and we probably can't answer them without spending some time with a student or a parent but if you do have questions please use um the QA um so that we can answer your questions and um and we love answering questions so as best as we can we'll answer those questions um and I think that's it so let's dive in uh uh we are really lucky this uh webinar to have Julie and Delora on our team join us I don't know that I'll put either one of them on the spot to ask them exactly how many students they worked with that are on campus at Agy land right now but in any given year a third to 40% of the students we work with at College match point a apply to Texas A&M University delara wrote the first guide on applying to Texas A&M University and Julie Richie reviewed it and knows back and forth so they're really going to spend the majority of this webinar talking with us about their experience and how that applies to how students can thrive in this process okay um just a little bit about college Match Point um uh Lisa and I are both Aggies um I wouldn't necessarily say we are hardcore agies but we are Aggies and we love students who find A&M as a great fit the majority of students that we've worked with at uh who are at uh at Aggy land aren't Auto admit students and many of them apply to competitive Majors like business and Engineering um I feel compelled as an Aggie to uh brag on it it's just incredible school with so many wonderful uh Traditions I won't sing any of the yells that the Yell Leaders lead us in it is the second largest university in terms of student enrollment in the United States it always shocks people that it's the number one school in the United States that CEOs of Fortune 500 companies attended um it's the first among public universities in terms of rankings for a superior education at an affordable cost and then God bless the agies and their fundraising abilities it was the first college in the United States to pass a billion dollars in research grants uh a couple of things about this year's results uh in terms of admissions uh we've been doing this radar three years at three years and three years in a row the first bullet is true last year was the largest number of applications that Texas A&M University uh received in its history an increase over the prior year which was an increase over the prior year and the growth is in outof state applicants the nation is waking up to the fact that for the right student who's interested in strong Majors Traditions the kind of approach that A&M has to higher education it's just a great option 53% of the incoming class was in that top 10% that M Auto admits um if you look across their class it's disproportionately students who were in the top 35% of their class and I know everyone will say hey my high school doesn't rank or they don't rank at 35th most students can get a sense GPA where they're at in terms of the bell curve of their class um the competitive majors and or the students who weren't top 10 % go through What's called the holistic review and Julian delar will unpack that in great detail but that was about half of the incoming class uh Texas A&M unlike its rival right up the road is still test optional that being said last year 66% of the incoming class submitted test SC okay so it is a a school that on the one hand provides you an option to goes test optional and on the other hand is really looking at rigor both in terms of your transcript and if you have a strong test score in terms of your test score and then finally A&M has really been a Trailblazer in providing alternative Pathways um 16% of their incoming freshman class goes through one of these Pathways we won't play acronym Bingo and explain to you team versus teab or Gateway suffice to say A&M really wants people to be part of the A&M community and if it's not necessarily on the college station campus in freshman year they're going to do everything they can to make sure you are part of their Community I'm going to turn it over to Delora and Julie now they're going to go through a whole series of items I'd remind you if you have questions please share them in the Q&A box and we'll dive in but here we go all right thanks Bob so um let's talk about the review process A&M really reviews people in two ways applicants so either you're an automatic admit as Bob was saying so if you're in the top 10% you can be a you are automatically admitted to the university not necessarily to a specific major but to the university um those students who are Auto admitted are required to send an official High School transcript confirming their top 10% ranking so that's something that is required to complete that application um but as Bob was saying the majority of students we work with are actually not in the top percent of their High School classes so let's talk about what that looks like so what is a holistic read um for the majority of students applying to A&M umm really looks at every aspect of their application as this graphic describes um as you can see the transcript is the biggest part of this graphic and that means that all a students's High School courses taken and grades earned and the rigor of that cours workk so meaning when you had a chance to take an AP course or an honors course did you take it that is important in their in how they look at your transcript so for younger students on this webinar what this really means is um taking the most rigorous courses you can handle particularly in the courses that are most related to your strengths and interests and aiming for the highest grades you can is really important because your GPA and the rigor of that coursework is going to be one of the most important pieces of data that A&M looks at when reviewing your application if you're not in the top 10% test scores are something they definitely will look at if they're submitted like Bob was saying they're still test optional at this point um and certainly if you're aiming for one of the competitive Majors um that doara will talk about later but like business and engineering high test scores are something that can really add to your application A&M encourages all students though to submit scores if you have them and they emphasize that they'll only use scores to benefit you not penalize you so it may be to your advantage to send scores but that's a case-by casee basis um students extracurricular activities listed in the application and on the resume are really important including any community service leadership employment summer activities um and any also any opportunities challenges or hardships those would be things that you'd want to talk about in your essays so resume and essays are really important we do recommend that students show fit to their first choice major just like at UT um through classes and activities which will help in this holistic review process at A&M when you are filling out the application on a common application which is where most people um fill out um and also on apply Texas if you choose that application there is a question um about how have you interacted with A&M so it does make sense to demonstrate interest so visiting the campus or doing a virtual visit anything um you know talking with an admissions officer either through email or by phone it's really good to be able to check some of those boxes when you're filling out the application so you can show your interest in A&M all right next slide Bob thank you so um in terms of admissions decisions A&M offers enrolling admissions um but with a Twist so applicants who are in the top 10% of their High School class will get their admission decision very quickly like in a few weeks once they get your official transcript and they can confirm your rank um applicants who apply to the College of Engineering um have an opportunity for an early action deadline of October 15 and if you meet if you have all your documents and transcript and all your information in by October 15th you will receive your admission decision by mid December but if you're outside the top 10% your admissions decision uh is a little bit different the timeline so you were accepted into majors at on a rolling basis but you may not hear even if you even if you submit your application very early which we do recommend the common application opens on August 1st and while many of the students we work with want to submit on that day that's not actually something we recommend because we want to make sure you are submitting a quality application that you've had a chance to review and proofread and um if you submit it on that day also there may be some glitches the first few days an application is open so we we definitely um encourage you to submit by the end of August for sure is a is a good timeline to shoot for but you don't need to do it that first day or even that first week um really you can't take the application back once you've sent it in so we really encourage you to take your time with it and make sure to have people review it so it looks all everything looks good um but in terms of decision process it's important to understand that even when you submit your application in August you may not hear back until between January 1st and late March but we still encourage you to get your applications in so that you can be placed into a major as they're filling in um over the months okay testing as Bob was mentioning um A&M is still opt test optional which means they don't require you to submit scores so whether to submit or not depends on where your scores fall compared to the middle 50 Cent 50% of accepted applicants and really the major you're choosing so they really encourage you to have scores I mean to send scores if you have them like I said they really work hard not to disadvantage you when you are submitting your scores you need to submit them directly from the agency so if you have taken the SAT and that's the score you're sending you need to send it from the college board if you've taken the AC you need to send it from the act and one very very important thing that I want everyone to remember is you need to make sure to request that your scores be sent well in advance of the deadline or of when you want them to be there because it could take several weeks for scores to get there and a lot of students miss you know they think that it will be immediate when they click you know send scores but it's not so make sure if you like if you're done testing now and you're happy with your scores and you know you're going to send them you can send them now you don't have to wait until you've submitted your application um so that's just one thing to think about make sure to think ahead Julie when you work with a student and she's considering whether or not to go test optional or submit test scores what are the aspects or considerations that you encourage her to consider when she's making that import important choice yeah great question so what I encourage a student to do do is look at where her score Falls within that middle 50% so if the scores are right in the middle of that middle 50% we' definitely suggest submitting them if they're kind of below the you know even even in the in that middle 50% band at the lower range um we might say okay well hold on where's your GPA is your GPA above you know the the middle range um that's something to take into consideration so it's sort of a case by casee basis but as a general rule I'd say if your test scores are within that middle 50% range I would go ahead and send them and um Julie have you seen with the students that you've worked with any importance that ANM places on the component test scores when a student submits her test scores so I recently had a conversation with an admissions officer about this and they said that they do not look at the specific components they really look at the total score which is a which is a difference from UT and you've mentioned a question here or a a comment here around the middle 50% for GPA and sat a comment I would make to uh everyone on the webinar is that uh the great news about academic criteria is that colleges public uh data set called the common data set uh there are a handful of parents who completely nerd out on this think tax code it's that level of minutia and so every year anim and all other schools or most other schools publish the GPA range and the SAT or act range for their school when we work with students we really take their highest test score and in some cases their highest super score for the schools that do super score and once they're sort of done with testing we'll go through score by school by school and look at that 50% range but for the parents and students who are on this Zoom what I encourage you to think of is a bell curve and uh we generally talk with students when we help them make a choice and it's ultimately the students choice because they did the work for test prep um around that middle or you know from 50% higher and we've oftentimes found that for students who are focusing on competitive Majors they're even looking at the top quartile of the test score distribution delar I know we've had a lot of questions on this does that sort of handle from your experience how you've worked with students on consider ing whether or not to go test optional or submitting test course yeah that's exactly right and I think you know the thing to consider especially with the most competitive Majors like engineering business architecture is always keeping in mind to shoot for the higher and of that bell curve so you know if for example within A&M's range you want to be on the higher end of that middle 50% range than on the lower end that's really kind of what we recommend to students great uh we're going to turn our attention now to the next section we're really excited to see all these questions and we're doing everything we can to um answer those questions so um let's dive in if we could Delora to majors at Texas A&M University all right my pleasure thank you Bob so A&M is a major focused school that's how they conduct their admissions review they don't really recommend students apply to Texas A&M undecided it isn't really an option within the application itself andm doesn't really provide um resources for undecided students so it's really recommended that students select a First Choice major and they're also able to designate a second choice major within their application I really recommend students take some time to review the majors that are available at Texas A&M when I last counted there were approximately 140 different Majors which is a staggering number of options um and there are some really cool ones that kind of fly under the radar that I think would make amazing options for students Beyond you know the top five that we're about to discuss now I know that you know I said that Texas A&M is Major focused you really have to apply to a particular major there in your application but unlike UTM does make it significantly easier to switch Majors once you're already enrolled at the University so you know if you um apply to a major in Communications and decide it's not for you it's it's much easier and there's significantly more support at the University to change things around if that's if that's kind of the path that you want to take um so Texas A&M is what we call an extra-large University there are approximately 50,000 undergraduates who call Texas A&M their home um and I want to break down the approximate sizes of the um most popular AC MC colleges at Texas A&M by colleges I mean the kind of academic divisions that they divide their Majors into engineering is the largest college at Texas A&M there are approximately 20,000 engineering students at Texas A&M um across all of the different I think there are about 20 different engineering Majors on the campus so about a third of the student body is an engineer um the next largest would be business they're are probably between six and 8,000 business students at Texas A&M which when you compare to the size of the engineering College that's actually quite small um business is a pretty space limited program at Texas A&M and you know I say 8,000 I'm referring to the entire University's capacity for business so that's you know really about 2,000 to 1500 freshmen that they admit for business at a given time uh the next largest which is you know slightly smaller than business that would be their agriculture um and their biological sciences Majors these are the colleges that are home to Majors like um Agricultural Science animal science poultry science um agrius biochem and Majors um like that all right so let's focus a little bit on that most popular program ATM engineering um as I mentioned before one-third of the student body ATM is an engineering student um and what's kind of unique about A&M's admissions process with engineering is that um you are admitted to the general engineering program um in your first year and this includes computer science so even CS students are admitted to this first year engineering program General engineering rather than that particular specialty that you are interested in so for example at UT you're actually able to apply straight into the major of Aerospace or mechanical or electrical engineering that's not the case as a firsttime applicant to Texas A&M what you end up doing is you spend your first year at A&M going through an engineering Core Curriculum and then you apply for your top I think it's three Majors within engineering you go through an application review process called the entry to a major process um and then that's kind of how you end up getting into the engineering specialty of your choice um as Julie mentioned earlier it's important to apply to A&M as soon as you can engineering Majors including computer science are the only exception to that rule engineering has an early action deadline of October 15th so that's really the deadline we encourage our engineering students to shoot for now you can apply earlier you don't have to wait until October 15th but they don't begin reviewing engineering applicants until after that date so there isn't a benefit to applying early other than getting the application out of your hair in a minute Julie is going to talk more closely about uh the essays required for applying to Texas A&M but just as a preview the engineering program is the only program that requires an uh an engineering uh related essay where applicants are required to State why they're interested in the subject what motivates them in engineering what are they curious about and how they think an A&M's program and Engineering can support their goals it's it's really important to spend some time really being thoughtful as you write this essay um and if I could give one piece of advice on what not to do please don't start your essay writing about you know your interest in engineering being uh started when you were a little kid Because You Loved Legos that at this point I think is pretty cliche we've heard from Texas A&M admissions Representatives that they're kind of tired of that um essay construction so really think deeply about what sparked your interest in engineering how have you uh followed that interested over time and what your goals are outside of um in and outside of college all right so um there are a few majors at A&M that are really space limited um they're high demand and they're small programs and so if you're interested in these programs um we recommend applying as early as you can because spaces really fill up this is especially true for the ma School of Business If anyone on this webinar is interested in client to maze I recommend getting organized and making sure you're able to get that application out the door um pretty soon after the application opens um maze is a pretty small program and there are limited seats for new students so you know if you're the majors within maze include subjects like accounting Finance management marketing um and so even if you're in the top 10% I recommend getting that application in as soon as you're able to compile a polished and complete application the College of Nursing is also a limited space major but it's Al also kind of a tricky major at A&M as a first year applicant you aren't able to apply to nursing as your first choice major it's just not an option um instead you apply to a different major of your choice probably something in the health related uh fields and then once you finish your first two years at A&M you apply for their BSN and nursing program um it's almost like filling out an ENT enre an entire transfer application applying to that nursing program it's also quite small they only admit between 20 to 40 students each year and then the other really small program at A&M to keep in mind is their architecture program it's highly competitive it's very limited in size because it's an extremely resource intensive major it requires a lot of time in the studio a lot of Hands-On work so keep this information in mind as you plan your application time so while there are you know many popular Majors ATM um there many of them are space limited there are also several really interesting Majors that I think are just hidden gems that you know students really don't notice because they flock to the most popular Majors um I want to talk through some of my favorites here um the first is visualization um this is kind of a crown jewel among the& m Majors I would say um it's kind of an interdisciplinary major that's really a mix between art uh graphic design game design animation um really students can choose how they want to specialize in visualization um and I think something that people don't know about the visualization major is that it is a heavy source of recruitment from Pixar Studios um Pixar has a robust showing of Aggie alumni among their ranks um and students who grad uate from the visualization major tend to do really well for themselves on the job market um it's a small major but it it's a good one and first year applicants don't need a portfolio to apply to visualization which is kind of nice um there's also meteorology Texas A&M is home to one of the best meteorology programs in the country it's another small major but it's fabulous I've never worked with a student as an aspiring meteorology major but I hope to one day and a few other majors that I want to draw to your attention that aren't on this slide include um dance science entomology which is the study of bugs and turf grass science so you knowm comes with so many options I really recommend if you you have have your eye on being ANM student to really do some research um they have a fabulous resource on their Career Center website that lists out all of their Majors tells you more about them uh and shares the skills that you might be able to accumulate within those Majors to and the jobs that uh they could lead into all right so since we last hosted this webinar A&M has announced several new Majors that they're going to be implementing um building off of their Roots as a space Grant University Anam is launching a new Space Engineering Pro uh major that's starting in the fall of 2025 um this is I find this thrilling um this program so unlike aerospace engineering which is another fabulous major ATM that kind of explores you know the engineering involved getting into space Space Engineering is focused on you know the engineering behind being in space building habitats and structures um in space and on planets and things like that I think it's a really cool and Innovative new program Financial Planning in the May School of Business used to just be a minor that's going to be transformed into a full bachelor's degree International affair is now becoming an undergraduate major it was formerly a master's program and after 10 years in the dark A&M is relaunching their journalism program which disbanded in 2004 that's going to be in the College of letter of Arts and Sciences I am going to turn it over now to Julie who's gonna take us through the essays involved in the A&M application all right thanks Julie I know you've been man I know you've been Manning the Q&A uh boxes uh Delora has talked through majors are there any questions that you think would be helpful to answer to the webinar as a whole um sure so while I'm about to talk about essays there's a there's a question about the additional information essay section of the Common App and whether that's a good place to expand on activities or if the resume is better so what I was typing but I'll just say it um to the whole group is the additional information ESS can be a useful tool if there's a specific activity um that you didn't already write about in one of your essays like A&M has a specific activity essay so if you didn't write about it there but it's something where you know it was very important to you or you learned something or it was a challenge or an obstacle or whatever and you wanted to write about it yeah you totally could and then that would be a better place than the resume which is more bullet points so I think it it really depends on your situation and what you're um hoping to accomplish like what you're trying to tell about yourself and which would be the better platform um bullets or more in-depth essay format so it really depends so I hope I answered that um speaking of essays do you want to dive in and talk through this important aspect of what you shared in terms of the A&M review and that is essays absolutely so students will bequ will be required to submit three essays to A&M the personal statement which is that um statement that the personal essay that they're going to send to all their schools and then two others um two other short answer essays and these are really where they're going to tell their story um about who they are and information beyond what they're sharing in their transcript and their activity list and their resume um and their test scores so this is a really great opportunity so let's talk about the personal statement first I really encourage students um to use their common app essay for this even though on their website A&M has their own prompt which is tell us your story what unique opportunities or challenges have you experienced throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today right this is a very broad uh prompt and any of the Common App um prompts if you're already writing that and most students are can be used so I would just use that same essay um when you're thinking about the role of the personal statement and how what it plays in your college application process I always like to explain to students how it's going to be used so imagine you are an admissions officer and you have a whole students file up on your computer right so you're looking at their transcripts you see what kind of student they are you're looking at um their resume their test scores like all that information and then they're going to get to the personal statement so by the time they get there they already know a lot lot about your accomplishments the things you've been involved in um and what kind of student you are and what kind of tester you are if you submitted those so it's really important that you don't rehash your resume in your essay because they already know it so you don't this is that would be a wasted opportunity right here is your opportunity to tell more about you um and dig a little deeper and reflect on your high school experience so I really like to help students begin brainstorming by asking how they are different now like at the end of junior year than they were at the beginning of freshman year and then think about the experiences in or outside of school or in their family or in the summer um that have shaped them into the person they are today so since you won't get to do an interview with most admissions officers definitely not A&M consider your essay a way to kind of share new information about yourself and your values and how you how you will contribute to the M campus um so you might not want to say that in this personal essay obviously since you might be sending it to other other schools but showing how the the values and the qualities that you have um you know learned and exhibited in high school will be really important and that's what makes an effective essay so what beyond the resume um then there are the short answer supplements that everyone will be asked to write so there's two 250w essays these are so short I can't most students I work with are I really struggle to get them to 250 words because it's so much easier to write longer for many students so the first essay is asking you to reflect on a life event that you feel has prepared you to be successful in college so what they're really looking at is for you to show them that you've developed the study skills the social skills the community building skills or whatever it is that will help you thrive on the A&M campus so when students are brainstorming these essays I really recommend that they look at the website the& M website and look up the A&M core values because A&M is as many of you know is a very values and tradition driven University so any link you can make between yourself your own values and the University's values is an excellent way to show how you're going to contribute to that campus and be successful while you're on it so that's a great way to kind of start thinking about which life event you might want to choose to talk about okay so the second short answer questions ask about a person who has impacted you and I caution you that it's so easy for students to start writing all about the person that impacted them and the the key here is they don't want to know a biography of the person who impacted you because the essay really has to be about you you are the main character here so you want to specific L describe how this person has impacted your life and reflect on how your life has been different because of your relationship with this person and then you want to share how what you've learned from this person is going to be something you carry forward with you onto the A&M Campus and it's always great to share specifics about what this will look like at A&M because you really want to make it so easy for that admission officer to see why you're such a great fit for ANM so I'm going to give you an example here let's say you want to talk about someone in your life who taught the value of taught you the value of service to other people and in your life you've done a lot of community service well you might want to describe at how at A&M that's going to be something that you're so passionate about that you will actively engage in the for example the ramps Club the ramps Club at A&M is something called representing A&M by performing service and it's a club that where students do community service so you mention that specifically so that A&M really understands how actively you will contribute to the school Community okay so those are the two that everyone has to write now if you are applying as an engineering major you also will have to write a third short answer essay and this one is 500 Words so it's actually not as short um but it's asking you to describe your academic and career goals in engineering and share what or who has influenced you either inside or outside the classroom that contributed to these goals so we recommend that students answer this question in a straightforward Manner and use specific examples and details from all your activities and your classes like anything that's influenced you to be interested in engineering um one happy thing to note is that if you are an engineering major and you're also applying to UT this um this engineering supplement is very similar to the UT um y major question so you could you know reuse some of this or you know use them for both just make sure that when you're you know um sending them in that you don't have any um you have the right School in there is what I'm saying um but that could be a helpful efficiency in your process so those are the an yeah with the personal statement in the engineering essay giving the word link uh how much time do you typically spend with a student your essay coaching on brainstorming versus just jumping in and revising and drafting yeah so you know it so depends on each student so I wouldn't say there's a general rule but for students who have no idea what they want to write about I think the brainstorming process is so important and that can take you know sometimes like an hour meeting sometimes even an hour and a half or two hour meeting to kind of generate the ideas and reflection because it's hard this type of writing is a little bit harder because it's asking students to reflect on things and how they feel about things and what they learned and they haven't always are you know thought that way and they certainly haven't learned to write that way in school so it's um it's great to spend a lot of time brainstorming and making sure you have a strong topic that you're excited to write about and the examples like you know for example in that engineering essay you can pull up your resume to see all the things you've done that have um made you excited and given you some experience related to engineering and write about those so making sure you have all the components ready and even have an outline if that's helpful for you I think is really important so yes spending a lot of time on the brainstorming can be very helpful uh and then before we move to the next section Julie and delura I know you work with plenty of students who when they're writing these essays start by saying I have nothing to write about what advice do you have for students and parents who start with a blank piece of paper and say I've got nothing yeah great question Zar do didn't you wantan to CH you take it Julie okay um I have so many so many students who come with I have nothing and I think um actually those are the students who I like to work with the most because just by asking asking questions you realize like obviously no one has nothing to write about right because it actually doesn't really matter what you write about with very few exceptions what really matters is that you show the values that are important to you and try to think about what activities you've done that ex where you've exhibited those values or experiences you've had or Hobbies you have or something no one knows about so one thing I love to do when someone says they have no idea is just to say okay let's imagine your life in high school the last three years as a movie what are three scenes that are memorable to you that like stand out to you where you remember them and you think like you get you smile when you think of them and that sometimes starts a dialogue to to start thinking about oh yeah well oh yeah in freshman year I was so scared about this and oh my gosh I was terrified but then in sophomore you know so like it just to start thinking about times where you grew like I think that's the most important thing about an essay is to show your growth over time and how you've changed as a person and it really doesn't matter what you talk about in order to show that so for you it could be a family trip it could be you know I've had kids write about all all sorts of interesting things that you know they people would have thought that is like nothing big because it doesn't have to be something big be something little that made a big impact on you delura anything to add before we move to the next topic on that it's a blank piece of paper I have nothing to write about I think you know if if you go through Julie's three scene exercise and come up with nothing which hopefully that isn't the case I hopefully you know the students on this call have you know have had memorable and meaningful moments in their High School careers then I always recommend taking the tack of fit to make major what are experiences that you can write about in yourm essays that prove your interest in your major um that's kind of how what I would recommend if if we if we're working with the blanks late and then we comb through The Well of experiences in your life and those still aren't um bringing up anything which usually isn't likely at that point then I then I recommend turning towards fit to Major great umm we talked a lot about Majors A&M has some spectacular honors programs and we want to give you at least a little high Lev understanding of those honors programs yeah so honors programs at A&M are a fabulous opportunity for students who are looking for additional engagement in the classroom and a higher level of challenge in their college career um by this I mean students who are looking to take additional coursework oftentimes higher level coursework than their year in college would allow for to do a special project of some kind like a cumulative thesis um students who love engaging with professors who are energized by small class discussions and students who are invested in cultivating academic relationships with their professors those I think are the kinds of students that would most be most attracted to an honors program and who I think would be attractive candidates to Texas A&M they're also a way especially the university honors program which is a a university-wide honors program so irrespective of major that puts together a small community of students um within each grade of Co of the University um to really kind of form an intimate academic Community um that's one of the ways that you can make a massive College like Texas A&M feel a little bit more personalized and a little bit less uh daunting um there are several types of honors opportunities in addition to University honors um there are also departmental and major based honors programs um that you know have you do more specific work within your major um and if you're interested in applying to these types of programs there are a couple ways of doing it you can apply at the time of submitting your application the way that works is by indicating your interest in an honors program in your application ANM will follow up with you via email uh getting you the information you need to apply sometimes there additional essays sometimes it asks for more letters of recommendation it really depends on the honors program you're applying to you can also apply to an honors program once you're already on campus you don't have to do it at the time of application so if you want to kind of figure out what life is like at A&M before committing to something like an honors program you can do so while you're already an enrolled student I want to draw your attention to the launch honors website this is kind of the online hub for all things honors programs at Texas A&M it goes into lengthy detail about each of the honors programs University honors and departmental honors as well as the perks of enrolling in each particular program whether it comes with honors housing whether it comes with priority registration so if you're if you're someone interested in one of these kinds of programs take a look at the launch site and finally I want to talk a little bit about the business honors program because this is a little bit different than the other kinds of programs that I had mentioned um business honors at A&M is a hybrid program it's both an honors program and its own academic major and typically students who pursue the business honors major also pursue a secondary major in business it's a very competitive program very competitive you know it says on here students in the top 25% of their classroom are usually competitive the students who end up being admitted into business honors are usually closer into the top 5% of their class you know they're really looking for um kind of the cream of the crop in terms of academic profile as well as engaged students who would make excellent community members students who have already actively contributed to their own communities and who are active and and engaged participants in the classroom um historically this major uh accepts around 60 students a year um but it's a great option for students who are really looking to kind of supercharge um their business degree all right so let's talk a little bit about the logistics of applying to Texas A&M how to apply when to apply and what you do after you apply um so in terms of the timeline um and the application platforms as I mentioned you want to get that A&M application in early especially if you are applying to a business major the Dead the Final deadline I really recommend to my students applying to business is usually September 15th but I really feel most comfortable getting those applications in by the end of August if you're able to complete a polished and finished application now just because we've been saying get those applications in early does not mean you should turn in a sloppy application it's always better to take your time with reason filling out your application reviewing your application proofreading your whole application than it is to get it in early there are two primary application platforms the apply Texas application that is this application platform that goes to uh entirely schools in Texas so most of all of the public universities and some of the private universities in Texas um there's also the common application it doesn't matter which application plat form you use I find the common application to be a little bit more user friendly um but if you're only applying to universities in Texas apply Texas might make more sense for you um and I want to draw special attention to what you should do after you submit your Texas A&M application um you once you submit your application usually within three to five business days you get access to your applicant information system your AIS also known as your howdy portal this is the web interface that A&M is going to be using to communicate with applicants it's where they inform you that they've received all your application materials it's where they tell you that you might be missing a particular application material like they haven't received your test scores yet um or um it's also going to be where they inform you of your application decision a few years ago we learned from A&M that they actually where you know Texas A&M doesn't do demonstrated interest in the traditional way because it's a large University they can't keep track of all of that stuff but they do pay attention to how many times students interact with their AIS portal after uh submitting their application so I encourage my students to kind of build a routine of logging into their AIS clicking around at least once a week after submitting their application all right the self-reported academic record this is one of the most uh timec consuming I think elements of your ai ai andm application the self-reported academic record is essentially a self-generated digital transcript this is how A&M is able to start reviewing applications in August before schools get back in session because they don't need to wait for your high school to send your transcript to A&M you are generating a transcript yourself and submitting it with your application the self-reported academic record is a website um that you make an account through and you you know get your transcript out or all of your report cards from 9 through 11th grade and you enter every class you've taken in high school and the grade you've gotten in every class in high school you want to do it exactly as it appears on your transcript um and you know I really encourage my students to take time to fill this out don't wait until the day you want to submit your Texas A&M application um because it's painstaking it requires a lot of attention to detail and it can take several hours to complete um especially if you've gone to more than one high school in fact I really recommend my students get started on this now if they can while you have some free time over the summer once you complete your Sr um you will link it to your Texas AI portal so make sure that once you set that portal up you immediately link your Sr to it otherwise yourm application will not be complete now there are several universities that do use an Sr so if you're applying to um you know the University of Tennessee for example or Michigan State those are one of the many schools that use an Sr and if you're struggling with this at allm has compiled some wonderful resources on the website below um that walk students through kind of all the tricky bits with filling out their Sr but in general take your time with it leave yourself adequate time and make sure you are working from a copy of your transcript rather than from memory because A&M will be confirming these grades against your official transcript once you enroll and if there's a discrepancy they're going to let you know about it okay we have really enjoyed spending some time with you this evening and at the in just a moment we'll um try to tackle any remaining questions we've alluded to standardized testing several times on this webinar and it persists as one of the most confusing parts of college admissions so we have a webinar coming up in just under a month in our follow-up note tomorrow we'll share the link to register for this this is a webinar we've done annually for the last four years and it's among our most popular webinars particularly because families students and parents end up looking for really guidance on these complex choices and a better understanding on how the um landscape is changing in terms of standardized testing uh I think this webinar may be the largest number of questions we've ever gotten on one webinar and I know Julie and doraa are furiously um trying to answer questions as we all look at this heartwarming picture of Miss Ry ma'am um delura Julie are there any questions that remain that you think um folks as a whole would benefit from hearing answers on yeah so there's there's um there's a srar question or s a r I call it the Shar um so I I know you talked about actually I why don't you take this since you were just talking about it sure um there are a couple questions asking when you fill out the SAR you can start that now if you want you don't have to wait to wait for the comment app to open on August 1st you don't have to wait to submit your A&M application they are to it is completely separate from the common application it is its own platform um that links to yourm portal so you you can get that started now and there is not a section to fill out the SR in the Common App unfortunately the Common App has a courses and grade section which is different from the SR sadly any other remaining questions that you think the um group as a whole would benefit from um I'll T I'll tackle one as we do one final review there was a question asked about Legacy and boy this is a a complex answer I I think the general experience we've had is that A&M is as tight nipped uh tight nipped a community tightnit a community as you would imagine if you're an agie you're an Aggie for life you're not a former student and so what I would say is that ANM would always love to have students who are third fourth fifth generation agies but it probably won't be the reason that a student gets inm wants great Aggies who can thrive on campus academically socially and exemplify the values of Texas A&M University so um there are a handful of colleges and universities in the United States who will say yes we Factor Legacy as one of the one or two most important criteria and then there are increasingly large number of universities who are saying will not Factor it at all but the honest answer is the majority of schools are right in between that and that is it is a consideration but pre probably not the primary consideration for an admissions decision before we wrap up Julie or delura any other questions that are still open that you think might be beneficial to share and answer with the group well we have one we have one question about sat School for for May's business and honor program so it's very specific to specific type of student uh um Texas A&M like almost all universities in the public universities in the United States will not break down admissions criteria on a college or major level um I think the easiest answer frankly is the more competitive the major the higher the standards for academic rigor right so so as a general rule and I think delura alludes to this and Julie alludes to this if you're targeting maze you probably ought to look to being in the top cortile of the test score distribution if you're going to submit test scores because you want test scores that are every bit as strong as your academic profile we have sure appreciated being on a zoom with so many folks who dream of Agy land we um wish you great success we hope that this webinar helps you thrive in this process and reduces your stress um as both Laura and Julie alluded to when we work with students Texas A&M University is among the first applications they submit it's still a great application that's the most important consideration but Texas A&M University is not a school that says hey wait for a Thanksgiving and then apply to us they really are one of the um sort of Marquee schools in the United States that are rolling admissions thanks so much and we wish everyone on this Zoom great success