For approximately the last 20 years, the Aggie Gateway to Success Program has transitioned high school seniors from their traditional high school setting to college life in just one summer session.
Texas A&M freshman applicants are selected into the Gateway Program by the office of admissions, which typically selects anywhere from 300 to 400 students per school year to join.
The Gateway Program was created in an effort to ease the transition from high school life to college life while also offering students a way of being admitted to the university in certain situations. Associate director of transition academic programs Sherrice King heads the Gateway Program, and said she enjoys the opportunity to help students adjust to the university.
“We’ve enjoyed being able to offer something like this to students,” King said. “We function as somewhat of a bridge between highschool and college.”
Aggie Gateway students are typically required to take a total of six hours of courses during the second summer session before their freshman class typically arrives. Students like geographic information science and technology junior Logan Dunbar were able to gain helpful experience as to how college operates before most other college freshman would arrive at the university in the fall.
“Gateway wasn’t terrible,” Dunbar said. “You had lots of free time, it was a good introduction to freshman year because I kind of got some study habits that I would not have had.”
The Gateway Program has a relatively high completion rate, as the qualifications are more focused on transitioning students rather than enforcing a heavy workload.
“We generally stay between 90 to 95 percent all the time,” King said. “However, recently it’s been 95 to 98 percent. Successful completion of the program requires a D or better in 6 hours of courses.”
Psychology junior Melissa Perez also completed the Gateway Program, and said she has reaped many benefits as a result of her experience, such as knowing where her classes were to having established study routines for her first fall semester.
“When I ended Gateway it was definitely exciting and sad,” Perez said. “When I transitioned into actually being a freshman, I knew what the school had to offer and I was actually able to help other freshman who didn’t know what to do.”
Since students in the program are selected through the office of admissions, applying to the Gateway Program is not possible. However, students in the program typically had a full list of high school extracurricular activities that made them a suitable fit in the Aggie community.