TAMS has consistently produced most of UNT's winners of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships, which are considered to be among the country's most prestigious scholarships awarded to students planning careers in mathematics, science engineering. Students who are college sophomores and juniors are eligible to apply, so second-year TAMS students, who are considered to be UNT sophomores, can apply.

 

Since 1996, UNT has had 33 Goldwater Scholarship winners, and 31 of the students were TAMS students. UNT had more Goldwater winners than any other Texas college or university during the last 10 years (from 1996-2006,Texas A&M had 24, Texas Tech 22 and UT-Austin 17).

 

Universities can nominate up to four students for the Goldwater Scholarships. In 2006, 2003, 2002 and 2001, all four TAMS students who were nominated for the scholarships won. From 2001 to 2003, UNT was one of only two universities in the nation with the maximum number of scholars three years in a row (Duke University was the other).

 

In addition to often being the Texas university or college with the most Goldwater Scholarship winners each year, UNT has often had more winners during a given year than Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Harvard and Princeton, and has often tied with MIT and CalTech for the maximum number of winners.

 

All four nominees for 2007 Goldwater Scholarships are TAMS students.

 

 

TAMS students compete against high school students across the nation in two competitions that recognize original research - the Intel Science Talent Search (formerly the Westinghouse Science Talent Search) and the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science & Technology (created in 1999 after Intel took over sponsorship of Science Talent Search). These competitions provide scholarships of up to $100,000.

 

Since 1993 (third year of TAMS), 40 TAMS students were selected as semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search. Eight of those students were then selected as finalists, becoming among the top 40 students in the nation in the competition.

 

TAMS has had an Intel finalist for three years in a row - 2005, 2006 and 2007. The 2007 finalist, who is also a Goldwater Scholarship nominee, will compete for a scholarship of $20,000 to $100,000 (which are awarded to the top 10 students among the 40 finalists) in Washington, DC, March 8-13.

 

Of the eight students who have been named Intel finalists, three reached the top 10, with the highest ranking student placing sixth.

 

Since 1999, 26 TAMS students have been named semifinalists in the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science & Technology. In fall 2006, eight students were named semifinalists - more than from any other Texas school.

 

Nine of the 26 students became regional finalists, then two became national finalists and competed for scholarships ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. Both of the national finalists ended up placing fourth in the competition.

 

 

TAMS students have some of the highest semester and cummulative grade point averages at UNT.

 

Out of the 194 students who entered TAMS for their first year in fall 2006, 95 ended the fall semester - their first at UNT - with 4.0 GPAs. The average GPA for the whole class of first-year students was 3.71.

 

The average GPA for fall semester 2006 for the second-year TAMS students was 3.63. This class has a cummulative GPA of 3.68 over three semesters at UNT.