Suspected theater shooter James Holmes withdrew his application from the graduate program at Texas A&M just before he was scheduled for an on-campus interview, according to documents released from the university on Friday after an open records request.

Texas A&M was among a number of programs Holmes, an aspiring neuroscience graduate student, applied to in the early part of 2011 before accepting entry into the program at the University of Colorado at Denver.

Holmes, 24, is accused of bursting into an Aurora theater in the early morning hours of July 20 and shooting 12 people to death and injuring 58.

He is charged with 24 counts of first degree murdre and 116 counts of attempted murder. He is being held in Arapahoe County jail. A court hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Holmes’ application to Texas A&M contains much the same information he had submitted to the University of Kansas, University of Illinois, University of Alabama Birmingham and University of Iowa — which have all released the documents. They include his grades from college, letters of recommendation and a personal essay.

Iowa and Alabama rejected Holmes. Illinois accepted him, but was turned down. Holmes also withdrew his application from Kansas.

The process also never advanced at A&M, where Holmes had impressed a number of interviewers, becoming one of eight candidates who were invited for on-campus interviews.

In one letter of recommendation, University of California Riverside psychology professor Ed Korzus lauded Holmes work in a class that focused on cognitive neuroscience and mental disorders.

“He has also proved to be a very effective group leader,” Korzus wrote. “James will do well in his future professional training because of his intelligence, motivation and passion towards science.”

Another assistant psychology professor at UC Riverside, Khaleel A Razak, called him a “quiet, hard-working and professional individual.”

And UC Riverside assistant cell biology and neuroscience professor Todd Fiacco gave Holmes his “strongest recommendation,” calling him an “excellent student.”

All three recommendation writers refer to teaching Holmes in just one class, though Korzus says he spoke with Holmes several times about his professional ambitions.

Holmes’ 3.95 grade point average, high scores on the GRE test and fawning letters of recommendations seemed to do the trick at Texas A&M.

” The committee was very impressed with your application and would like to invite you for a visit,” said Jim Grau, chair of the Texas A&M Institute for Neuroscience in an e-mail to Holmes. “Our recruiting day is scheduled for Monday, March 7th. There will be a reception on the evening of March 6th, followed by tours and interview the next day. You will be free to depart Monday evening or the following morning. We will be arranging your hotel accommodations.”

Three of the four faculty members who reviewed Holmes’ packet rated him very highly — nines and 10s on a 10-point scale — and thought him a good candidate for admission. One rated Holmes as a “maybe,” but wanted to bring him in for an interview.

Holmes turned down the offer on March 1, saying “I will be pursing other interests.”

One professor Ursula Winzer-Serhan wrote: “Too bad, We should have acted on him sooner.”

The University of Colorado has not released when Holmes agreed to attend its program, citing a gag order on the case.

Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367, jpmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jpmeyerdpost