D26 and I made a quick trip to Texas where we visited SMU, TCU, Baylor, Trinity U, and Rice.
This was the first trip where my perspective differed significantly from that of D26. But I usually just keep my opinions to myself and let D26 drive her own college list.
SMU has an absolutely beautiful campus and everyone we met, from dining hall staff to the admissions people, were wonderful. People were constantly asking if we needed directions and engaging us in conversation. The food was really good. The only issue with SMU was that it is incredibly business focused. The Cox School of Business is an INCREDIBLE facility, among the very best business schools that I have ever seen. But my daughter wants to follow a pre-med STEM path. SMU had lesser facilities and clearly less emphasis on STEM. After the admissions tour, we were asked to meet with staff from the school of Arts and Sciences who were very nice and trying to get us to apply. But D26 knew that she wants to go pre-med and wished that SMU was at the same level in the Arts and Sciences as it is in business. So SMU is, regretfully, probably off the list. One interesting note, in the info session SMU talked about getting “the death penalty” in football back in the 1980s. It was an odd segway, but an interesting history lesson for the kids. At least the school is owning up to it, I suppose, but I don’t think that they need to be apologizing for something that happened 45 years ago.
TCU was interesting. They did not have an info session and just asked you to view their info session online. We took the student-led tour. TCU also had a beautiful campus and facilities. The Greek Village housing is brand new and looks absolutely incredible–but D26 does not want to rush. The people were also very nice, but not as nice as at SMU which was just over the top. TCU also seemed more business focused with a beautiful business school and a horrid biology building. The food was good and the facilities, like SMU, were top notch. But D26 could not see herself going to that biology building (it looked like a bunker) everyday, lol. So TCU is also off the list.
Baylor has a welcome center that is right out of Disneyland. Look it up on YouTube. Just amazing. I reminded D26 that she would never again come to this building and to consider that. However, Baylor had an incredible Life Sciences Building. Like TCU and SMU, it also had an absolutely amazing business school. The facilities for other majors, however, were not nearly in the same league. I hated the Baylor student center and dining hall, but D26 loved them. Baylor was the only school of the TCU, SMU and Baylor group that was overtly Christian. D26 actually likes that, however, so Baylor scored some points. Baylor asked us to interview while on campus and I (the parent) was invited to the interview. Our interviewer was a delightful person, but she did something that I hate and have seen before. She asked D26 what her standardized test scores were. D26 answered immediately, but I really hate when schools do this. If a kid wants to disclose, they will disclose. Don’t ask them, because you can’t “unhear” their answer. The housing at Baylor was great, just as it was at TCU and SMU. I was not crazy about Waco, but D26 did not care. The school also seemed large as walking distances were great to get from one side of the campus to the other. As a result, you had to take golf carts during the tour. I was not a fan of Baylor, but D26 really liked it and immediately wanted to include it on her list. However, 2 days later, Baylor had a student call D26 to ask if she was applying. The Baylor student also engaged D26 in another interview. D26 and I felt ambushed and we really didn’t like this. D26 was shaken, but still wants to apply. I wish that she would drop Baylor, but I have kept my opinion to myself and D26 will still apply.
We were off to Trinity U. the next day. Again, D26 and I were on different pages. I really, really liked Trinity. The people were super nice. The facilities were good (the science center and humanities buildings were great). The food was good. The housing was good (we got into a dorm and every dorm room in the building was open, so we explored for about 20 minutes). Trinity is a school on the rise and did, perhaps, speak a little too much about their big endowment, but they were trying to signal that great things are coming. We also really liked San Antonio and we spent some time in the Pearl District and on the Riverwalk. I firmly believe that D26 was just tired on this day. D26 and I regularly do our own walking tour the night before and then do an info session and tour during the day. According to my phone, we usually walk 15 to 20 miles a day and this was Day 4. Our visit also had 100 degree temperatures and high humidity. D26 might be down on Trinity just because she was exhausted. So Trinity is in the “maybe” bucket for right now.
The shocker of this trip was Rice. First, Rice has an AMAZING campus. Very beautiful and unique exteriors. The insides of the buildings ranged from amazing to badly in need of rennovation. Gorgeous oak trees all over the shady campus. Lots of orientations and camp activity on campus. So the campus was bustling for a summer visit. D26 and I HATED Rice’s horrid security culture. We went into the library, for example. To get in, they needed to see my Driver’s License. The kid at the front desk typed ALL of my DL information into his computer. This took 5 minutes. I seriously wonder what was so valuable in this library that they needed to take all of this information from me. I also wondered why they couldn’t just take a picture of my DL or swipe it. Both D26 and I were annoyed at the delay and the invasion of privacy as identity theft is a real thing. We then walked through the library in 5 minutes and it was actually not that great of a library. When we went to the Campus Recreation Center, the same thing happened. But this time they wanted to KEEP my ID until I left. We toured the (below average) facility and then, on exit, they could not find my ID. They found it after about 3 minutes, but again, we were annoyed. When we went to the dining hall, they did not have a POS system to process credit card payments and did not accept cash. I had to scan a QR code and pay for the meal that way. Rice again asked for way too much information that was totally unneccessary for D26 and I to get a meal. In the meantime, huge lines were forming behind us. I asked people to go ahead, but the lady manning the counter said “no.” So I entered all of the required information with people in line behind me staring daggers at me. Sorry. Not my fault. Rice’s fault. The food, however, was very good. Rice was also lacking the great southern hospitality that we had seen at all of the other Texas schools. The kids were very “nerdy.” I don’t mean to be insulting, just stating what we saw. Lots of kids were wearing thick glasses with awkward mannerisms. A couple of the kids we talked to would not look at us when we were speaking with them. D26 kept looking in the direction that they were looking to see if we were missing something. There is definately a kind of kid that Rice seems to recruit and/or attract. We also heard a woman in admissions complaining about how she was let go in a restructuring and rehired as a temp. By this point, we were getting sick of Rice and what appeared to be a culture of distrust and angst. The info session was unique. Rice focused almost 100% on their Residential College System. Lots of talk centered on campus traditions and the hijinks of college kids. I enjoyed this, but then I am a veteran of 20+ college tours and appreciated something different. However, many parents were new to info sessions and wanted to hear about “all of the usual things.” So while I loved the info session, I sensed that many parents did not love it. They wanted to hear about Rice’s “test recommended” policy and not about campus pranks. As we were getting ready to tour, D26 grabbed my arm and said, “I hate this place, let’s go.” I was disappointed because I think D26 was reacting to Rice’s bureaucratic nature without considering what a great school it is. But OK kid, you got it. We skipped that school campus tour and went to the airport. Rice–down and out!