Austin College
WAY up. Is now officially in D24’s #1 spot for many reasons. This was a post-acceptance-letter trip on one of their Roo Day events. I have a lot of info to share, so here we go…
General info first:
- purpose of the trip was for D24 to have a vocal audition for a music scholarship. She’s not a music major but they have performing arts scholarships for non-music majors
- there’s a Buc-ee’s in Melissa, TX about halfway between the Dallas Love Field airport and Sherman, TX. We don’t have Buc-ee’s yet in AZ (soon though!)…went in with the goal of getting drinks and ended up $58 poorer.
- stopped in at an organic grocery store in Sherman. Similar stuff for sale as Sprouts, but this is a locally owned grocery store. It has a big cafe inside, but the cafe part was closed on Sunday.
- drove to Texoma Medical Center. Nice big hospital. Much bigger than the hospital near Centre College. About 10-15 min drive from campus. This is the hospital where pre-health students do internships & shadowing.
- had linner (late lunch, early dinner) at Old Iron Post in downtown Sherman. Food reasonably priced. You can tell it’s a popular place on Fri & Sat evenings. D24 really liked the vibe.
- went to the movies to kill time before we could check into our hotel. Sunday matinee movie ticket price was $7.
- drove around the main shopping areas. There’s a massive Hobby Lobby and a Michael’s 2 doors down. Kohl’s, JC Penney’s, Home Depot, Walmart, a MASSIVE Target
- D24 said Sherman, TX felt a lot like the area we lived in for many years before we moved to the Phoenix metro area.
Academics:
- we didn’t focus too much on academics this trip because we learned all about that on our prior visit in April of last year.
- BUT they announced in one of the presentations that starting fall 2026, they’re going to have an engineering major and are working on ABET certification right now.
- the college president also said that Austin College has already had conversations with the 2-3 big chip manufacturing plants being constructed in Sherman for those companies (Texas Instruments + 2 others whose names escape me right now) to take on AC students for internships. College president said that because of all of the economic growth in Sherman, the size of the city is estimated to double in the next few years.
- they’re hiring some more faculty and as a result, Data Analytics will be a major instead of just a minor.
- Whichever professor teachers your First Year Experience seminar is who will be your advisor the whole 4 years you’re there.
- the VP of “I don’t remember her title/position name” said that in order to obtain tenure at AC, professors must be good teachers first.
- D24 got to sit in on a History of Comic Books class, said she really liked it. It’s taught out of the Art History department.
- students here seem to have multiple interests and the faculty & staff definitely seem to encourage students to explore all of that.
- in mid-June, you pick your First Year Experience seminar class.
- The presentation of the VP of “I don’t remember her title” said AC is very high touch, experiential, outcomes-oriented. From a parent’s point of view, I got the impression on this visit and the last one that is really is the real deal, it’s not just marketing.
- ~40% of students are athletes. College president has the athletics director report directly to him. College president said the focus is on the student part first and ensuring that wherever possible, practices & games aren’t going to clash with big coursework stuff. There’s a lot of collaboration between academic departments & athletics.
Dining on campus:
- Roo Day event included free lunch. College president said that this Roo Day was their biggest one yet with over 400 people there. D24 & I both had chicken tikka masala, though it was decent.
- Student life director said in an afternoon presentation that their dining hall’s kitchen is set up to prepare allergy-free meals for about 8 (or was it 9?) most common allergens. There’s a whole food prep area for the allergy-free food that’s totally separate from the rest of the kitchen. Student life director emphasized a lot about contacting them directly if you or your student has any questions about food allergies. We don’t have food allergies, but they definitely gave me the impression that they do take it seriously and they seemed very accommodating.
- Freshman meal plan is a 7-day all-you-can-eat thing. Meaning that if you’re hungry 5 times a day, you can go eat in the dining hall 5 times a day. As many times as you want.
- Dining hall open Mon-Sat 7 am-8 pm, Sun 9 am-8 pm.
- Freshman meal plan includes $75 “hopper dollars” that you can use at Pouch Club, Hopper Store, or Kangaroo Coffee (aka Starbucks)
- sophomores required to have min of a 5-day meal plan
Financial aid & costs:
- starting this fall, there will be no extra costs for textbooks. TOTALLY AWESOME.
- they have an estimated financial aid award form which will be available online “very soon”. AC said they’ll provide a 5-10 business day turn-around to the student on this. We are going to do this. AC said purpose of this is to get people an estimated financial aid sooner just this year since FAFSA has been so delayed.
- at the end of 2023, AC got a $21M donation from I think they said the Presbyterian Church (AC is affiliated w/the Presbyterian Church) and the college has decided to use that $$ for a scholarship endowment…as a result, if you’re a Presbyterian preacher’s kid (or if your parent/guardian is on a Presbyterian church’s official budget as a staff member/employee), then you are eligible for a full tuition (or was it full ride?) scholarship.
Student health:
- they have a “Navigate” phone app that students can use to make health appointments and mental health appointments
- Albertson’s will do pharmacy deliveries to campus.
Student life & housing stuff:
- Greek life doesn’t seem to be an emphasis here, but it’s available. Big plus for D24.
- each dorm has a computer lab and study lounges
- freshman dorms are traditional style dorms with community bathrooms. Students live on campus all 4 yr. As you go up each year from freshman to senior, the housing gets better (suite style, apartments, that sort of thing)
- Student life director said that RA’s are paid positions
- AC uses the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator test to pair you up with a roommate. Our tour guide used this as a freshman and she is still “really good friends” with her freshman roommate.
- tuition includes $50/yr in printing $$ on your student account/ID card. Tour guide said that she’s never had to put extra $$ on her printing account.
- all students have a mailbox in the mail room/post office on campus. Whatever mailbox you’re assigned freshman year is the one you’ll have all 4 years.
- no microwaves allowed in dorm rooms. Students use the ones in the basement kitchen.
- small fridges allowed in dorm rooms.
- Student life director said that Kroger grocery store is walkable from campus and he said, “I’ve seen packs of students walking to and from there many times.” I checked on Google maps and it’s a 30 min walk.
- Student life director is the guy in charge of training all of the RA’s. It was obvious he takes his job seriously and loves what he does.
- Student life director conducted an anonymous survey of AC upperclassmen, asked them what advice they’d give to incoming freshmen in order to be successful. He said that the top 3 most common answers were: (1) go to class; (2) manage your time; and (3) get some sleep.
- Student life director also mentioned that the Center for Student Success can help you figure out how to manage your time. They’ll sit down with you and help you come up with a study schedule and all that based on your class schedule, work schedule, etc.
- The Wright Campus Center (aka student union) was described as the “campus living room.” There’s an open area on 1st floor full of big squishy couches. We saw students hanging out here.
- Students are in charge of managing the Campus Activities Board budget for the year; they make the decisions on how the money is spent.
- tour guide rattled off a bunch of different stuff that goes on around campus all the time. D24 said it all sounded like fun.
- We saw a fair # of students studying outside in the sunshine, some in groups, outside 1 of the freshmen dorms.
- students seem pretty happy here.
- from what I saw, there’s good diversity here. So it isn’t just lip service.
Other stuff + logistics:
- no bus service available in Sherman. Car is king.
- super cheap to park your car on campus. I think $100/academic year?
- a parent asked Student Life Director a question along the lines of “What if your kid won’t have a car on campus the first couple of years?” Director replied (genuinely), “Oh, that’s not a problem here at all. I guarantee you that some of their friends will have cars.” Lots of students are TX residents. Our D24 probably won’t have a car there for the 1st 2 yr if she attends AC.
- I checked and Lyft is available from AC to the Dallas airport. $72 one way.
- mock trial is really big here, as is pre-law stuff and model UN. There’s a mock court room in the library that mock trial and model UN uses.
- in the afternoon, there was a student panel that only students could attend. D24 said that in the student panel, one of the AC students said that if you haven’t done a study abroad experience yet, it’s VERY easy to get a study abroad Jan Term scholarship at AC “because Austin College wants everybody to be able to have at least one study abroad experience.” Jan Term = 3 weeks in January where you take just ONE class. Students required to take a Jan Term course each year. Once a sophomore, you can do it as study abroad. Tour guide (a senior) did 3 study abroad Jan Terms.
- If you’re a person who wants to blend into the woodwork, then you shouldn’t attend this school. For example, if you’ve skipped a couple of classes in a row of a class, odds are high that your professor will call or email you directly to ask if you’re ok.
- feels like there’s a lot of mentoring, guidance, encouragement of exploration here.
- 1 of the bio professors does breast cancer research. D24 thought this was pretty cool (I had breast cancer 4 1/2 years ago).
- D24 thought everybody was genuinely very friendly here. Genuine, down to earth, friendly, collaborative, helpful.
- VERY safe campus. Student Life Director said there’s 9 police officers on staff, they patrol all the time around campus in golf carts and the police officers try to memorize as many students’ first names as possible, “So don’t be freaked out if your student tells you that the campus police knows them by name.” Campus has the same ‘blue light’ campus security emergency phones around the school. Campus police will arrive w/in 2 min of you calling from one of those.
Kid said she REALLY likes it there, could DEFINITELY see herself being happy living there for 4 years. Had a little skip in her step, seemed pretty upbeat the whole time. From a mom point of view, I could tell that she really really liked it there.