<p>May 1 is approaching. Given that it's decision time. If you, or your child, are going to attend, post here and let us know what your choices came down to, and why you, or your child, chose SMU.</p>
<p>My son sent in his letter today accepting SMU's offer. He turned down George Washington University in D.C. Ultimately, he concluded the two schools were about equal academically. He wanted a more traditional college campus.</p>
<p>I am glad he is going to attend SMU. It is a little closer to California, and costs about $8,000 less a year. I also figure that the cost of living in D.C. is higher, and the students go off-campus more at GW. With extra airfare, and higher cost of living, I figure that would result in about $3,000 to $5,000 more in expenses.</p>
<p>In his housing form, his first choice is Boaz. Anyone have any thoughts on whether that is a good place to live. I hear it is as little wild, but he wanted a place that is more social.</p>
<p>The other choices that were on my table are Cornell University, Texas A&M University, Baylor and UT Austin and Rice University.</p>
<p>The main reason I chose SMU is because of their Engineering program, although a fairly new Engineering program, I can without a doubt tell you that this program is going to be leading the state and possibly the region and nation within a few years. Their undergraduate approach and hands-on small class size approach is very appealing. Basically, any engineer can do any engineering field with any specialization there is. Tons of money is flowing into this program and it is well connected with the Cox school of Business which is connected to tons of Dallas companies and National companies. Along with the lockheed Martin partnership, I can safely say I enjoyed listening to the perks that their engineering school threw at me. Mickie Saloma is doing a fabulous job at recruiting.</p>
<p>Although, the price tag for SMU is very high and it’s going to leave me well into debt after my graduation, I have no worries seeing as how their co-op engineering program as well as their 4+1 masters degree program is going to leave me as a very marketable engineer with experience.</p>
<p>My choice of residency is the Virginia-Snider halls as I’m in the honors program</p>
<p>I will also be attending SMU. I sent my acceptance last Friday.</p>
<p>The other schools that I applied to were Rice University, UT Austin, and UT Dallas. Rice was my first choice school, but I was waitlisted. As for UT Austin, there is so much demand for that school that I doubt I will get any money from them. At the same time, I don’t want to get lost in the student population. UT Dallas actually gave me full tuition, money for housing, and a yearly stipend. I, however, do not want to attend mainly because it is a large public school and the campus itself is not somewhere I could feel at home. Personally, I think it is too industrial and business-like for a college community.</p>
<p>Like meavs40 mentioned, I believe that SMU’s Engineering program is strong even though it is not nationally ranked. Being business and leadership-oriented, a degree from the school would look great on any resume especially on the frontier of Dallas, where SMU is well-respected. </p>
<p>However, I have not attended any of the accepted-student workshop days or lunches. Has anyone attended any for Lyle School of Engineering? Did you learn any information that you found useful?</p>
<p>Finally, my residency choice was Virginia-Snider (preferably the Snider side) because of the honors program. I also chose Peyton and Mary Hay as secondary choices.</p>
<p>My choices were Trinity U (half scholarship), UC Irvine and SMU, and I’m currently waitlisted at Boston College, Barnard and Wellesley. </p>
<p>The main reason I chose SMU is because I got in Cox, and I believe it’s one of the best creative undergrad business programs in the nation. Also, as a BBA scholar, it’ll be easier for me to meet business leaders. Also, SMU offered me some money, so it’ll no doubt be financially easier for my parents, seeing as I still have a younger sibling. </p>
<p>Oh, and just going out on a tangent here…I was born in Dallas but haven’t been back in 17 years, so I thought it’d be cool to return to Texas for college. Also, I hear Dallas is a great city with lots of restaurants, malls, culture, i.e. museums, and SMU is greatly respected in the area. </p>
<p>I hope I’ll be in virginia snyder (also snider) and my other choices are mckintosh and mgnoriss…(sorry kinda forgot how to spell them)</p>
<p>My son has received acceptances and very nice scholarship packages from several universities (he will major in Theater/Acting). He has now narrowed his selection down to either SMU, University of Oklahoma, or University of Evansville (Indiana). Since we live in Texas, I’m secretly pulling for SMU or OU…SMU is actively pursuing him, but my husband is trying to dissuade him from SMU because he has always heard that the school is full of rich snobs (his brother went there in the mid-70s and that’s what he reported). So, I don’t know what our son will decide. I’d love for him to go to SMU!</p>
<p>willmisshim (aww-- what a sweet name!) Has your son spent much time on SMU’s campus? What is his opinion about SMU? Does he agree with your husband about it being snobby?</p>
<p>Help! My son can’t decide! One day TCU, the next day SMU. Actually, it’s probably SMU more often than TCU. Full-tuition scholarships at both. Cost of Attendance will be about $2000 less a year at TCU. Also, SMU’s full-tuition is a dollar amount, meaning that as tuition increases each year, we’ll owe more each year. TCU’s full-tuition is just that - full-tuition each year, period.</p>
<p>He loves the Meadows School of the Arts at SMU. Loves his prospective voice teacher. (But also likes the School of Music at TCU and THAT prospective voice teacher!) What to do? Food wins out at SMU. (Can you believe it’s really important to him?) Dorms and facilities win out at TCU. Gorgeous campus award goes to SMU. He likes the location of each within their respective cities. Likes the campus-to-community involvement with each. He thinks SMU has a better reputation for, I don’t know, excellence? Prestige? Name brand? Like, in the future, more people will recognize and respect his degree from SMU versus TCU, he thinks. It is true that the average scores and GPAs of accepted students are higher at SMU. So many people claim that the campus is populated with rich and snobby kids, but we just haven’t seen that ourselves. They seem like nice, centered kids whenever we’re on campus. That would be a downside of SMU - if it were true. The TCU campus is by far the friendliest, happiest campus we’ve ever visited. And we’ve visited a lot!</p>
<p>He turned down Rice U the other day because he couldn’t get in his first choice music studio. He will have to turn down Oberlin Conservatory and College because we can’t afford it. He’ll likely turn down Gettysburg College very soon, though they offered enormous scholarships as well, but a little shy of full-tuition. Cost of Attendance at UNT is several thousand dollars higher than SMU or TCU, so that’s going out the window as well.</p>
<p>That leaves a really great, sweet little school up in Wisconsin called Lawrence University and Conservatory. He loves that place as well and with large scholarships there, the Cost of Attendance will approximate SMU and TCU.</p>
<p>We’re in the same boat, Simplelife. I am making a giant chart of the schools and their good and bad points on a writeboard. Maybe if he sees it like this it will help. The good news is that our boys have some great choices.<br>
There are 4 schools on the chart, SMU (full ride), UT Plan II (great scholarship), Rice (good scholarship + research opportunities), and Stanford (sticker price). He’s worried that UT is too big, Rice is too close to home and Stanford is too far. I’m worried about paying for Stanford. I am also worried about the dominance of greek life at SMU.<br>
It’s hard to imagine that in a couple of weeks the decision will be made!</p>
<p>My son accepted SMU last week. I searched the internet for info., and found this site.</p>
<p>My son chose between BU, Tulane, UT/Austin and SMU.</p>
<p>He liked Boston, but didn’t like the campus at BU.</p>
<p>He didn’t want to live in New Orleans.</p>
<p>He thought UT was way too big.</p>
<p>That left SMU as the number one choice, even though we did not receive scholarship money. He loved the campus and school spirit. He thinks the football team could be up and coming. he also liked the fact that SMU wrote to him alot, which made him feel wanted.</p>
<p>It is interesting that he chose SMU over other schools more highly ranked in the US News rankings. It appears others are doing the same.</p>
<p>Hi again cpq1xtbu! Seems our kids have a lot in common in the way of college searches and choices. I seem to see your name quite a bit. </p>
<p>We have visited SMU very many times at this point. Maybe it’s because we’ve mostly hung out at the Meadows School of the Arts, but we don’t get the impression that it’s that frat house, greek life, rich and snobby, party school that some people claim here on CC. We have been quite impressed with the kids that we’ve met. They seem to be a lot like my son - who sounds like your son and other sons on this thread.</p>
<p>just out of curiosity what were your kids scores, grades, and activities like? i submitted my application late december and i won’t hear back until either march or april? i kind of just want someone to compare myself to :)</p>
<p>What do you know about the summer school prelude program? Do all students get through and continue on as a freshman or do some fail out of summer school?</p>
<p>I am going to SMU this fall and am really excited! I’m from Dallas and love SMU. Whenever I go I never get the impression that the kids are all snoby and rich. They all seem really nice to me! To teddyvoughn, I recieved a 31 on my ACT, a 2030 on my SAT and have taken 8 AP classes in highschool. I have only ever made 2 B’s. I also dance about 15 hours a week. I am an honor student so I will be living in the Virginia Snider dorm. I’m going to major in dance at Meadows because it has an amazing dance program and probably double major in business. I can’t wait!</p>
<p>My advice to any Prelude students. No matter what, do not party on campus. No matter what, do not come back to campus intoxicated. No matter what, do not be seen on campus, in dorm, etc with any booze or other materials. </p>
<p>They are watching more than your academic performance and numerous Prelude kiddos were sent home either during Prelude or during Fall Semester who ignored the rules above.</p>
<p>Thanks to the theater department naming me a Meadows Scholar the other day, the financial package is all I dreamed, and I am so excited to be enrolling at SMU.</p>