<p>Congrats. Getting into the Baylor to Baylor program is quite an accomplishment. I’ve known kid accepted Harvard who were turned down at every college/med combo program. That’s really a whole other story from going to the school in general vs other more selective schools. What one can gain from such programs tips the scale very heavily in favor of nearly any school with that option if the student is pretty danged sure that is what s/he wants to do.</p>
<p>My nephew just announced that he will be going to TAMU and he has neither the scores or the grades of the upper 75% of the kids going there.</p>
<p>“There was a girl on cc who turned down Harvard for big merit aid at Baylor. (Too lazy to look up thread–2 years ago? You might try to contact her thru cc if she still gets on here.)
She was rooming with a NMF who was also a top student with awesome stats, ECs. Both in Honors program, both attracted by merit aid. Both from out of state and neither are Baptists.”</p>
<p>I have talked to this girl on CC and there were two reasons she went to Baylor - move back to Texas and religion. She got a free ride at Rice too.</p>
<p>To me the point here, once again, is fit. Baylor doesn’t appeal to everyone but for many it is a proper fit academically and socially. I wouldn’t send Lake Jr. to Baylor or Notre Dame or Bob Jones or Wheaton College or Brigham Young. But some students will be happy and successful at those places.</p>
<p>By the way, Baylor’s social conservatism is notorious, but their star basketball player Brittany Greiner recently publicly announced her sexual orientation. I’d guess that being a star woman athlete provided her a perk or two, but she chose Baylor and stayed there for a reason, so being gay and living in a strict Baptist community were not necesssarily inconsistent.</p>
<p>Of course baylor will have higher test score averages. It’s student body strength is just over 12,000 students while A&M has 40,000. The top 12,000 scorers are just as strong or stronger than the student body at Baylor. And since when are test scores the ultimate criteria of academic strength?
Baylor is a decent school, but despite its lower acceptance rate, it accepts a lot of students who don’t get into UT/A&M.</p>
<p>texaspg–Not sure what you’re getting at, but the girl and her roommate are both Catholics.</p>
<p>However, they did like the Christian atmosphere at Baylor. (I didn’t say they didn’t choose it for religious reasons, just that they weren’t Baptists. Not too many Catholics would choose a Baptist school. I think scholarships were as big a factor as location and religion.)</p>
<p>She wanted to be in a religious school or the other way around, she preferred to be in a school where religion was a value. That is the main reason she chose Baylor over all her other choices. </p>
<p>She could have just as easily gone to Rice if she felt religion is given priority at Rice.</p>