<p>I posted this in the general board and realized I should have put it here.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any thoughts about which is better? My son likes these two schools. He definitely wants to go to a private school in Texas. He is homeschooled and made a 34 on his ACT. Most of his activites are church related including running the computer for worship and all special events and concerts. He made a 5 on the AP Stats exam in 10th grade. He is currently taking AP Chem and AP Gov as a junior. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Baylor over TCU, but why not look at Rice?</p>
<p>Honestly, because neither he nor I thought he could get in. His extra-curriculars are not stellar. He hasn’t won any major awards or anything. He is just a regular, hard working kid.</p>
<p>His test scores are good, so you might as well add them on common app. If he goes to Baylor he’ll definitely get good merit aid (probably 15k per year based off his ACT, although I’m not certain since no class rank) and into the honors college, which is nice. TCU is lower ranked (98 vs 75, not a huge difference though) and a lot more of a party school (not that there aren’t parties at Baylor).</p>
<p>My son attends Baylor and is majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He was homeschooled as well and the lack of class rank did NOT affect his scholarship offer. He had also looked at TCU and decided Baylor was a better choice. (He is a junior now and is very happy at Baylor.)</p>
<p>There is a lot going on at Baylor right now with Ken Starr as president and Baylor sports doing so well–they are really getting a lot of national attention. I believe that both schools offer professors that are accessible to their students.</p>
<p>My son has applied and been accepted to University of Tulsa and Baylor, and is waiting on Rice. He has also been homeschooled his whole life and got 35 on his ACT and is a National Merit Finalist. To get the top scholarship (possibly) at Baylor or TU, he must designate them as his first choice (Rice doesn’t give that much to National Merit Finalists, so it’s not worth putting them first). Does Baylor’s engineering school seem pretty comprehensive, and is your son getting multiple job offers at this point (assuming he’ s a senior?) Is it really a strong Christian community, or is that just superficial for most? Engineering/compsci is a small part of Baylor compared to other areas, but seems to be expanding with the new residential college in Engineering and computer science going up (though TU just expanded its engineering and computer science facilities too). TU and Baylor are rated about the same, and my daughter is a junior at TU in computer science and it has worked out well for her, but she did manage to get a scholarship that pays for everything. My husband and I are also Rice alumni, and we still really like the school, but it is likely we would pay a lot more for him to go there, since merit scholarships are not very numerous (if you’re not a minority or diverse in some way). We like the Christian emphasis at Baylor, too. What’s your take on Baylor?</p>