My son has been accepted to both Baylor and TCU. Has anyone had a student attend one of these schools? Any insight into the pros and cons of either school? Thanks
My daughter is a sophomore at Baylor and loves it. She is in the Honors College and resides in honors housing also. She loves it and has made life long friends. The thing that jumps immediately to my mind is that she and we have found that Baylor is striving to be a christian school and is becoming more so all the time which is a pro in our mind. It is not small so there are all sorts of kids there and I think that is a good thing also. The only thing I know about TCU is from a friend whose daughter attended. She said that TCU was christian in name only. However, I have no first hand knowledge of this and I’m sure that there are plenty of christians there.
If you have specific things about Baylor you would like to know, let me know!
Hi,
Do you know how many students will be accepted for Honors college every year and also how much will be the class size usually for Premed track.
Also even will there be separate classes for general ed courses also for Honors colleges like Bio/chem etc.
Any insight info is helpful.
Thanks
I am a senior who was considering both TCU and Baylor. i visited both this summer and TCU is christian only in name. They seem to focus more on their sports and really pushed study abroad options. After visiting it was almost uncomfortable even with students there moving in. No one was that friendly and they didn’t talk about religion classes at all. If religion is a big factor TCU isn’t the way to go. i have friends that went there and they agreed Religion wasn’t a big influence. The school was christian only in name. Also from a girls standpoint there was one all girls dorm and it would be under construction. The dorms at TCU were split by floor not wing. I have visited Baylor twice and I love it more and more every time I go. My guides both times were fantastic and spoke highly of their professors, religion classes, and the traditions. I spoke to some students and they love it. I know others that go and can’t speak higher of it. Baylor has amazing facilities and are in the middle of a 7 year renovation project redoing their dorms. While most dorms are co-ed they are separated by wing and the security is top notch. I am going to attend to Baylor in the fall and couldn’t be more excited. But this is just my opinion. I would definitely recommend visiting if you haven’t.
BAYLOR!! SIC EM! TCU should be simply Texas University based on the Christian part is largely not part of the experience.
As a Baylor student I must admit I’m biased, but from my experience Baylor is far more generous with financial aid than TCU and is generally more prestigious across the board. The honors program has students with stats comparable to many ivy league colleges, and the facilities overall around campus are top notch. I love Baylor passionately and turned down offers from UT, TAMU, and eight other schools nationwide to go to Baylor–and I couldn’t be more satisfied with the decision! TCU is a lot smaller, has a more localized alumni base/network, and has less diversity. Although TCU does have an amazing location in Fort Worth, Waco is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. If you stay in the good parts of town and don’t go out late at night and do dumb things, Waco is really a wonderful quaint town with a growing young professional population in a revitalized downtown. Many people are comparing it to Austin before it became a massive metropolis. For me personally Baylor showed (and has proven to me through faculty and staff interactions) that it really does try to live out its Christian mission, unlike TCU. Baylor is far from perfect in this regard, but there is more openness about Christianity compared to most even private Christian schools. I’ll never forget when my professor prayed with us before our midterm in Great Texts last semester–it really meant the world to me that he would care so much and that this Christian commitment was there!
In summary, Baylor and Waco really offer an incredible college experience, and every time my friends from other schools (UT, TAMU, etc.) describe their experiences I only feel more proud of Baylor!!! Would love to welcome your son to the bear family!!!
Sic em!
Thanks for sharing! :-h
@stratshredder97, thanks for the info. My daughter is visiting TCU and Baylor end of March. We are definitely leaning towards Baylor, offered merit scholarship there. We put down a deposit at Baylor early Feb.since it is refundable, I think we are too late on the deposit for her to get into Texana and Penland for housing, there are only about 400 spots there for girls. What are your other suggestions for freshman housing? Thanks!
@stratshredder97, I found your reply to the Baylor dad who was asking about housing earlier, sorry. I do have more questions though. Brooks is a 2 yr. commitment so I don’t think we want to sign up for that. Brooks flats is expensive like you already mentioned (includes kitchens), Kokernot is going to be all male in the fall of 2016, Collins is too run down and old. Can you tell me more about North Russell? What do you know about Dawson which is the leadership living/learning center and Earle which is the science living/learning center? Thanks
Hey @ncmom1997!
Yeah Baylor actually offered me a full tuition+ scholarship to begin with which has been supplemented by several surprise scholarships within just my first semester totaling to about 3,000 per semester. If your daughter would like to further supplement her merit aid at Baylor there are TONS of scholarships out there, which typically will increase in availability through involvement in student organizations or the honors college (where i received about 2000 of unexpected scholarship money). Also, idk if your daughter is national merit; as national merit myself Baylor has offered to completely cover tuition for my study abroad in Britain this summer IN ADDITION to my full 4 years of tuition. Baylor has money and is more than willing to use it on high-achieving students!
As far as housing, i have several friends in North Russell who love the environment there! Having spent some time in the dorm myself I find it maybe the most friendly and welcoming group of students on campus. North Russell does not have very many commitments with the Baylor and Beyond program from what I’ve heard so I wouldn’t worry about that adding an unnecessary time commitment. I have two friends in Dawson residential hall and, although they seem to have found a great community there as in any dorm, there is a FAR more significant time commitment for the LEAD program than there is for Baylor and Beyond at North Russell. Honestly, the LEAD program is treated as somewhat of a joke around campus and I’ve seen friends of mine have to write 9-10 page essays for their required class in LEAD. Also, Dawson is one of the older, more cramped dorms, although the location is fantastic. Earle is a brand new dorm in a very good location for science, fine arts, and business majors. I don’t know much about the living-learning program there but it won’t have the kind of time commitment that LEAD at Dawson demands. I will add that Earle has a reputation as one of the more “party” dorms. Given it’s at Baylor (visiting hours, no alcohol on campus, etc.) that’s not a huge deal. On the other hand Earle has some of the nicest, largest rooms for the money on campus with tons of nearby study spots. Also I believe Earle has suite bathrooms whereas North Russell has community baths (? I would check this online, this is just what I remember from interacting with friends).
If your daughter commits to Baylor make sure she signs up for Line Camp early! It was one of the best experiences I’ve had so far at Baylor and introduced me to wonderful people and all the Baylor traditions!
Thanks and sic em bears!
i haven’t read much of this thread so far but i would say baylor has a much more respectable name in comparison to TCU…one should consider TCU is in ft. worth which is basically just a few miles over from dallas where the powerhouse SMU campus is…you would be in direct competition with graduates of that university and it would be an uphill battle for sure.
the SMU alumni base is by far the strongest in Dallas and they look out for their own graduates, especially ones that graduate with an MBA, or JD…
if you are looking or considering going into the honors program at baylor university and feel you can excel at it in an attempt to progress forward into medical school then that would definitely be the road i would take if i were you.
about me, i am a graduate of baylor and out of high school was accepted to several top 30 universities with substantial scholarships and had planned on majoring in business…some things had occurred to me during my college years which i would rather put behind me but i ultimately had planned on majoring in business or a similar discipline.
with that said, i transferred to baylor and had a family emergency where my a relative was told he was not going to live much longer so i took as many classes as i could in the shortest amount of time in an attempt to graduate and get home to care for him.
i ultimately graduated college in 2 1/2 years and had planned to go to law school but my overall cumulative GPA is definitely going to be something that will negatively impact my chances of admissions to a highly reputable law school as i look back on things i was not in the correct state of mind to be trying to attend classes and was emotionally unstable and needed help…the issues with my relative (who was given less than 6 months to live at the time is still alive and doing much better health wise-so that is good)
i also want to mention that the standards for academic honors upon graduation at baylor are some of the highest and most demanding that i have ever witnessed of any university in the country.
here are the actual requirements to earn honors from this university which is incredibly difficult in my opinion, especially since there is no grade inflation like i’ve been told that are absolutely rampant upon the higher rated universities and ivy league colleges as well as lower GPA requirements to top it off.
With a minimum of 94 hours of credit earned at Baylor:
Cum Laude - 3.75 GPA
Magna Cum Laude - 3.85 GPA
Summa Cum Laude - 3.95 GPA
With 61-93 hours of credit earned at Baylor:
Cum Laude - 3.80 GPA
Magna Cum Laude - 3.90 GPA
With 60 hours of credit earned at Baylor:
Cum Laude - 3.85 GPA
Magna Cum Laude - 3.95 GPA
i am considering potentially going back and earning a business degree or some form of second degree from there in the business field but am ultimately upset with some of the things that had occurred with me in my past college experiences which i do not want to talk about, but i feel i got shafted and lied to about them and it put a semester of 15 credits worth of F’s into my GPA…
and law schools take in your undergraduate cumulative overall GPA from ALL undergraduate courses taken, and this basically has put me at a much lower level than i should have been at.
anyways, the students at baylor are some of the most kindest and helpful that i have ever met, they are very honest, respectful, and come from great families and care much about making sure they have their pride, dignity, and self respect no matter what type of situation they encounter.
I have been accepted to Baylor and TCU. I like Waco but a concerned and I’m pretty politically conservative. I am from New York, upper-middle class, a Republican and Catholic. But, like all types of people. QUESTION: I have a concern about Baylor, is it very religious and anti-drinking. I"m not a big party guy, but want a be able to drink beers and dance on a Friday or Saturday night without being judged by really uptight super religious Bible Thumper types. A girl I spoke to from Connecticut told me she was drinking a bottle a wine with friends in her dorm room and the room mate report them to the RA. The RA called the police and they all got a $500. fine and 8 hours of public service because they are under 21. She transferred out. Is it really this uptight about booze?
us news ranking 61. SMU 72. Baylor 82. TCU unless you have been accepted into specialized program and have not been admitted/ did not apply to smu Baylor is a better choice academically. I will say though that Baylor has much closer church ties if that bothers you