Baylor vs Univ of Texas Dallas vs TCNJ

Parents Forum
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<p>D is NMSF, and we are trying to maximize the merit aid offered to her, as we don't qualify for need based aid. We live in calif and D would like the opportunity to go OOS. We are planning to include one of the above schools as her safety/financial safety as can only list one to get the NMF scholarship offered by a college. </p>

<p>Dallas and TCNJ offers full tuition, room and board, Baylor offer full tuition. . .Would appreciate feedback on any of the three schools, right now we are leaning towards baylor or dallas because TCNJ is Division 3 sports.</p>

<p>D is interested in colleges about 6 - 10,000 in size, suburban, and for her matches and reaches, are interested in schools in the southeast (n. Carolina, etc) or northeast (boston, etc). She is not applying to Emory because app is due Nov 1 and she is already doing UNC Chapel Hill that is due then. [Her safeties,Baylor and Dallas, are in Tx as it is mostly schools in the southwest area who offer full tuition to NMFs --Arizona state univ and Univ of Arizona also offer full tuition, but they are too huge since they have 30,000 students]. </p>

<p>For matches, d is leaning towards: Wake Forest, UNC chapel hill, Boston U (but i have told her just because these are matches, they are probably financial reaches since we are aiming for at least 1/2 tuition scholarships)</p>

<p>For reaches, d is leaning towards: duke ( if school is academically a reach, however, odds are she won't get merit scholarship)</p>

<p>stats: GPA 4.0 unweighted, 4.7 weighted</p>

<p>SATs: 720 math, 770 verbal, 770 written. total score considered to be 1490. D retook SAT yesterday hoping to raise math score and total score to 1500 as better chance for scholarships.</p>

<p>SAT-2s: USH 800, literature 790, math level 2 710
rank 4 out of 565 (she is not ranked first because some of her dance and theatre classes aren't weighted)</p>

<p>APs: USHistory 5, calculus AB 5, language and comp 5, physics B 5, chemistry 4</p>

<p>School ecs: dance company x 2 years, President of Christian club, involved (both onstage and backstage) with school plays and musical theatre</p>

<p>community ecs--volunteers with local library as tutor captain has about 270 hours volunteer work, spent 6 weeks last summer doing costruction work and teaching ESl in Thailand with Christian organization, teaches sunday school to 4th graders, community theatre, plays flute in church youth orchestra.</p>

<p>Awards: NMSF, AP Scholar with Distinction, Orange county volunteer of the year (all the tutors got this collectively), got for her school: calculus student of the year 2005, trig student of the year 2004, and algebra ll student of the year 2003.</p>

<p>Works: ushers at local community theatre 4-16 hours/week
Also, taking 1 course (mid level Calucus) at local JC because her high school doesn't offer course</p>

<p>D automatically will get accepted to a UC school (we are aiming for UCSD as the best fit for her), will go to oos if it doesn't cost anymore than what a UC would cost for us--eg. $7000 tuition plus about $10,000 room and board. </p>

<p>Any comments, suggestions about baylor vs univ texas dallas vs TCNj (or any comments about our safety, match,reach choices and strategy) would be helpful and very much appreciated. Thanks for your wisdom.</p>

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<p>D applied to Baylor and got nice merit $, she probably would have gone there, but they were weak in her sport. She is now ata UC pursuing her sport at the club level.</p>

<p>I would strongly suggest a visit to each place and hopefully an overnight. My D visited most of the schools to which she was admitted, not Baylor, as by April, she knew she wanted to keep playing her sport, those visits were very important in confirming her thoughts.</p>

<p>Baylor would have given her more attention, I suspect, than a UC. They certainly contacted her regularly over her senior year and offered lots of info about the school. It is all about fit-assuming the $ are doable, so find the school that fits her. </p>

<p>You are welcome to PM me if you have any specific questions.</p>

3

<p>Even for lots of merit money I don't see TCNJ as being an especially good choice for a Californian or for your very highlY qualified daughter. I know little about the other two schools you mention, but Baylor strikes me from what I have heard generalyl and what I have read on CC, as well as what you say about your D, as the best of the three choices. TCNJ has its proponents both on CC and elsewhere but it is, when all is said and done, just another decent state school that sometimes gets a bit of a lift from various media. It isn't as large and potentially dynamic as Rutgers, which is the state university and has some nationally recognized departments and programs (including the Mason Gross School of the Arts. Nor does TCNJ offer the real experience and small-community feel of a true LAC (which does not appear to be what your D wants anyway). The D3 sports, however, are good, so that is not at all the reason to opt against TCNJ, and there are certainly people on this board and elsewhere who think well of the school. Also, and perhaps I am mistaken, but doesn't San Diego have really good theater? So if your D has the opportunity to go to UCSD and not incur travel expenses, TCNJ just does not make sense.</p>

<p>Regarding your D's other choices, I think Wake sounds like a very strong match and I'd be surprised if she didn't get decent aid from there. Chapel Hill is awfully tough for out of state, so I don't know about that, certainly in terms of money it seems unlikely to come through.</p>

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<p>I am know a littlle bit about TCNJ, and I agree with Mattmom, but for different reasons. If I had a D from California, I would not feel good about sending her to the other side of the country to a school that has 95% instate students (more grant $ or not). I don't think that is the best mix for a freshman, but I know others will disagree and talk about their children 2000 miles+ away from home. There is a whole thread on that subject and this comes up regularly.</p>

<p>TCNJ is located in an surrounding area that looks suburban. A short distance away, however, are industrial looking businesses. The campus is beautiful, with beautiful new townhouses for upperclassman (they were not all open yet when we visited last year-apparently some construction problems). Some say this a suitcase school, others say it is absolutely not, but that would make me nervous as the parent of an oos student. The kids are bright and friendly, and she should easily be able to make friends. The kids do not seem clickish, which can be the case in some state schools where kids come in knowing each other from hs. I hear the food is very good. The freshmen dorms look like the average dorms for freshmen. I do have one friend who would not let her D apply to TCNJ bcs they did not like the surrounding area, and thought it may be a high crime area. I really cannot tell you if there is high crime or not. I do think it has a LAC feel, however.</p>

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<p>Despite the rise in the academic standing recently, I am not impressed with the quality of student life at UT-Dallas. It is still largely a commuter school and is in a pretty unattractive part of Dallas (not dangerous, just the flat plains). It is not close to downtown or nightlife, so a car would be a big plus if you want to do anything. Texas Instruments and some of the TI founders have been extremely generous and the science and math facilities/programs are excellent. UTD's sports are weak, although you are part of the UT system and can cheer for the big guys (UT Austin).
I won't rehash my opinions of Baylor, but your well-qualified daughter should keep looking. What about the honors programs at the Arizona state schools? I know they are big, but you will get some good feedback about them on this forum.</p>

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<p>An added comment: I too would suggest looking at the honors colleges of some of the flagship or second-major state schools; does Michigan State, for example, offer money to NMSF? It used to make a strong effort to get NMSF to enroll. Although the flagships and second-major state universities are very large, the honors programs offer a smaller setting with access to the larger one and all the activites that entails. In my experience a flagship state university offers tremendous variety of opportunity. So I guess I would echo what MOWC said; perhaps your top three mentioned in the title of the thread were not the only or best three safeties to consider. And as northeastmom points out there is something to be said for being a shorter distance from home, either a short flight or driveable, so the Arizona schools might be very good ones to think about. </p>

<p>There has been a fair amount posted here in the past about Clemson, too, which I know gives merit aid, and not just to NMSF; you might also want to read old posts about the University of Georgia honors program. I would not limit your exploration to schools that specify NMSF offerings, since I suspect there are a lot of schools in that range offering substantial merit aid for strong students on basis of grades and SATs who may be NM commended or not have achieved any NM recognition at all for various reasons. While not necessarily better than TCNJ in terms of numbers, they might well offer a more comfortable setting (climate, town, slightly more geographically diverse student body).</p>

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<p>These schools are all way below your daughter's standards...even if some colleges won't offer $ for being a NMSF, her other stats could earn her some substantial merit aid at better schools. UTDallas is WAY below par, and your daughter would not be challenged at that school. Baylor...eh, at least it's better than UTD. Know nothing about TCNJ, but you need to explore more.</p>

8

<p>thanks for the replies. </p>

<p>I don't think my daughter will end up at any of these three schools, but we will be including one as a safety since we can indicate a school choice for the National merit scholarship, and might as well indicate a school that is offering merit for tuition that is a "done deal". As another thread has said, "Love Thy Safeties".</p>

<p>For the rest of d's college choices, she'll probably apply to Clemson, unc chapel hill, wake forest, UC san diego, perhaps Duke and Boston Univ.</p>

<p>I'm not worried about d getting into those colleges, but whether the merit aid received makes it feasible to attend those colleges.</p>

9

<p>Mo4:
Baylor was my D's admissions/fin safety, too. It was incredibly nice to have the admit & the scholarship award by late October (rolling admit)...here school of choice did not notify her until April 1; there were some weeks when it was such a relief to have that one in the bag...she then applied to mainly reach-match school (match wherein she fit, reach due to admissions numbers) and did not stress the in-between. A very smart move, for peace of mind, IMHO.</p>