campus vibe & visit suggestions?

My niece from Illinois (graduated top 3% of her high school class) had great merit scholarship offers from excellent schools like Purdue, Rennselaer, UIUC, but eventually decided on Trinity. She is happy there!

Trinity was the first school my son visited last spring and it definitely found a place in his heart. EA application submitted and the wait begins! Good luck to all the families with eager applicants.

Thanks for all the contributions to this post! Really helps putting a face to the name of the college
 DS has a few really good options like Purdue, Maryland, Binghamton and several LACs. To me TU feels a bit like the dark horse who could very well win us over. We’re going to visit on Friday! I’m most interested in figuring out the student body. He would definitely not do well in a right leaning, conservative environment. He’s not quirky and I consider him a middle of the road kind of guy from NYC. Maybe Texas has room for an extra Northeasterner.

Trinity is well worth the visit. Unique vibe amongst the schools we toured. The admissions office is very responsive. They set up class visits and have a special info session for admitted students. My son’s admission counselor went “the extra mile”, inviting us to dinner and bringing along a current student with similar interests the night before my son spent the day on campus. They’ll also arrange stays in the dorms. Make sure the admissions office staff are aware of your son’s interests and what he really wants to get out of the visit. They’ll try hard to make it happen.

@WilliamNYC My son and I will be at Tiger Friday this week as well. We visited back in November and he was impressed enough to have Trinity be in his top 2, even though at that visit he wasn’t feeling well (it turns out was coming down with mono). We’re both excited to give it another look.

Speaking for my son, I think he’d find it interesting to meet students from somewhere other than Texas, especially NYC!

My daughter and I will be at Tiger Friday on April 6th. We are from the Houston area and Trinity is in her top 2 as well. My DD really likes Trinity but is really having a hard time making a final decision. I would love to here about your visits this week and how your sons feel after their Tiger Friday visit.

Will definitely post our impressions after our visit @tammy7949.
It’s our first time visiting anywhere in TX @TexasExMom so looking forward to the short trip. We’ll get there Thursday afternoon, flying back Saturday evening.

Hope you guys have a great visit to Texas and Trinity @WilliamNYC.

@WilliamNYC As Texasexmom stated, the admissions department does go out of its way. When they found out we had traveled from out of state to tour, they made sure to sit down and spend time with us, answering questions and offering suggestions. San Antonio is known for being more liberal than other parts of Texas, and they pride themselves on their cultural offerings. Experiences at Trinity itself, though, might depend more on your child’s major. “Middle of the Road” will probably do well. Your son should have a good idea if he connects with the other students when he visits.

It’s well worth it to grab dinner and take a stroll along River Walk. Very unique area with many restaurants.

My son and I enjoyed the Tiger Days program today. TU did a great job making their case that Trinity has a lot to offer.

We live in the San Antonio area and I honestly had not even considered Trinity as a possibility when our daughter started looking at schools last year. It wasn’t until we took a closer look that I realized all it is to offer. She has been accepted to Wash U and waitlisted at Rice—waiting to hear on a few others but Trinity is at the top of her list. One thing she mentioned after doing an overnight stay was how kind and friendly everyone was. We toured the CSI on Towers Day and I was blown away by the facilities. San Antonio is a diverse and relaxed city, and I agree that it does tend to be more liberal than most of Texas, except for perhaps Austin. Hope that helps, but if you have any specific questions about San Antonio, ask away! Good luck!

My son and I were again impressed with our second visit to Trinity on Friday. It seems like a school where students get lots of support and are encouraged to explore their interests. I like the motto you hear/see around campus: Discover. Grow. Become.

But, we went to another admitted students event at a larger university up the interstate the next day, and my son was also really impressed with it. So we’re still undecided here. :-/

It sounds like my daughter and your son are in very similar situations. My DD has her list narrowed down to 2 schools. She is visiting one of Texas’s large state schools tomorrow for an admitted student visit and we are visiting Trinity on Friday, April 5th for an admitted student visit. My DD is very torn between the decision and is hoping to really have a strong sense of which school is the right fit after these upcoming visits. Would love to hear which school your son ends up choosing and what his deciding factors are. What is your son planning on majoring in? Good luck to you both!!!

@tammy7949 Best wishes to you and your daughter too! It’s hard making a decision between two great, but very different options.

At the state university, he would major in Radio/TV/Film. At Trinity he is interested in Communications and English (and likes the idea of being able to explore other options/interests, such as music). How about your DD?

@TexasExMom My DD is wanting to major in CS and possibly engineering. I think she feels like the state university makes the most sense on paper, but feels more connected to the Trinity campus and vibe. You are right about these being very different options. They are on opposite extremes of one another. I am really hoping after these next visits she will have a much better feel for what school is for her. My daughter is really interested in studying abroad for one semester. Not sure which school would have better opportunities for her. Was your second visit to Trinity much different than the first visit?

@tammy7949 The visit was similar to first one, but more in-depth and more opportunities to interact with faculty/staff. Also students and parents split off and did separate activities for most of the day. Getting to eat in the cafeteria was nice!

I found the explanation of the Pathways curriculum helpful. The session on student resources (health - physical/mental, writing assistance, library) was good. We went to a prospective student session last summer which was much briefer than the admitted students session on Friday. Last week they had more time to show how they engage students and push them to grow. The message was at TU they value students as individuals and not some faceless student number.

@tammy7949, my S is a Junior CS Major at TU. He has received a wonderful education, with class sizes ranging from 20 down to 7 students. There are no TA’s at Trinity, and my S spends at least 2 hours a week on average one-on-one with his CS Professors during generous office hours.

I hope your D has had a chance to meet Dr. Lewis in the CS Department. Dr. Myers is the Head of CS, and he is a great guy in his own right, but Lewis is a terrific teacher and a great ambassador for the Dep’t. TU has such a generous endowment that no computer equipment is ever more than one year old. They replace one floor’s equipment on alternating years, so either it is brand new or a year old, and then replaced the next year.

The CSI Building simply speaks for itself.

Good luck to your D on her big decision. For our S, who values close relationships with his teachers and small class sizes, it has been a blessing and he has learned so very much over the last 2.5 years.

@ColdinMinny Thank you for sharing your S’s experience at Trinity. That is all very good to know. I am looking forward to our visit to Trinity next week and hope we leave there with my DD having a better feel for what she is looking for.

@tammy7949 You said you’d like to know where my son decided to go, so I am updating. He has chosen UT Austin. The major and the financial aid tipped the scales in UT’s favor. Also he knows people going to UT and didn’t know anyone at Trinity. It was not an easy decision though. He really liked Trinity, as did I. I was sad when he declined admission. (I have two younger sons though and maybe one of them will end up at TU!)

What did your DD decide?