We found out early on in visiting central Texas colleges that a very small LAC is the best fit for my senior daughter. It is unlikely we’ll qualify for much need based aid so all of the LAC’s we’ve visited were picked for two criteria 1. High merit based aid, and 2. D decreed that she will not live anywhere that has “real” winters (and yes, I really tried to convince her otherwise). Colleges we’ve visited:
I should preface this by saying I had done a lot of reading about most of the schools in advance so we were more looking for the “feel” of the school. Whether D could see herself there for four years.
Texas A&M - Realistically it’s too big a school for her, but it’s our financial safety school, and she’s got automatic admit. My brother graduated from A&M, so there’s a familiarity with it. D conceded that if she had to go to a big school, she would be OK at A&M. She’ll apply to the honors college. We live just outside Austin and she flat out refused to even do a tour at UT, which I was OK with. The one odd thing about our visit was the admissions talk. It was wildly discouraging. The admissions person basically told the group that if you aren’t automatic admit and have to go through the holistic review, then count on not getting in, or at best being offered one of the alternative routes into A&M. She almost seemed to be discouraging people from applying.
Trinity University - D’s top choice. We’ve visited twice, once for a regular visit, and then once for one of their preview days. While, for us, Trinity is one of the less attractive campuses we’ve seen, everything else about it is phenomenal. D is science oriented and we got to spend about an hour in the brand new science building. A professor invited us into his lab and showed us around and told us about his students who work in the lab with him. We ate in the cafeteria and liked it. The freshman dorms are really nice. Students seem hardworking but also casual and easygoing (which describes D). It’s far enough away from home (about 2 hours) that she’ll feel she’s away from home, but has the advantage of an easy drive for me getting her there and back.
Southwestern University - We’ve also visited here twice. I really like this school! Beautiful campus, beautiful town. Decent dorms. D likes it also, but would want to do an overnight and more research before making a decision. We didn’t get a good feel for the science facilities on either of our visits. During lunch on the preview day, a Kinesiology professor gave a talk about some cool projects his students have worked on and what a couple of them have gone on to do professionally. Other professors sat at the tables with us and visited after the talk. The President of the the school gave a welcome talk in the morning (which was a first for us). He was charming and really, really funny. The school has a very homey, down to earth vibe. Ditto on distance. Closer to home than Trinity, but far enough away that she’ll still feel away. Easy drive.
Rhodes - Moved down on the list after visit. The campus is beautiful, but interestingly the dorm room we saw was the grimmest dorm we’ve seen on all our visits. With the exception of the dorm room, the campus seemed to have a little more affluent feel then most places we’ve visited. While there is nothing wrong with that, none of us (me, D, and her 15 y. o. sister) really felt at ease on the campus. Not crossing it off the list, but a second visit would be needed if they offered a financial package that was to good to pass up. There are some non-stop flights from Austin to Memphis, so travel wouldn’t be to onerous.
Hendrix - Biggest surprise of our summer road trip. We all loved this school. Campus is close to the charming historic downtown Conway. The campus is heavily treed and really beautiful. My younger daughter commented after our admissions talk that it felt like we were sitting and talking in someone’s living room (which for us is a plus). The young woman who gave our tour was obviously loving her time at Hendrix. Hendrix has a full ride scholarship competition that we expect D to be invited to compete in. Flights between Austin and Little Rock are not awesome and it’s about an 8 hour drive.
Centre - Moved off the list after visit. This was one of those schools that looked like a perfect fit on paper, but 1/2 way through the campus tour D whispered to me that she won’t even apply. That took care of that.
Baylor - Moved off the list after visit. It has religious requirements, which is a no go for D unless there are factors that greatly outweigh D’s distaste for religious requirements. Baylor didn’t have that.
D has applied to A&M (already got admit), Trinity, Southwestern, Hendrix, Rhodes, Rollins (we’ll visit in Nov) and Emory. Emory is a bit of a reach, both financially and admit wise. Probably won’t visit unless D is admitted with a doable financial package.
