<p>Does TWU have a better science department and pre med program than Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University, Austin College, and Baylor? Is it pretty easy to maintian a 3.8 gpa. I want to be a biology major.</p>
<p>I’d probably put my money on Baylor.</p>
<p>^^^ Why makes you say that? Baylor is in no way affiliated with Baylor Medical school. I think TCU, and SMU are better schools. I have never heard of TWU, but if its a four year school you should be fine.</p>
<p>Maintaining a certain gpa is dependent on natural abilities, choosing the right profs, work ethic, etc. It is hard to tell if you will do well in college, before you have even started college. Just work hard, and have fun, and you will be fine.</p>
<p>Austin College is a great little school and much more highly regarded than TWU. You’d be better off at UT-Dallas than at TWU and maybe even over SMU…UT Dallas has very strong science and engineering…lots of Texas Instruments money being funneled into that school and a LOT cheaper than SMU.</p>
<p>^^^ I agree, the costs at Baylor/SMU/TCU are ridiculous.</p>
<p>I’m aware of that, but BU is nonetheless an excellent uni.</p>
<p>^^ yes it is, but I don’t think its costs are justified by the quality of education. IMO UT, Texas A&M, UT-D offer a better education at half the cost of baylor.</p>
<p>Austin College has great pre-med acceptance rates (but be weary of these rates; you need to see the actual breakdown by mcat/gpa, for these rates to be of any use)</p>
<p>OP didn’t ask about cost, she asked about “better”. I know nothing of the prices but if I had to pick one of those and label it best science dept it would be Baylor.</p>
<p>I don’t know a single person who considered or went to Baylor simply because of their science departments. Many go for religious reasons…bastion of Southern Baptists…and some do end up in med school but other schools in Texas have far better science reputations than Baylor which as colleges has previously stated has no affiliation with BCM other than sharing the name Baylor.</p>
<p>
But , other than UT-D , I think I can make that statement about every school mentioned on this thread. ;)</p>
<p>
eadad, not entirely true (if IIRC). Baylor U still selects a percentage of Trustees at BCM and the BaylorU/BCM BS/MD program is still alive. It would be fair to say that the affiliation is limited.</p>
<p>Oh, and I meant mentioned by the OP. Top science-y kids in Texas are usually focused in-state on Rice, A&M, UT, or UT-D.</p>
<p>
curm, When you write down the order: Rice. A&M, UT. or UT-D, do you subcontiously think, at the UNDERGRADUATE level, Rice > A&M > UT-Austin > UT-D in terms of their quality of their science-y students? It appears many students would rather major in either Plan-II or Business Honor rather than natural sciences if they go to UT-Austin. But the aggies seem to have no problem in majoring in science. I also heard from many Texans that they think there are more emphasis on sciences at the undergraduate level at A&M, as compared to UT-Austin.</p>
<p>Alternatively, is it because the “more prestigious” programs like Plan-II and Business Honor overshadow all other undergraduate departments in natural science at UT-Austin? (An analogy is that Wharton tends to overshadow many departments at U{enn.) </p>
<p>DS once visisted his high school friends at UT-Austin (there are a lot there) and raised a question afterwards: “How come almost nobody wants to major in science there?” Many of these kids used to be quite good at science (at least at the high school level.)</p>
<p>To clarify, the science graduate programs at UT-austin are great, IMHO.</p>
<p>I thinks it’s department by department on who is the big dog in Texas science education, but my point was that SMU, TCU, Baylor, TWU, and Austin College ain’t in that hunt.</p>
<p>And as to sub-consciously ordering the schools that way, nah. It was conscious but purely personal. ;)</p>
<p>UT’s honor programs are considered a lot better than regular Texas A&M, but I think regular UT (without honors) and regular Texas A&M are on the same level.</p>
<p>TWU has an outstanding health sciences program----highly regarded Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Nursing, Kinesiology programs, among others. Can’t imagine their pre-med/biology students wouldn’t also do well!</p>