How about a Fresh Thread about Trinity U?

<p>I hope that this news about EA decisions being announced 12/1 is correct. S just received an email from Trinity confirming that his application is complete. It says he’ll be notified by Feb. 1, but an earlier decision would be very nice.</p>

<p>We’ll see very soon. D1 applied EA last weekend but she realized that she’d never sent her test scores to Trinity. Did that last weekend also, but I doubt they got them by 11/1. That may kick her decision back to Feb.</p>

<p>So, we just received the email that our son’s EA application is complete. I hope that we will hear sooner than Feb 1, but I’m sure their top priority are the ED applications. Let’s try to keep this thread going so we know when people are starting to hear things…</p>

<p>I don’t know how things will be this year, but I just checked an old TU thread, and some students who applied for the incoming class of 2007 (graduating this coming May) got EA Acceptance as early as12/8/06. This was e-mail, and the official letter w/scholarship came about a week later. Other FA didn’t arrive until around 4/1.</p>

<p>I feel for all of you.</p>

<p>We received an e-mail that said if our app was completely in by 11/30 we could hear as early as 12/15. (EA)</p>

<p>Has anyone received an EA decision from Trinity University? A few posts back in October indicated they might start sending EA decisions as early as 12/1.</p>

<p>not yet… I got an email a while back saying “If we receive ALL of your documentation by NOVEMBER 30, we will mail you your decision letter by December 22”</p>

<p>luckily, I got a confirmation email saying that my application was complete on november 17th.</p>

<p>hopefully we’ll hear back sooner than that though… I can’t wait much longer!</p>

<p>We’re excited too!! Can’t wait!</p>

<p>We are so anxious too! Does anyone know if we hear by email or snail mail? At least it will be nice to hear soon, two of the schools our son applied to we will have to wait until April. YIKES!</p>

<p>Our S (EA app completed in October) has an interview scheduled for 12/11. He’ll ask when and how the early EA decisions will be released and I’ll post whatever he tells me.</p>

<p>received this message:
"I was re-reading your very thoughtful post and was wondering if you completed the ACS chemistry major at Trinity?</p>

<p>We are waiting to hear EA from them. S is applying as a chem major to only LAC and Trinity looks great (St Olaf also has a very good chem dept). How many chemistry majors were in your graduating class?</p>

<p>Do you need to have a big monthly entertainment budget to keep up with others by going out to town a lot?</p>

<p>I can full well understand your theme of you get what you put into it. In general, we are leery of fraternity-heavy colleges. Do these people get in the way in classes, or do they take only easy classes?</p>

<p>Any experience with the Affinity Housing program?</p>

<p>You could post your answers on the thread if you want, it is so helpful to others.</p>

<p>Thank you."</p>

<p>I did not complete the ACS chemistry major at Trinity. I almost did, but ended up majoring in Biochemistry because I wanted more time to take biology/biochem classes that I wouldn’t have had with the chem major.
There were only ~4-5 straight chemistry majors in my class (cannot remember exactly). However, there were many more biochemistry and BCMB majors. Biochemistry shares all but ~2 classes with the chemistry majors. So despite the small numbers, you won’t ever really feel “alone” if that is something you are concerned about.</p>

<p>San Antonio really is not that expensive of a place (especially compared to where I am now). Eating out at the popular Mexican places etc. will rarely run over $10/meal. The typical entertainment scene isn’t too expensive either. I don’t come from a very wealthy family, didn’t have a big budget to work with, and never really felt deprived. Financially irresponsible kids with more money than they know what to do with are definitely the exception and not the norm.</p>

<p>I’m not sure what you mean by “getting in the way” when referring to the greek crowd. They’re not really a detriment to classes although they may not do well in them. Most of them will tend to be in the easier majors in the school usually because they cannot cut it in the more difficult ones. The premed greeks will usually drop like flies out of the 2nd semester of organic chemistry. There are plenty of exceptions though- I know of several people in my class who were able to excel in class along with all of the greek activities- not too common though.<br>
An important note to keep in mind is that the frats at Trinity (with one exception) are LOCAL (as in, no one outside of Trinity has ever heard of them or remotely cares about them). Even after putting yourself through all of the work to be in one, you’re not going to get the “connections” you might had you been in a national fraternity.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I cannot comment on the Affinity Housing program as they did not have it when I entered. What they did do though was group me into a hall with a bunch of other premeds which I really appreciate in retrospect. It was nice to be around people who were (for the most part) working hard. Further, it’s nice to be around people who understand what you’re going through; Non-science majors will usually look at you weird when you tell them you’re starting to study for some exam a week in advance. </p>

<p>To others, if you have no interest in Chemistry or Biology, you can stop reading this now… </p>

<p>If your son is planning to be a chemistry major, I highly doubt you will find a better place than Trinity. I realize that it is really difficult to know what types of qualities you should be looking for in a program but keep these points about Trinity in mind when comparing other schools. Most of these points apply to both chemistry and biology departments:</p>

<ol>
<li>Research/Research Environment- We have no graduate students in the sciences. This is a HUGE deal that I really cannot stress enough. Other students leaving undergrad, especially at big name schools, will have “research experiences” that include exciting activities such as cleaning glassware and being a mindless monkey that follows graduate student and post-doctoral students’ orders. In contrast, I had my own independent projects, had plenty of 1 on 1 time with my professor (at larger schools you will be lucky if you see your professor twice a month), and ended up with a first-author publication in a top journal (at a larger institution the graduate student and/or post doc you work for will get that spot).</li>
<li>Student to Faculty ratio- it’s great. While the premed chem classes get as large as probably 60/class. Most of the other classes range from ~5-20 people. More importantly, you actually get to know the faculty as people and friends. When it comes time to get letters of recommendation for grad school, medical school, or whatever, this is a great perk of being at a small school. Further, the faculty are excellent. Many of them come from the nation’s top graduate programs/post-doc positions and they are all there because they have a great interest in training undergrads. If they wanted to teach graduate students and spend 100% of their time running a laboratory, they would be somewhere else. You likely do not realize it, but it is actually really rare to find quality faculty who actually want to teach undergrads. </li>
<li>Quality of publications- despite not having graduate students and the enormous amount of time that the faculty have to spend teaching, we still put out publications in the top journals.<br></li>
<li>Quality of the equipment and money available- me rattling the names of the equipment off will be meaningless to you, but this last year we got a new $500,000 NMR (it is as nice or better than what most graduate institutions have) and that is just one of many instruments you will probably not find at any other comparably-sized school. Other schools as small as Trinity will not have the great quantity of high quality instruments which it is pretty critical for running a successful research program. It is very difficult for places like Trinity to get such large amounts of funding for these instruments when they are competing with major research institutions, yet we still manage to obtain numerous large grants.</li>
<li>Graduate school placement- People are getting into the very top chem/biochem programs from Trinity. To name a few from my year: Caltech, Scripps, Berkely, UCSD, Wash U… I’m now in a program with a bunch of other people who were at the top of their class, often from bigger name schools and I can now confidently say that the education I received from Trinity’s Chem Dept is second to none. </li>
</ol>

<p>There are plenty of other reasons to choose Trinity but those are a few of the important points for the Chemistry Department. If anyone has other questions please just send me a message and I will reply as soon as possible. Again, I will not be regularly checking this board so private messages are the best way to contact me and I will reply here. Good luck with all of the applications.</p>

<p>Well…12/15 came and went and daughter didn’t get anything. I know her application was there in time, but maybe they didn’t have her ACT scores in time for an answer by 12/15.</p>

<p>S interviewed last weekend. His interviewer told him they were making decisions ON the 15th for those whose EA apps had been turned in early. Based on that, we were expecting a decision by mail the week of Dec 20th. Then Monday S received an acceptance binding ED at Carleton College, so he withdrew his Trinity app. </p>

<p>Good luck to all you awaiting decisions - Trinity is a great school.</p>

<p>My daughter just finished her first semester at Trinity. She has not regretted her decision one bit. She did the HUMA course and it was a lot of work, but worth the experience. Good luck to all waiting. This is a great university.</p>

<p>just got an email stating that I was admitted to Trinity! they said an official letter of acceptance would be sent soon. I assume I got this email earlier than february 1st because I submitted my early action application long before the december 1st deadline. Has anyone else heard back yet?</p>

<p>Mellifluent,</p>

<p>I was informed of my admittance as well (via email). I sent in my application around early November and did not expect to hear back so quickly! I’m pretty excited, but still refraining on making a deposit until I hear back from all the schools I applied to.</p>

<p>Son was ACCEPTED today. So excited because Trinity is at the top of his list. Can’t wait to meet some of you at the Trinity 360 weekend! What a great holiday present…</p>

<p>My daughter was another email acceptance today. Congrats to everyone!</p>

<p>Same here. Daughter received email of acceptance.</p>

<p>Anyone received their snail mail yet?</p>