<p>Just returned from our visit up to Baylor, Southwestern in Georgetown, and UTAustin.</p>
<p>My d liked Baylor. But she's still undecided. We're waiting for her latest SAT scores before she makes a final decision as to where else to apply. She's already admitted to UTAustin. </p>
<p>Baylor's a beautiful campus in a not so distinctive town. It took us a little over 1 1/2 hours to get to Waco from Austin. And it's about halfway between Dallas and Austin.</p>
<p>It's very Christian. Freshman are required to attend chapel about 2 or 3 times a week. This was okay with my d. Two religion classes are required over the life of any degree. I talked to one student and they said religions other than Christianity were included in these classes and that one of her professors was actually Jewish.</p>
<p>We talked to some of the kids and they didn't seem to be too affected by the controversy at the administrative level.</p>
<p>The study abroad program is one of the most well-attended in the nation and offers a wide variety of countries to choose from. It seems to be very well organized.</p>
<p>The Gymnasium/student life center was beautiful. The biggest indoor rock climbing wall I have ever seen and an extremely nice and well equipped workout room. Their indoor pool looked like a great big water park.</p>
<p>They have a variety of advanced/honors programs available and have living/learning centers available for anyone involved in any of these programs. The professors actively pursue candidates that they think would benefit from their honors programs and they actually compete for the brightest kids. These kids are given first chance at all classes and first chance at the best dorms. This is directly related to the fact that Baylor has actively been striving to climb their way up the tier one ladder. They claim that there is a 100% acceptance rate to medical school for anyone involved in the University Scholars program which is a highly selective program within the University. </p>
<p>Baylor sounds nice and maybe later in the year we will visit. We've changed our plans and now son wants to visit Purdue and Notre Dame over Thanksgiving. We've waited a little late to start visiting colleges and now it's like a big roller coaster ride. We visited UT a couple of weeks ago and it was so big and busy it didn't seem like a college campus to us.</p>
<p>curmudgeon, I'll add to my Southwestern thread soon, since you're interested.</p>
<p>Tookie, it's worth a visit. It helps to get a perpective on just how religious Baylor is. Actually I was more comfortable with it after I visited. Although I would prefer that my daughter be exposed to a wider range of diversity than I think she will get in Waco, I did feel that the school may actually be a fairly comfortable fit for her. But then my daughter is fairly straight when compared to the population at large. I believe that she would be sheltered and intellectually nourished there, especially if she joins in on one of the honors programs. She immediately hit it off with one of the professors that she met at the honors banquet.</p>
<p>I also feel like we should have started looking at colleges earlier. I'll strive to do better with D2.</p>
<p>Maybe I'll enter some feelings about UT on the UT thread in case anyone is interested.</p>
<p>Glad your daughter enjoyed Baylor. I'm a freshman here and yea, it is a bit religious, especially if you aren't religious yourself, but the students here are very friendly. We all make fun of chapel, but after the first year, it's thankfully over. I'm also in the honors program and it's great picking classes before everyone else does.</p>
<p>Astro, thanks so much for posting. we're sort of agonizing over the decision of whether or not to choose Baylor. It would be great to have some inside knowledge. Especially about the honors program. And from someone who isn't too much of a religious fanatic.</p>
<p>Which honors program are you involved in? Are your fellow honors students enthusiastic about their classes? Any info is GREATLY appreciated.</p>
<p>I'm just in the Honors program, not BIC or University Scholars. As for if we're enthusiastic, I guess I could say we have to try harder than most since we have to keep a 3.5 gpa to stay in the honors program and plus, most of us here are pre-med lol.</p>
<p>My daughter would have to keep up a 3.5 gpa also for the National Merit Scholarship. Do you have advantages such as better housing, smaller classes and first pick at those classes at registration? This is what we were told by admissions when we went up for the Invitation to Excellence meeting a few weeks ago. Thanks again</p>
<p>Yea, the honors dorm are much nicer than the other dorms. On average they're a bit bigger and if you get a corner room, you're lucky. My room's very big :D . The honors kids also get to pick classes first by I think maybe 2 or 3 weeks. And being the nerds we are, we stayed up all night just to get dibs at 6am. Honors classes are smaller than most, but I don't know comparatively how small. My honors bio class is maybe 50 people and one of my seminars is 20 so it'll be in that range. And no problem, always glad to help.</p>
<p>That's great about the dorm rooms, I'll be passing that info on. She can always pray for one of the corner rooms. </p>
<p>Are you happy overall with your choice of Baylor for your education? Do you feel that the professors are interesting and involved? Was Baylor an easy choice for you, or did you have others that you almost chose? My daughter has UTAustin as a "backup" and for some reason won't even consider Texas A&M.</p>
<p>Do you ever regret choosing Waco as a home for four years as opposed to a larger city? I guess as pre-med you're okay with less distractions so that you'll get the studying done. Do many students head to Dallas or Austin for fun on the weekends or are there still lots of people around to hang out with?</p>
<p>Sorry, I'm really bombarding you with questions....</p>
<p>Oh, it's cool. Hm...I don't really regret choosing Baylor. I'm happy with it. I know some people who head over Dallas and Austin, but I don't. I came from Houston, so Waco was really different...much less choices to do for fun, so I just hang out with my friends whenever there's some free time. Sometimes I wish it was a bigger city, but I was willing to sacrifice a larger city for what I think is a great education. There's always trips back home and vacation breaks for that city feeling again once in a while.</p>
<p>Hey, Okay I gave you a couple of days off, but I'm back. :-)</p>
<p>I guess I worry that she'll get there and then regret her decision because I perceive that there's little going on in Waco. But then if she's busy trying to maintain a high gpa maybe she doesn't need a whole lot of stuff going on. Argh. Can't some all-knowing individual come down, look at her personality, interests, stats and our finances and just say OH! I know the perfect school for her! haha. </p>
<p>Anyway, back to the questions... Do you know anything about having a car on campus? Does it cost a lot and do people complain about finding a place to park? And are the cars fairly safe on campus or do they get broken into a lot?</p>
<p>Does the campus feel safe at night for walking around. For a female?</p>
<p>Baylor is "downtown" and in any city (no matter how small) downtown has it's share of places to avoid. The campus itself is well policed and my D thinks nothing of walking the campus in pairs of females, although not alone. BU has a wonderfully extravagant new parking garage and I would say all parking is average with car safety above average. As far as things to do on the weekend, the campus is full of activities , and if a students wants to participate having 15,000 kids around you can pretty much find anything you want.The SLC is large and very well attended.Sporting events do not attract THAT many students but those that come are rabid. Especially baseball, and Women's basketball.</p>
<p>The bar scene is there and there are traditional BU hangouts and drinking is fairly common at off campus gatherings. I know of some sororities and frat's that have had some problems, nothing major. Light drugs are around , nothing too hard. Again 15k kids you can probably find all sorts of devilment ,but probably less than some. I would say BU has more of a traditional dating scene rather than "hookups" as is the norm at other schools. Waco is not a reason to avoid baylor, and neither is the campus location. Anyplace in Baylor's neighborhood is safer than anyplace in UT's neighborhood. Now, College Station is safer than either.</p>
<p>Hey Curmudgon, good to hear from you again. I didn't realize that your daughter was at Baylor. Have you been witholding info from me?? jk. Good point about safety of Baylor vs. safety of UTAustin campus.</p>
<p>As for the safety of A&M as opposed to Baylor, d won't even consider applying to A&M even though they keep sending lots of info on scholarships for which she is eligible. UT Dallas and UHouston are still sending tons of scholarship mail also. She won't consider them either, which is fine by me.</p>
<p>I think she's sort of set her sights on Baylor and doesn't even care about any other colleges. This frustrates me but I can only manage her life to a reasonable extent. If Baylor is where she thinks she'll be happy, then Baylor it is. I just still like to get all the info I can on the place and make sure she goes there with "eyes wide open". The price is certainly right. So why am I so worried about her choice of Baylor? I can't seem to give a good answer to that.</p>
<p>D is not at Baylor, and is not considering it or likely any other Texas school-so far (she is a junior). She does however play basketball, swim, and rockclimb at the SLC , take basketball lessons at the "old gym", and has used other facilities at the campus as it is only 30 minutes from home. D knows the children of several staff members and professors and through them has somewhat unfettered access to the campus. She is also a giant "Lady Bears" fan. As I have expressed before, I'm torn when discussing BU as I have a long and fairly close relationship with her but have been deeply saddened by several recent developments. I do however try to paint for you and your D an accurate picture of the institution without my emotion distorting the picture. It is difficult to do.</p>