<p>Hi! Looking to get some advice on the above list for senior son who is interested in Stanford, Rice and UT for Comp Sc.</p>
<p>Rice seems ideal from the program/student body/location point of view but is a reach for him hence this thread.</p>
<p>Am requesting current parents or Texas residents to give me your impressions on the above list and throw in some more names if you like. He does want to be in a cold place.</p>
<p>US Citizen living abroad. Avg GPA not stellar like the other CC posters. Good SAT 1 & 2.</p>
<p>He is writing code for i-phone apps as of now and has done some decent work in the past 2-3 years on his own. All on his own accord. Thank you all.</p>
<p>i gotta say (as a junior) i really love what i see from the u of houston…</p>
<p>thats from an accounting/business career path</p>
<p>^^How is the culture and student body there? We looked at their website recently. They have the programs that he is interested in. Is it easy to change majors or perhaps do a double major?</p>
<p>Thank you for your help.</p>
<p>Many commuters?</p>
<p>i wouldn’t know about the ease to change majors (because i haven’t) </p>
<p>i read somewhere that 14% lives on-site
2 main residential halls are right next to the school and is no need of commuting
but i do see alot of commuters</p>
<p>hope this helps</p>
<p>Yes, its helpful thanks. Son is going back to the US after 14 years so it is going to be hard for him with majority of the student body commuting. Nevertheless, UH does look like a good place to be for the programs.</p>
<p>In your situation I would think carefully about a school with a high proportion of commuting students. Visit the campus during the evening and weekends. Are most of the freshmen on campus at least? Or do they all go home? It makes a huge difference in the quality of overall experience.</p>
<p>SMU, Trinity U, UTD, U of houston…</p>
<p>Texan weighing in. Boy, those schools couldn’t be more different.</p>
<p>Probably the school I’m most familiar with is SMU as my kids have done camps and competitions there. Private, expensive, big Greek scene. If you know you want to major in business and stay in Dallas, it would be a good choice. Beautiful campus. I know many grads of my age (mid-40s) who enjoyed their time there despite not being Greek. An SMU prof told me the student body isn’t particularly studious.</p>
<p>UofH is a huge commuter school. My BIL went there and is very successful. One big program is the hotel/restaurant mgmt school, affiliated with Hilton, I think. A poster on here has a brother who teaches at UH; maybe she’ll post.</p>
<p>We actually toured UT-Dallas this summer. No frills, not even an info session. LOTS of construction going on. Also largely a commuter school, though their on-site apartments were cool – four individual rooms with two bathrooms and a common living room and full kitchen. They are opening their first dorms this fall, I believe, wtih a first-ever meal plan. Seemed to be a lot of intl students, and they have a killer chess team. 
Not terribly traditional campus, though there are some sports and a small Greek life. Ds has a friend playing baseball there who really likes it. Architecture leaves a lot to be desired – about what you’d expect from IBM engineers. Looks like an office park. Legislature is giving school more money to increase status to a flagship campus, but it’s a ways away. I sense the academics in compsci and a few other areas are pretty strong, but this is not your “traditional” icy-covered campus. Campus opened as a grad program first, in the '70s I think, and then later expanded to undergrad. </p>
<p>Trinity is a well-regarded LAC. For some reason, it’s the one Texas LAC ds didn’t want to visit. Not sure why. This is going to sound horrible, but the people I know of my age who graduated from there are universally uptight, but I assume they’re not representative of the entire student body! Trinity (and SMU) have forums on here that you should check out.</p>
<p>+1 on UT-D. It gets a lot of attention from kids around here due to its boys soccer team. That wasn’t enough to convince my son to visit, but several friends are applying and trying out. I think it has the best reputation of the UT satellite schools.</p>
<p>I’m very anti-LAC, but I read up on Trinity for a friend and it looked excellent. Definitely worth a visit. The small size might be comforting for an international student. Not sure I’d recommend it for CompSci, but worth checking out just to see something ‘different’.</p>
<p>I think UofH is well respected for CompSci. Everyone I know has been a commuter tho, so you’d have to check on the residential experience. </p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>Just had an email from a mom who dropped her child off at Trinity this weekend. One suitemate is from Vietnam, one is from India and the other is a very conservative homeschooled child…so quite diverse! There are 7 international students on her floor.</p>
<p>I would look at Texas Tech Honors over SMU or UHouston. I am not a fan of SMU except for a very narrow profile of student, and UH is too much of a commuter school, as is UTD.</p>
<p>Not a fan of SMU either outside of location and lovliness but my bias comes from aa sample of 1 so by all means ignore it if you want.</p>
<p>HUGE fan of Trinity U. It was my D’s #2 choice, they gave her amazing money, VERY solicitous. Great academic rep, really committed to the under graduate experience. San Antonio offers a fun urban experience. </p>
<p>USNWR ranks it as the #1 masters U in the west, ahead of Cal Poly, Santa Clara and some other well known campuses</p>
<p>Their app is free if you do it online so you aren’t out anything but time for applying.</p>
<p>My Son has a friend in the Texas Tech honors program…it sounds really good, with great housing options. However, the friend has been a bit too honest about the weather (it gets HOT and COLD) so my own kids aren’t interested. (The friend is spending this year studying in Japan, which might be redundant for your own child.) Also, Tech has the second largest campus in the US (second only to the air force academy and they count the runways) so there’s a lot of walking or biking involved.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for all your responses! Son is really interested in Rice U - but unfortunately it seems like a far reach. He will apply there as a reach. He also loved Stanford, but again the same story! He has done 2 summer programs there.</p>
<p>So, here I am, trying to find a “fit”, I know him well, yes, but I do not know all the details, the vibes, the faculty, the student body of the colleges. Hence this post - I was confident that my fellow CC parents will come forward and offer some genuine help.</p>
<p>We live in Asia and have not been able to go back this year to visit any schools. Last year when we were in NY we visited a few around there but son wants to avoid the winters. In the past we have visited CA on various occasions to visit friends and it looks like thats where he will be able to feel comfortable. International travel will be easier to a major port like SF or LA.</p>
<p>We have been to Dallas and son feels that TX will be a good place for him too like CA. Good Tech related options, good food and good people! </p>
<p>Trinity U does seem interesting. They have double major and major-minor. They do not have CE but have general engineering so son can combine it with CS. Their rep is visiting our school here and we will have a chance to find out some more things then. Son thinks it is kind of small for him, but it is on his list.</p>
<p>We really liked Trinity U, and know several people who have graduated from there and really appreciated the education they received. It’s supportive - which is a good thing if parents are overseas, and most people stay on the beautiful campus! (DS ended up at Rice, his reach - we LOVE Rice U, and it is definitely worth an application…). We also, surprisingly, really liked Texas Tech - with its big, spread out, flat campus -but the town of Lubbock is very conservative and we did not like it. DS would probably have chosen UT-Austin over it, due to the dust-dry location of lubbock… U of H is in a not-very-safe neighborhood and is largely commuter. Not a good choice, IMHO, for a student with overseas parents.</p>
<p>Yes, thanks for reminding me, forget to mention UT Austin! It is definitely on his list. With the 10% Texas rule it seems like a 50-50 chance. </p>
<p>We would love for him to go to Rice! Maybe ED there? </p>
<p>Will look up Texas Tech Website now…</p>
<p>Will you continue to live overseas while your son is in college? There will be additional time/money/“pain-in-the-neck” expenses if he chooses a school that’s hard to get to. Lubbock is way the heck out there…
From the kids I know - SMU wouldn’t be the best match for someone who dreams of Rice and thinks it’s fun to write iPhone apps.
Would he consider Texas A&M?<br>
Moving outside the state (and not following my own “location” advice!) have you ever heard of New Mexico Tech? Someone who posts here has a son there who loves it for comp related major.</p>
<p>^^ I have a son 2 years younger who is a Sophomore right now and so would want to finish his HS here, but lets say older son get into a TX or a CA college, we may even think of moving there and let younger son attend a HS in the same region. Having lived in NY before we are not ready to go back to the same old winters again.</p>
<p>For a bit Texas A&M was on our list, but then had to trim down the number of colleges to 10 and hence had to give it up. Again the diversity and location became a bit of an issue. Plus met an Alumni here who did not have very exciting things to report.</p>
<p>Will check out Mexico Tech, DH will not want to hear about yet another addition to the list…but no harm in checking its website out! Thank you for suggesting.</p>
<p>I have to chime in as a former student at Texas A&M. I loved my experience there - even as a “liberal” psychology student attending a “conservative” school One of my brothers attended as well and also loved it. And he was the “conservative” political sci student. And once you are an Aggie, you’re always an Aggie. The network of former students is great and provide lots of networking/support once you hit the real world of work. College Station may not be the most exciting place in the world, but there are lots of things to do for students and you’re in easy driving distance of Houston and Austin. I hope you/your son will at least check out the website.</p>
<p>Re:A&M
I do have " a dog in this race" since I was born in Bryan (back in the 50’s there wasn’t a “people hospital” in College Station so human babies were all born in Bryan…) and have an Aggie son - but it looks on paper like something to look at again. No farther from major airports than Austin is. I thought my liberal geeky son wouldn’t like it, but he visited and never looked back. Big enough for everyone to find their tribe within the TRIBE. Slightly easier admit than UT. Not much, but easier.
Where is your son looking in CA?</p>
<p>Dragonmom - I was born in Bryan in 1960!! Graduated Bryan HS. Small world eh?</p>