Hello,
I have pretty much narrowed my search down to SMU and TCU due to the money they both offered. I really like both schools and am wondering about the social scenes. Do students at SMU tend to go into dallas a lot? I know that fraternities can’t have events at their houses but I prefer more house parties over bars and I’ve heard that SMU social life tends to revolve around bars. So basically, what is the ratio of bar related events and house parties.
Just a TCU parent, so take this with appropriate skepticism… daughter and son (junior, graduate) attended and are/were in sor/fraternity. TCU doesn’t have off campus greek houses but they have lots of parties at other houses and they rent out venues (including bars) for larger parties. Since downtown FW and TCU are so close, students do spend a lot of time in bars and restaurants but they are very college focused and that area of FW is a “college town”. Can’t speak to SMU besides knowing they do more “clubbing” than at TCU.
SMU has a range of different events and going to bars - renting out clubs- or going to off campus houses owned by people are all possible just depends on what you like. I recently turned 21 and don’t like “going out” but enjoy having get togethers at my apartment (i’m a junior and live on a street next to campus). This is typical for many upperclassmen there is a large amount of us on apartments next to campus who walk. Will say Dallas is in general way better than my experience in ft.worth. Also, I have met students at both schools and SMU in my talks offers a much more rigorous curriculum and better connections.
We like to joke here that everyone at SMU got accepted to TCU, but the opposite is not true. Its a fun rivalry for sure
My take - for the majority of your college years, you are under 21 so both schools offer an equal amount of spots/opportunities for underage drinking. Fort Worth is a smaller town so by sheer numbers will have less number of bars and restaurants. I say go to TCU for undergrad when your bar-hopping years are at a minimum. Then, go to SMU for grad school when you are legally an “adult” if you still want to enjoy the bar scene.
I mean that is only the social side in regard to ftworthbound. If you want an education that is highly respected during your undergraduate time SMU is where its at. It has quickly risen as some of its strongest alumni have matured and hit the c-suite in all fields. (pharmaceutical, tech, banking, etc.). If you want an enriching professionally focused undergraduate experience it is not even a question.
We looked at both schools also, but found that SMU has a much higher student quality on average. Standardized tests are significantly higher at SMU, and all schools our D cared about were ranked higher. She also like the individual sorority houses (vs the smallish condo option), and the bigger city feel of Dallas. She is business focused so internships in Dallas are much more plentiful. Easy choice for us.