<p>Hello parents!
My mother has stated that I must apply to at least one college in our home state before I have thoughts about running away to California or Oregon. I've checked for any TX LACs and found myself attracted to Southwestern University in Georgetown and Trinity University in San Antonio. I want to major in Mass Communications/Media Studies which Trinity seems to have but Southwestern lacks. However, Southwestern's American Studies program has caught my eye as well. So, basically I am at a loss of which college I would like to apply to in-state.
Is there any information anyone can add that might help me make my decision - especially towards the programs I mentioned? Diversity? Social environment? Scholarships?</p>
<p>Trinity is known for being VERY generous with merit $ and FA. Our D applied there (only in state school she applied to), and although she ultimately chose to go elsewhere, Trinity still made an impression. It’s the only school she applied to where the dean of admissions personally emailed her several times, set up meetings with Trinity students from our area who were also pre-med, had two science deans email her, etc. In short, the personal attention was unlike none other. At the DFW info session, I remember overhearing the admissions dean telling student panelists when they got back to SA he insisted on treating them to dinner at a restaurant of their choosing. The school just seemed like a big family to me. Academically, I feel Trinity is surpassed in the private sector by only one other in TX – Rice. I base this on avg GPAs and SAT scores. Although it was her safety, D believes it was a nurturing school with strong academics, and feels she could have been happy there. It’s in the heart of SA whereas Southwestern is a 40 minute drive into the heart of Austin. (With Austin traffic, realistically it’s often more like an hour.) I’d personally choose Trinity over Southwestern, but you really MUST visit both campuses and see which one might be right for you.</p>
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<p>Yes and no. We heard of some folks getting much larger merit offers from Trinity and also the opposite. I think I have figured out why. Trinity looks at unweighted GPA for merit offers. Southwestern looks at weighted. So if you have, say, a lot of 88s in AP classes - Trinity would see those as 88s and Southwestern would see those as 100s due to school weighting.</p>