<p>Someone on this board who actually attends TCU should suggest to Admissions that they hire a student moderator for this board. All of the elite private schools do it: Tulane, Vanderbilt, Clemson, U Miami. A moderator or two would help promote the school, fuel more posts and recruit students and applicants.</p>
<p>TCU called my son last night. If you had posted it sooner, he could have suggested it to them. It is definitely a good idea.</p>
<p>lol…Like tcu really needs a boost in applicants. Check out the number of applicants for 2011 compared to 2010. They’ve seen a huge increase. The popularity of their football team probably helped with this more than anything.</p>
<p>I’m thrilled they had an increase in applicants this year. That’s wonderful! But a commentator can be really helpful to potential students. Also, if TCU wants to continue to work toward being a prestigious, more selective academic institution, you have to look at what the competition is doing. For example, other Southern schools of similar size include:
Rice: has 43,395 posts and 3,962 topics
Tulane: has 19,613 posts and 1,707 topics
Vanderbilt: has 25,327 posts and 2,931 topics
Even SMU has 1,684 posts and 166 topics
TCU only has 548 posts and 84 topics
Using CC to help market a school has become a terrific tool. TCU launched an amazing ad campaign around the Rose Bowl which positioned the school as state of the art, very academic and filled with school spirit. That same campaign needs to be taken to Facebook and CC.</p>
<p>Loyola New Orleans has a moderator as well I noticed. He/she was quite helpful. </p>
<p>TCU got a full page ad in the LA Times which is great but they could put their time/ no money into keeping up this board. It would be more effective than the LA Times ad because CC reaches each colleges targeted demographics/ people actually interested. Plus, the web is where you go when you want to reach the students, not a newspaper. Most young people don’t look at newspapers. They must have been trying to reach parents. CC is free too! With the tuition hikes every year though, I’m sure they’re doing alright. They could buy CC with these 10% hikes every year haha…not funny.</p>
<p>I advocate a tuition cap/lock-in for colleges, TCU in particular. If I go there I don’t want to feel trapped (by increasing tuition rates). I should be able to pay the same rate that I do freshman year- every year til graduation. I (my parents) can barely afford tcu right now! Imagine in a couple years! Everyone tells me- “go to a college, but, if going into debt (any at all) is how your going to accomplish the first thing (going to a good college) I said- then go to a state college or somewhere else because it isn’t worth it. College loan debt in this country is bigger than credit card debt and you’ll mosst likely end up finally paying it off in your 40s.”
These tuition hikes at TCU are driving me away, and I like to think of myself as a smart chap. Now possibly a loss for TCU…Get it together over there! Tuition Caps!</p>
<p>You brought up an interesting point but I have to share some interesting facts that I’ve gathered these past six months. I will tell you the difference between a state school and a small school. </p>
<p>Public state schools -
Cost on average 30K a year (including all fees they charge you as you go. In other words, it should only cost 20K but with all the fess it ends up costing 30K. So don’t be mislead)</p>
<p>There are way too many students that go to public schools which causes stress on the teachers. The teachers don’t want to teach. Instead they’d rather have the TA’s teach and they won’t let you talk to them. So they give out bubble exams and few essays. The teachers are there for the research. So in turn the class sizes are huge - on average 500 per class and then they weed you out with a bell curve. It is highly competitive environment. I have a friend who went to Rutgers and graduated cum laude. He told me so many of his friends ended up flunking out because of the weed out process. They studied very hard and did not party. What happens is lets say there are 500 students in the class and the first exam is passed out and you got a B, however, the 50% of the class received an F. So the next day 250 students drop the class. So now the teacher does a bell curve on the remaining 250 students and you now have a D. The cycle keeps repeating itself so the graduating class gets smaller and smaller. They dont’ want that many students. So the parents end up paying 30K a year and their child ends up failing school. It is sad if you ask me.</p>
<p>Another example, is my husband went to UT at Austin and if he wanted to see the professor he had to go through a TA first and then had to stand in line and wait for hours to get only 5 minutes tops with the professor.</p>
<p>My sister in law’s husband also went to UT and he said every class he took was a weed out course and it was brutal. That is crazy!</p>
<p>You ought to read Loren Pope’s, who is a Harvard graduate who says it was a scam, book Colleges that Change Lives - 40 schools that he recommends. The book is dated but the point of the book is he explains the differences between a big institution vs a small school (5K and under).</p>
<p>Private (approx 5K)- </p>
<p>No weed out process.
The teachers are there to teach and love teaching.</p>
<p>Teachers are available. They even have lunch with you or study with you at night. They have long visiting hours.</p>
<p>The average class size is usually 20 or less.</p>
<p>The list goes on. </p>
<p>Basically, you get what you pay for just like everything else in life. Are you going to college to learn and apply what you’ve learned for the rest of your life or are you going to just memorize for the sake of the grade and try to survive the next wave of cuts?</p>
<p>I hope this helps.</p>
<p>Rice,</p>
<p>Maybe they have so few posts because TCU students get out more :)</p>
<p>Thanks for imparting your wisdom upon me about state v private schools. I wasnt aware of this weed out process of which you speak. I’m going to check out that 40 colleges that change lives book as well. Thank you sir/maam</p>