My son (currently a junior in high school) has these three on the top of his list. We have toured both SMU and TCU earlier this year and will be touring Baylor in the fall. He is looking at either music or journalism. He is involved in several organizations and will have outstanding recommendations. He has also accumulated a considerable number of volunteer hours. He attends a very large high school and ranks 625 out of 1638 (top 38%) and has taken PAP and dual credit courses. He has not yet taken SAT and/or ACT…so I know that will be a key component. However, what would his chances be with weighted GPA 3.73 with other resume points? He is also looking at Texas Tech and A& M which he may have a better shot. But any feedback on increasing chances of getting into any of these and which school tends to give more scholarship money?
According to PrepScholar, the average gpa at TCU is 3.65, so if that is correct your son should have a good shot there, assuming he does well on his act/sat. I also know that TCU looks at primarily unweighted gpa for scholarships, so that might be true of admission as well so keep that in mind. PrepScholar lists SMU and Baylor’s average gpa as 3.64 each, making them very comparable to TCU in that regard. It seems like your son is in many extra-curriculars, so that should help as well. To improve his chances he should try to get a leadership role in a few. As for test scores, shoot for around a 30 ACT (or a comparable SAT, I am just more familiar with ACT), as that would put him at the 75th percentile of admitted applicants for both TCU and Baylor, and right about the 50th percentile for SMU. The 30 ACT would also put him at the 75th percentile for A&M and above the 75th percentile for Texas Tech. I’m not as familiar with those schools, so I can’t speak about their selectivity much beyond what I find online. Best of luck to your son!
FWIW, Princeton Review just updated their school ranking lists, and TCU got top 10 or 20 ratings from a number of desirable metrics:
https://www.princetonreview.com/college/texas-christian-university-1023666
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