Out of the blue last week my son told us that he was accepted off the waitlist and that TCU was now his first choice. We are from the northeast and are not familiar with TCU. I’m hoping some of you who have researched or have experience with TCU can give us an idea about the school’s reputation. Is TCU a regional school or is it respected outside of Texas?
It’s a top 100 nationally ranked school (I believe around #80, see US News & World Report). I don’t know your sons intended major or what other schools he is considering but my daughter was accepted to University of Texas at Austin, UCLA, Baylor, SMU & TCU and she chose TCU.
It is a very good school! We have lots of friends that go there and love it!
Thank you for the responses so far. He is pursuing a pre-med track and his preferred major is neuroscience or biology depending on the school. He is also considering Syracuse, Northeastern, Fordham, and Virginia Tech.
My son was waitlisted into nursing program from tcu and we are still waiting to hear if he will get in. Does anyone know if we should just give up? This is his first choice and he is still hopeful
I would call admissions before giving up. I had a friend taken off the waitlist around may 8th or 9th last year. It’s worth a call.
@seawolf93 - I have a daughter who is pre med at Baylor. TCU & UT Austin were the runner ups. Med school is substantially cheaper in Texas. If you look at the research, it is very compelling. That said, the road to med school is a tough one.
@seawolf93 This is not surprising at all. Texas has some of the best private schools but they aren’t as well known as east coast schools as historically Texas was disregarded as backward and conservative. Today’s Texas has evolved thanks to a robust economy, great infrastructure, no state tax, affordable cost of living and increased diversity.
Texas schools are gaining recognition and attracting a higher percentage of OSS students. For pre- med students, Texas is the place to be with many affordable medical schools. Rice and Baylor have top ranked pre-Med tracks and both have highly regarded joint BS-MD programs with Baylor College of Medicine, which is one of the top few medical schools in the country. Both schools boast an exceptionally high medical school acceptance rate.TCU’s nursing program is a reputable program, you have nothing to worry about if your son decides to enroll.
TCU is definitely not seen as prestigious in TX if that’s what you’re trying to ask. The three things that come to mind for most Texans when they hear TCU are sports (mainly football & baseball), greek life, and affluent republicans. TCU is way more a socially competitive school than an academic competitive and intellectual one. And in all honestly it’s mostly a school for rich white republican kids to do rich white republican kids stuff … they don’t have to really work hard for anything due to inheritance and/or privilage … the typical TCU student isn’t motivated to change the world at all and actively fight against any progressive efforts
Rice University is really considered the only prestigious private university in Texas and draws a better quality of student. And it shouldn’t be a surprise Rice is a more liberal and progressive campus. @seawolf93
Appears that OP has left the building…
I don’t think TCU is the same school it was ten years ago and I would not base your opinion on hearsay. The school is becoming much more diverse (and I don’t mean just in race) and the students are not as homogenous as they once were. Yes, there are wealthy kids in the Greek system, but you can easily not be a part of that. There is also a diversity of progressive thought on campus: Beto supporters were very present, a drag queen show on campus, an appearance from the Queer Eye cast, and a performance of bare the pop rock musical, to name a few. The student activities fair also offered a variety of cultural and religious clubs and organizations. Our family is neither affluent or Republican, and my D felt very welcome there. The acceptance rate is at 40%, so it is an academically selective university. I am sure some exceptions are made for legacy students; however, my daughter was in the top of her class and feels challenged there. The school demographics are now half or more from out of state which I think is a much different makeup from days gone by, creating a very different environment.
My daughter does know several very wealthy students, but discovered it later, not by their behavior.
3 Likes
Here are some recent stats coming from the school:
-TCU consistently ranks among the Top 100 Colleges by U.S. News & World Report.
-88 countries represented
-#3 in the country for community engagement
-2x the national average acceptance rate into medical school
-92% freshman-to-sophomore retention rate
@loribelle One of the kids I mentor considered TCU and from our research we were very disappointed with how inclusive it is of minorities. TCU has been forced to attempt to be more inclusive of minorities but it’s not really effective … most minorities at TCU we talked to and researched still feel very unwelcomed.
Most of the out of state students are individuals with conservative values and don’t believe in gay marriage, affirmative action, being vocal against white supremacy, social welfare programs for the less fortunate, equality for women, separation of church and state, being kind to immigrants, etc.
TCU has been ranked one of the most conservative campuses in the nation. TCU has some outstanding and very progressive students but they don’t make up the majority at all and most of the ones we talked to there all said TCU was not their first choice and only went due to big scholarship dollars. TCU is STILL a very homogenous campus and behind the times in many ways and I’ll leave it at that. .
@NuScholar, I am an alum and the parent of a current student. While it is certainly true that TCU was very homogenous and conservative when I attended, it is very different today.
Your sweeping comments/stereotypes about the students and their families (just two examples: that they aren’t “vocal against while supremacy” and don’t believe in “equality for women”) are just outrageous and uninformed. I’d love to see any evidence for your assertion that “most of the out of state students” have those opinions. My daughter - a current student in the Honors College (who was a National Merit Scholar and chose TCU over several more “prestigious” schools) - would find your comments both offensive and also incredibly inaccurate.
Is TCU as prestigious as Rice? No. Few are. Is it a perfect school? No. But it might be the perfect fit for many students from different backgrounds, interests and beliefs. As with any college, prospective students need to do their own research, visit the campus, and make informed decisions about what is best fit for them.
6 Likes
@loribelle & @bookworm68: I totally agree with you and feel @NuScholar must have a hidden agenda. I also have a current student at TCU who was accepted into both UT Austin and UCLA. UT Austin would have been tons cheaper for us and I am an alum from UT Austin so I would have loved for her to pick UT. My daughter was also accepted into the Honors college at TCU and has been very intellectually challenged. She does not consider herself republican and would be totally offended by what @NuScholar posted. We too know several minorities at TCU that love the school and are very involved. My daughter fell in love with TCU from visiting the campus herself. I recommend anyone else to do the same.
4 Likes
“Most of the out of state students are individuals with conservative values and don’t believe in gay marriage, affirmative action, being vocal against white supremacy, social welfare programs for the less fortunate, equality for women, separation of church and state, being kind to immigrants, etc”
Close to 20% of the TOTAL TCU students come from California (greatest percentage of OOS students) so I have no idea where you would come up with these broad based assumptions. And, students with extremist views exist on all campuses…in state and OOS.
But, if my daughter met students with the above values, or snobby, privileged students, she just wouldn’t waste her time socializing with them— she would also likely feel “unwelcome” as you described.
There is no doubt to me there are a plethora of other types of TCU students that exist outside of this stereotype. My daughter has many peers from out of state and in state and none are like anything you describe: some are part of the Greek system and some are wealthy…some are neither.
My daughter chose TCU over 18 academic acceptances (her major requires a large number of applications). The kind and welcome feeling she found in her department and campus tour was one of the reasons she picked TCU. She did notice that most of the students have better manners and greater ambition — this is in comparison to her hometown.
Yes, there are privileged kids there driving fancy cars and carrying luxury handbags…yes, like most private schools, I wouldn’t consider TCU as diverse as a large public university; however, I don’t think you can paint such a broad brush about the student population…nobody is friends or interacts with all students, anyway.
Go Frogs! ?
2 Likes
The only agenda is speaking the truth so prospective students make well informed decisions. I’m being completely objective and fair … and never said every student at TCU is the same but I do feel most are and it’s not what my mentee wanted. Diversity (race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, political thought, etc) and inclusion was very important to both of us.
You want PUBLISHED references … here you go. I wish I recorded the conversations we had with enrolled students to upload.
https://addran.tcu.edu/news/we-need-this-new-tcu-major-forces-students-to-face-racial-tensions-head-on/ - Racial tension is so bad at TCU and leadership is very concerned
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article164667102.html - TCU named one of the most conservative campuses in the nation and we all know what conservative values are as I already mentioned
https://www.tcu360.com/2018/02/diversity-within-us-aims-to-spark-a-change-in-campus-inclusion-efforts/ - Minorities on campus fighting for inclusion and fair treatment on campus
https://www.tcu360.com/2017/12/letter-to-the-editor-tcus-diversity-problem/ - Black students complaining about inclusion and fair treatment on TCU
https://www.outsports.com/2016/1/12/10751996/gay-tcu-swimmer-cooper-robinson - Gay white student feared coming out on campus and attempted suicide
https://www.tcu360.com/2018/02/boschini-addresses-racial-ignorance-at-tcu/ - TCU leadership addresses racial ignorance on campus
https://www.tcu360.com/2017/01/lets-be-real-tcu-talks-diversity/ - Another panel discussion where minorities talk about how uncomfortable they are on campus
https://www.tcu360.com/2016/11/opinion-tcu-professors-response-to-ben-shapiro/ - Controversial
conservative figure beloved by white supremacist and homophobics speaks on campus
https://www.tcu360.com/story/15283universitys-lgbtq-community-describes-its-fight-inclusion/ - The only gay organization on campus fight for support from the university and student body
https://www.tcu360.com/story/study-campus-lacks-support-for-lgbt-community-12286472/ - Another story how gay students feel ostracized by the university
I can go all day with this … but I’ll stop here. If the truth makes you uncomfortable, that’s not my problem. The pervasiveness of close-mindedness, groupthink and ignorance I’ve noticed at TCU were the worst of all the colleges on her list which included Rice, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Texas at Austin, Emory, and Georgetown University.
@NuScholar - I don’t think anyone on this thread is uncomfortable with the truth. What we are uncomfortable with are your sweeping generalizations that speak much more to your own personal bias than to the current reality of student life at TCU.
This statement from your first post is a great example:
“And in all honestly it’s mostly a school for rich white republican kids to do rich white republican kids stuff … they don’t have to really work hard for anything due to inheritance and/or privilage … the typical TCU student isn’t motivated to change the world at all and actively fight against any progressive efforts”
This may be your opinion, but it is not based on fact and it certainly is not the “truth.” (Do tell: what exactly is “rich white Republican kids stuff?”) You are doing a disservice to prospective students by asserting that “most” TCU students fit your description.
Your characterization of the articles you listed is hardly “objective and fair.” As just one example, in one of the articles, which you describe as “gay white student feared coming out on campus and attempted suicide” - the secondary headline of the article is that “when he came out to his coaches and teammates, TCU swimmer Cooper Robinson finally found the love and support he needed.” Other articles you listed, including those highlighting TCU’s ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion, were similarly misrepresented.
TCU is not Berkeley. It’s not Rice, or UT Austin. No one is arguing that it is. It is more conservative than some campuses, and less diverse than some, but it is not what you describe. As those of us with current students have stressed: prospective students need to visit campus, do their own research, and find their best fit.
3 Likes
The most important fact for OP may be that TCU is opening a med school and giving preferential admissions to TCU students. For a pre-med, that is a factor.
@bookworm68 sorry but not interested in debate. And in regards to the TCU swimmer, his supportive teammates and coach are a small handful of people of a campus of 10K+ … that doesn’t mean TCU is overall inclusive and supportive of LGBTQ students by a stretch and I provided other articles proving that which it seems you totally ignored. My mentee is a young straight white woman who is a proud Democrat and is very vocal about equality especially considering her family members and several of her dear friends are minorities (LGBTQ, Latino, Black, Asian, Mixed race) so hostility towards sexual and racial minorities makes her extremely uncomfortable which will impact her studies and her ability to connect with the university.
I’m happy you and your child absolutely loves TCU but there are other perspectives about TCU (based in facts) out there you may not like and that’s that.