<p>I'd love to hear more about this school besides what I've been able to read on their website. At first glance it seems like a great fit for my S. If there are any current students who could give their impressions of the academics, the social life, scholarships, etc, I'd appreciate it. Also, if anyone has visited and would like to post a report, that would be great!</p>
<p>Ya the college seems to be pretty good but I think there's more to it too.</p>
<p>I posted this on another forum back in March 2006:
Just spent a full day at this ~2500 student campus in north San Antonio. This is the first time in 3 kids searches we encountered a Visit Coordinator. Based on the student's interests, a schedule is created to include class attendance and department meetings, student escorts and lunch with a student, info session and tour. The info session and tour is at the end of your day when all visiting prospectives come together.</p>
<p>We arrived at the Admissions Office to start the day. While my student filled out the requisite card I looked around, noticed a locator map the wall. It looked like they might have identified where the admission reps hailed from, but I was surprised to see someone from our region posted. It was my child's name and home town. This was such a nice touch right off the bat. They change this map daily for their prospectives!</p>
<p>The admissions department is at lower campus and we were taken up the hill by a student escort in a golf cart. We had escorts to each stop in the day. The first stop was a class for my child; I explored the library and checked my e-mail. The class was a legal aspect of business course which my student found interesting and easy to follow. After class we were met by a student and taken to lunch. There are 2 places for students to eat at on campus. We went to the 'better one'; better choices, costs a bit more. There were 'stations' pasta, asian, wraps, grill etc. but not the national chains. We were told the meal plans were light, regular, and hearty but were debit accounts by dollar, not meal amounts.</p>
<p>After lunch, to music department choir rehearsal. This was the elite chamber choir at their first practice in their new recital hall. (It opened in the past week.) Mine was impressed with how the director ran the group, the interaction with the student questions and suggestions, and how they worked out the 'bugs' of the new practice space. The new space was 'sweet'! with state of the art practice rooms. We had a nice meeting with the choir director who discussed admissions and opportunities for participation for majors and non-majors. He even had my child warm up and sing for him.</p>
<p>The last stop was back to admissions for the 'counselor session' and tour. There were 7 prospectives/families meeting after their individual schedules. The counselor was a student who hit the main topics and fielded questions. We also had a couple of chances to see the ad rep for our region whom we had met a couple of times before in our area. Then the tour, led by another student, hit the main areas of the building. This was the one place we felt Trinity could have done better. The student did not know the # of enrolled students, mentioned many things available but could not elaborate because he had no first hand experience with clubs or outings. After a day of fine attention to detail, this was disappointing.</p>
<p>I'm heading off there on Thursday as a freshman!
A LOT of people are on scholarships--it's probably an incentive for students to choose TU over Texas, because it is expensive (about $20,000/yr tuition). I'm on a $10,000/yr scholarship, my roommate is on scholarship to play violin in the orchestra (in addition to another scholarship and work/study). </p>
<p>The average ACT score for my class was 28.5, I believe. The professors are amazing--we have one in Classics visiting from U Chicago (Dr. Robert Germany). If you flip through the faculty section, you'll find a lot of professors with degrees from UFlorida to UTexas to Yale and Harvard. The quality of the professors made me choose TU.</p>
<p>The social life is pretty strong for such a small school. There are only local Greeks (none are national organizations), so this sometimes dissuades people from joining a sorority or frat. Religious life is pretty diverse--there's a Jewish Student Association, Sikh Awareness Association, Orthodox Christian Fellowship, Intervarsity Christians, Hindu Student Group.</p>
<p>I'm really pleased with my classmates. Most of them are quirky, well-read intellectuals who are laid-back, too. I know I'm going to fit in perfectly.</p>
<p>EuropeGirl, I didn't quite catch on what you were saying about TU and UTexas tuition-wise. Utexas' tuition is around 7000, when TU's is 23000. Unless you are talking about out of state, but in that case UT's tuition is still 3000 cheaper than TU's.</p>
<p>What I'm saying is that Trinity has to sell itself, and scholarships are part of the deal. My roommate, for instance, a TX resident, would have to pay more to go UT because they don't care that she plays the violin. Almost everyone I've met is on scholarship(s), some better than mine--band scholarships, full scholarships, everything. </p>
<p>I'm here now, and a lot of people are very glad that they didn't have to go to a school like UT or A&M, because the attention is very personalized.</p>
<p>"Almost everyone I've met is on scholarship(s), some better than mine--band scholarships, full scholarships, everything. "</p>
<p>When we visited a month ago our tour guide said that the Trinity endowment had received more contributions in the last year than any other institution including the likes of Stanford. That seemed like an improbable fact but I don't know why she would have said it if there wasn't some basis in truth. In any case, their endowment could explain the liberal awarding of scholarships, grants, etc. The cost is already less than some other schools, even before the discounting.</p>
<p>BTW, we were impressed and my daughter really liked what she saw.</p>
<p>My D started her freshman year at Trinity a few weeks ago. We visited half a dozen small schools in her search, and this school impressed me (and obviously her) the most. The professors and administrators seemed caring and committed to seeing their students succeed. Most of their programs claim high rates of employment in the field after graduation. Class sizes are small. The tuition, while higher than public schools, is very reasonable for private. The financial aid is generous, and can be negotiated. Campus is pretty, the dorms are extremely nice, bright and roomy. They have special dorms, programs, and RAs just for freshman, to acclimate them to college life. The food is good- I've tried it several times. The students that I've met are intelligent, ambitious, service oriented, and talented. Granted, these are people that I've met at orientation weekends, and probably represent the best the school has to offer. But, I really didn't meet kids like this at other campuses either.
If I could start over, I'd want to go there for college. Ask me again in a few years, but right now, I think there's a good reason why Trinity is ranked #1 in Master's Universities in the West.</p>