<p>I loved the Rice campus when my son and I visited it in November. Very wide-open. DS mentioned all the trees overhanging the roads, too. It definitely exceeded my expectations by far (except that MomofWildChild had told me it was nice!).</p>
<p>dt123, I get that now. Wasn’t my intent though. Didn’t stop the overreaction however…</p>
<p>And I never asked for a comparison. The two schools aren’t comparable. Just looking for some information about TSU. I’m not interested in “status” or “reputation” or what my neighbors will think if my child “only” goes to TSU… That stuff makes me laugh. Rather, I was hoping to learn a little about the school so we could avoid any pitfalls (or take advantage of opportunities) if that’s where she ends up going.</p>
<p>From the responses I’ve received so far, my uninitiated impression is that CC is a place for many to come and fret about status. Whether real or perceived, I’m not interested in that. You can keep your status.</p>
<p>“Great for average students…Would be limiting for someon really smart and ambitious…”</p>
<p>While it may in fact be a great school for “average students,” I think her above-average aunt was able to prove that a BS from “Southwest Texas State” is anything but “limiting.” </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.the-aps.org/awards/society/sample/Gooch_Mandel07.pdf[/url]”>http://www.the-aps.org/awards/society/sample/Gooch_Mandel07.pdf</a></p>
<p>I expect that if my daughter attends there, she is quite capable of similar results once she gets her feet under her and finally decides what she wants.</p>
<p>Anyone actually have first hand experience with the school? Perceived status, where it ranks and “who’s who” discussions don’t interest me. </p>
<p>My thanks to those few who have posted helpful information.</p>
<p>John.</p>
<p>youdontsay-
Thanks for posting AGAIN the definition of inner city. Its been explained by at least 5 or 6 different posters, and I linked a definition back in post#30, but LW appears to be so busy foaming at the mouth and attacking everyone who doesn’t agree with his snide comments that he either isn’t reading the posts or can’t. Happy days for me if he is ignoring this. Maybe someone else can become the object of his affection.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s not the neighbors anyone should be concerned about - it’s the grad school admissions officers, people who hire interns, future employers.</p>
<p>Limbwalker, I can relate to your feelings. I am the product of public/state schools - I was very “anti” private schools. But for reasons I won’t go into here, I ended up at a private law school - SMU, no less. While I was making payments on my little Buick Opel, the rest of the kids were tooling around in the Beemers their parents bought them.</p>
<p>I did well in law school and had several great job offers. In the legal interviewing/recruiting/hiring world, this is what I encountered for the first time in my life: People would ask my undergrad, expecting to be impressed. They expected to hear Stanford, Duke, or yes, Rice. When I’d answer the question, I’d get an “oh.” I’m not saying my undergrad kept me back. I’m just saying that some people cared.</p>
<p>You say your D has great SATs and gets awesome grades with little effort. She may deserve a school with a great reputation, for the sake of her future.</p>
<p>Face it - if a future employer has four resumes in his hand - all 4.0 but from TSU, SFA, Duke and Rice - and he can only interview 2 - my guess is that he’d pick the Duke and Rice. He might not be right, but I bet that would be his choice.</p>
<p>Texas State uses an interesting method of SAT/ACT ranges related to class rank. The lower the class rank, the higher the test score must be for admission:</p>
<p>Automatic Admission Standards
Class Rank SAT I * or ACT
Top 10% Required but no minimum
First Quarter 920 or 20
Second Quarter 1010 or 22
Third Quarter 1180 or 26
Fourth Quarter 1270 or 29 </p>
<p>Has anyone noticed this with other schools? OP, I’m assuming your daughter’s rank was in the first quarter, because you said she is an “A” student. Were her test scores much higher? Is that why she was offered the scholarship?</p>
<p>Back when I went to no-name Texas state uni, the same system was employed. I remember not having to worry about my SAT score (and I didn’t, as it was homecoming weekend! 
)</p>
<p>MOWC, did your d attend Palmer? My d sang with their high school choir for awhile. They are VERY service oriented. After Katrina hit New Orleans, they started a school - spontaneously - for Katrina evacuees.</p>
<p>Wow - after reading this thread I can say I have a poor impression of Rice U (inner city or not). </p>
<p>OP - good luck finding out info on Texas State that you see. Alas, as I think you have found, some folks are only focused on status, others have their own pet schools and go to whatever length necessary to defend them, etc.</p>
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</p>
<p>I think all of the state schools (except probably UT and A&M) have such a chart. I don’t know if the numbers are the same for each school.</p>
<p>Son has a friend who had the misfortune of being in the bottom quarter of the class (due to horrible freshman year featuring both family and health issues.) He was admitted to a very selective auditioned program, but couldn’t get into the school due to his SAT score. I think he took the SAT four times, including on the morning of graduation. That SAT score still came up two points short. He appealed and was finally admitted. He’s a sophomore now and is doing fine.</p>
<p>Even A&M has an auto admit program that combines rank and SAT score: top quarter/1300 CR+M.</p>
<p>Texas A&M - is that for out of state students as well?</p>
<p>HighlandMom- Yes, Palmer. She was very involved in Canterbury there and did her discernment process for the Priesthood through Palmer/Diocese of Texas. </p>
<p>Berryberry- Welcome to the thread.</p>
<p>“My daughter the priest.” Did you ever think you’d be saying that?</p>
<p>^^ No, although there were hints starting in high school. She first had to abandon the plan of being an opera star (which is totally something to which I could not relate).</p>
<p>Missypie, I completely get that. I have been the selecting official for many jobs and have reviewed many applicants transcripts. Personally, I don’t put all that much weight on which college they attended. Certainly some programs are stronger than others, but it has little to do with the particular university’s rank on USNWR. It’s the program that I look at. And I look for other things that are typically more important in my field, like work ethic. BIG difference between being able to accomplish things academically and being able to make things happen on the ground. You need some “people skills” and you need to know how to put in a hard day’s work when it’s called for. I’ve seen my share of Summa Cum Laude’s that didn’t know how to do that…</p>
<p>But once again, we’re still talking about “status”. That seems to be the favorite topic here on CC. </p>
<p>I’m more interested in LEARNING ABOUT TSU itself. Not whether it will meet someone’s standard… I’d love to see the girl go to whichever college she feels most comfortable at. Maybe that will be UT. But financially that’s going to strain this family because we fall in the category of middle class that gets “no” consideration for assistance even though we live month to month, pay our bills on time, pay our taxes and raise good, respectful, intelligent kids… (don’t get me started…).</p>
<p>Olive, my daughter’s rank is in the top 3 at her school, and her SAT’s were 21xx ? Can’t remember the exact numbers right now. I think if she were the type who really applied herself and really cared about “which” college she went to, she could probably get into more highly considered universities. She’s applied to UT and TSU. That’s it. She was automatically accepted at both because of her class rank. For reasons that tend to frustrate her father on occasion, she’s not interested in applying anywhere else. I’ve encouraged her to apply to Rice, Trinity and Southwestern. We’ve toured all three campuses. I would be thrilled if she chose any of those schools, but I will be thrilled for her if she attends TSU, does well, and has a great undergrad. college experience. </p>
<p>She’s rather introverted, and as the oldest of three, she’s pretty concerned about leaving home. Frankly it scares her. So TSU looks pretty safe to her, esp. since it’s so close to home and it’s in a town that she feels she can find her way around in if she had to…</p>
<p>I was kinda hoping she would like Southwestern or Trinity. I think academically she would fit better at those schools. But as we all know, there is a LOT more to the college experience than academics. </p>
<p>So, we’ve looked at the honors program at TSU, and I am pretty confident that she will want to go on to graduate school - probably at UT in their Anthropology dept. - so I don’t worry too much about her opportunities after undergrad. </p>
<p>If her life’s ambition was to be a surgeon or attorney or nasa engineer, I’d probably sit down with her and have a serious talk about going to TSU. But as I posted above, her aunt is a VERY successful medical researcher and asst. prof at Emory U., and she started out with a BS in bio. from TSU… So while some may feel it’s “limiting,” I guess I don’t worry all that much about that… Neither does she. Maybe that’s seen as naieve by some, but then, we’re all different, now aren’t we ;)</p>
<p>My son has much greater ambitions, and even as a HS freshman he’s already worrying about which college he may be able to get into. I’m concerned that he’s already worried about that kind of stuff, but it’s never too soon I guess and it is HIS future and not mine after all. I’m quite certain that when he’s ready to apply, we will be MUCH deeper into all this than we are with the oldest daughter…</p>
<p>So, again, any more practical logistical or other information about TSU would be greatly appreciated… </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>John.</p>
<p>"Wow - after reading this thread I can say I have a poor impression of Rice U (inner city or not). </p>
<p>OP - good luck finding out info on Texas State that you see. Alas, as I think you have found, some folks are only focused on status, others have their own pet schools and go to whatever length necessary to defend them, etc…"</p>
<p>Berryberry, thanks.</p>
<p>And DUCK! ha, ha… ;)</p>
<p>John.</p>
<p>Hi Limwalker…so sorry you are having such a hard time getting an answer about Texas State! I attended there in the mid 80’s and absolutley loved the school. I was an education major (TSU is #1 in Texas and #3 in the nation for education) and felt that I was getting the absolute best education I could. I ended up transferring to another school to finish my degree but not because I didn’t love it there or felt that it wasn’t a great school. I recently toured TX State with my daughter and was blown away with the changes that have been done there since I attended…all i can say is WOW! The facilities are state of the art and the campus is beautiful! If they only had D1 football, I believe that TX State would be my daughter’s first choice and sheis also a very bright girl. I say if your daughter is comfortable there, then take the money and run! Unfortunatley the big school to the north (UT) is not known for giving out alot of merit money…let’s face it, they dont have to :)…Good luck!!</p>
<p>Limbwalker, I have lived in TX on and off for the past 18 years, but had never heard of Texas State. I looked at their website a bit, particularly at the Common Data Set. I’d encourage you to look at those pages if you haven’t done so. The 75% SAT is > 100 points below your d’s scores. 17% of students are 25 years or older. Not making a judgment call on these facts at all, just wondering what your daughter would find attractive there. Has she sat in on any classes? (sorry if this was discussed elsewhere)</p>
<p>Thanks SWTCAT for your kind reply.</p>
<p>So far, I’ve really only heard good things about the school from those who have first-hand knowlege. That’s refreshing…</p>
<p>I agree the facilities looked very good to me. I think, sadly enough, that the lack of a D-1 football program keeps the reputation down. How crazy is that? It seems, with the “general population” you have two options… Have a strong D-1 football program and be considered a “flagship” university, or have NO football program and be considered an “elite” school. Anything in-between seems to automatically fall through the cracks in people’s minds… I guess advertising works, and there is very little advertising more effective than that which goes on during Saturday afternoons…</p>
<p>John.</p>
<p>^^ That is ridiculous. There are plenty of excellent schools with football programs which are not “strong”, including Williams, Amherst, most of the Ivy schools, Duke…the list goes on and on. The reason Texas State doesn’t have a better reputation is because it is a lower tier state school with a few decent programs. I am not saying that one can not get a good education there, and we have heard from a student who is quite happy there. If you are waiting for someone to come on here and tell you that it is the equal of UT or A&M or any of the good LACs in Texas, I doubt that it is going to happen. I lived in Texas for 28 years, and this is just not a school that is on the radar of most strong students. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I can’t understand why your daughter would choose this school unless it was completely for financial reasons.<br>
Also, the market both for employment and grad/professional school admissions is a LOT more competitive than it was when her aunt attended.</p>