So, my daughter is a junior at a decent public high-school at San Antonio, TX, HS ranking 30/700, first SAT score 1250 (no prep at all, so realistically around 1350 within next 6 months); weighted GPA >100; taking a lot pre-AP / AP courses.
Until very recently, she had no idea what she wanted to major in; after a lot of discussion it seems that she is leaning toward physical therapy (3 year DPT program after getting an undergraduate degree).
We are trying to decide among the 3 schools mentioned in the title.
What the above scores don’t show is that all this doesn’t come naturally - she puts a lot of work in it, and that includes spending many hours with me “studying togehter”. I don’t mind - that is one of the ways in which we connect, and I (coming from tough eastern European schools) couldn’t really settle for her not taking tough science courses in HS. With hindsight, I admit that I have been “academically helicoptering” a bit too much, and I wonder how she would do in highly competitive environment of UT on her own
I am a bit conflicted because I don’t want her next 4 years to be stressful for no reason (if she indeed goes for her DPT degree, I doubt anybody will ask about her undergraduate degree). I also have a soft spot for TSU, because I got my masters in CS there (and that was the first academic environment in which I actually understood what the professors talked about in the classroom, rather than having to decode their lectures afterwards).
On the other hand I am a bit worried if she changes her mind (about DPT) and gets ‘stuck’ with an undergraduate TSU degree.
Trinity (I think) falls somewhere in between the two in terms of difficulty (more rigorous than TSU, but also known for excellent teaching faculty - something I think my daughter would appreciate).
There is of course the overall cost consideration, but that is secondary.
Trinity is by no means “less rigorous” academically than UT. A larger school may be more cut throat, because it has to limit the number of students that aspire to a certain constrained careers (medicine, law, management consulting, for example), and those dynamics wield a tough cutoff system. At a smaller school like Trinity with smart students, the competition is still intense, the coursework demanding, and the teachers know you more intimately, so they know how to push you.
I went to a community college one summer to earn some (financially) cheap credits, and I did not have to open my books to pass the classes, because I knew the material from my previous schooling, while my community college peers didn’t. That never happened in my Trinity classes.
Our son, currently a first-year at Denison University in Ohio, is also interested in PT or a related field. From the PT perspective, I think UT would be a very good choice because of the undergraduate Exercise Science program - being able to take courses in that Program would give her the chance to test her level of interest in PT while also exploring other fields. I don’t think there is any similar program at Trinity or TSU. I have family in San Antonio and my son gave serious consideration to Trinity. We also looked at UT, but he decided early on that he didn’t want a big university. At Denison, he has been taking classes in the Health Exercise and Sports Science Program and is now leaning towards doing a double major including HESS. The HESS program wasn’t necessarily a big factor in his choice of school, but having the option of taking these classes at the undergraduate level has helped him define his interests.
There’s really no such thing as “pre physical therapy.” It’s just a graduate program. The only requirements are a bachelors degree with certain courses to match the prerequisites. This means she can choose any major she wants, and she can go to any school she wants. I would focus on affordability, like Texas State or UTSA for the undergraduate degree because these graduate programs can be very expensive.
Thank you very much for all the replies.
We are now leaning toward Tx State, psychology major /biology minor (2 other areas that are of interest to her). It is a backup if for any reason DPT becomes less interesting (with understanding that bachelor degree in either one of these is more or less useless and she would need to at least get a masters for a meaningful career. I think she wants to stay away from exercise (or similar) major as far as her undergraduate degree goes
Coolguy, good point about affordability, because we will be financing her all the way through.