<p>I am considering SMU (Southern Methodist University) as one of my choices. I would like to know more about surroundings of the school. Is it look like a real suburbs or like Uptown in New Orleans (with streetcars, buses, pedestrians...)?</p>
<p>SMU is in the middle of a very wealthy section of Dallas (Highland Park/University Park) and has a crowded suburban feel. No streetcars. It is a pretty campus, but attracts a lot of wealthy, local students who graduate from the local affluent high school. It is about 5 miles from downtown Dallas and there is light rail access not far from campus to get in town. Dallas is an economically healthy city for the most part.</p>
<p>The area around SMU must be as non-NOLA as can be. Well, perhaps with the notable exception of also pretending that fried frozen sopapillas can be called … beignets!</p>
<p>To get a feel of the surroundings, you could use the google map feature and “walk” the streets. MOWC is correct about the surrounding wealth. University Park was created to offer residential possibilities to the faculty of SMU (in ancient times.) </p>
<p>Fwiw, the dangers of flood around SMU would be too many fancy cars flooding the parking lots. As far as a school, it has strong areas and some that are … a bit less prestigious. All in all, students seem to have a really good time, especially the ones that find Greek life interesting and valuable. </p>
<p>Despite its lack of natural beauty, Dallas is one of the great cities in the United States. It is all what a consumerist society can ask for. A shopping and restaurant mecca with really nice and pleasant people!</p>
<p>The campus is close to great shopping, restaurants and entertainment, but you really need a car to take advantage of them.</p>
<p>Many of the private institutions in Dallas, churches and the like, suffer from edifice complexes.</p>
<p>So, are the streets with no pedestrians, or many?</p>
<p>Texans drive; they don’t walk. I have the impression that a city block in TX is longer than a city block elsewhere. OK, I just made this up. Haha.</p>
<p>I see. I am planning if I should drive a car to Texas.
More suggestions would be appreciated.</p>
<p>You pretty much have to have a car in Dallas. Maybe not so much as a student at SMU, but I suspect most of them have cars.</p>
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<p>Actually, it is about a mile from down town Dallas and you can actually walk downtown in about a 1/2 hour (if you’re moseying along, as they say). SMU is packed with Northeastern preps from places like Deerfield, Hotchkiss, etc. Understand, as well, that Texas is literally its own country and fairly indifferent to what happens outside its borders, and home-grown degrees from places like SMU, Baylor, Texas and Texas A&M are on most business resumes (along with Oklahoma). The ex-Texas schools that people swoon over here on CC (the Ivies, UCs, LACs) are met with, at best, a raised eyebrow or a shrug. Hard to believe, but true. Of course, outside of Texas, the reverse is true, with only UT having much respect.</p>
<p>Placido- SMU is 5 miles from downtown Dallas. Check the SMU website- not to mention that I lived there for almost 30 years.</p>
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<p>Haha, Placido, I wish I could see you walking from SMU to downtown … in the summer. Regarding distances, from SMU bookstore (one of the most southern points) to the Federal Reserve Bank building that is just BEFORE downtown Dallas, your odometer would show … 4.5 miles. The McKinney Avenue is probably around 3 miles by itself.</p>
<p>Fwiw, MOWC’s son might have been to run from SMU to Downtown in about thirty minutes, but that would have required him to be in Olympic form. Jokes set aside, check google maps! </p>
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<p>Well, don’t we know that the relative prestige of schools and attraction is mostly local and regional? However, although the UT and Texas A$M degrees are appreciated, you might be surprised that by the number of families that know where Williams is located, that USC is not one of the UC schools, and that Barnard is not an Ivy school. </p>
<p>I think you might be surprised by the conversations that some Dallasites have when jockeying to get admitted in the right … kindergarten or first grade school as it is the supposed path to the Ivy League, Stanford, or the Duke/Rice/Vanderbilt of this world.</p>
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<p>Only if those Dallasites live in Highland Park.</p>
<p>Placido- You better stop now. You are digging yourself into the “Oops, I really don’t know anything about Dallas” hole.</p>
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<p>What MOWC said! However, if you want to know, inasmuch as many people who live in Highland Park (and UP) might also worry about the “right” pre-K, K, and elementary schools, they probably do it less than the families that are Dallas and suburbia residents. After all, one of the attractions of living in the Park Cities is to have access to a public system of education that, in the eyes of some, might rival the private schools in DFW.</p>
<p>Anyhow, I am not sure where you got your information about Dallas, but it seems rather approximate.</p>