My daughter loved the school when she visited and has since been accepted but never gets a positive response when telling anyone she is thinking of attending? She ALWAYS gets the line … " you know… everyone is wealthy And snobby and I don’t think you’ll like it". We live in SF Bay Area. We live in upper middle class neighborhood. I would describe our family as conservative but realize a “California Conservative” living 20 minutes outside of Berkeley is proabably considerably more liberal on many issues than those in Texas. I don’t know anyone who has attended the school. ( only 1 boy went from our school last year and " he wore preppy clothes" ) I would love honest opinions/ experiences from those with actual recent personal experience.
JB26, My daughter has committed to attend in the Fall. We live in the Dallas area. Like you, it is an upper middle class neighborhood. My wife and I have many friends that are SMU alums. Not one… Not a single one could be described as snobby. Not the volunteer coach of my 12 year old’s soccer team. Not the neighbor who has helped us with our kids numerous times. I believe that all of them have fulfilling, professional jobs and have solid families of their own. I frankly don’t get the label. It is a medium sized private university with a stunningly beautiful campus. It has the most engaged faculty of any school we toured. It isn’t cheap. So, guess what? There will be a lot of students there from well-to-do families. My daughter has a few friends from CA, and I’m sure that she would enjoy making a new one from the Bay Area. Oh, and she would have voted for Hillary, which I assume makes us “Texas Liberals,” despite being registered as Republicans. I hope you and your daughter find the diverse experience that you are seeking.
@JB26 We are from the SF Bay Area too and our son was accepted to Cox. He is seriously considering SMU and we signed up for the two day accepted students program in April. We too have heard of that “spoiled” image but, like shutterbugger said, when we talk to people with kids there they all love it and the graduates end up with very good starting jobs. We are also politically conservative and I think we are are looking forward to spending more time in Texas
If it helps im a student at SMU in Cox. I would say there are those snobby kids that give the bad name, but I never interact with them. Im very involved in student activities. Im on the senate finance committee, im involved in christian life and greek life on campus. I have enjoyed all the friends I have made and had some crazy experiences I will never be able to have a gain. (met Colin Powell, got to go to the doak walker awards, etc.). I have loved every aspect of my experience. It is truly unfortunate that what i would call less than 10% of student have given SMU such a bad reputation. I think the reputation may also be from those that attended the university 20 years ago (based on what my professors have described to me). I would encourage you to come visit in the spring and truly experience what the campus and students are like. I was worried about the same thing as a senior in high school and luckily visiting made me realize how silly that was.
Hi, this is a good thread. I am an SMU alum from about 25 years ago (my first year was under the NCAA football death penalty). When I was there SMU definitely had the “snobby” reputation but nobody in my dorm or any of my friends that I made in my years there were extremely wealthy, or would be considered snobs. The Greek houses are gorgeous and the parking lots had a fair amount of really nice cars but, even then, to characterize the whole school like that was unfair.
Last fall I went back to visit SMU during Homecoming and for my daughter to tour (she has since been accepted and SMU has a spot in her final list of school). One of the things I noticed was that whatever amount I did sense of that when I was a student seemed much less now - and even seemed less snobby/preppy/whatever from the alumni that I saw at the tailgate party. I was pleasantly surprised.
I am an alumnus of SMU. I graduate in 1998. So, some of my information is, admittedly, a bit dated. I was part of the second Hunt Scholarship Class admitted to the school. It started in 1993, I was admitted in 1994. I rushed as a student, but did not pledge. Greek life was not for me. It was and is a big part of campus life. However, I had many friends outside of Greek life, mainly through the University Honors program. I lived on campus for three years. My junior year, I spent abroad at the University of St. Andrews as part of the SMU-in-Britain program. That experience opened that door that ultimately led me to earning a Fulbright Scholarship to the UK in 1998-1999. I earned a M.Litt. at St. Andrews before going to law school at Georgetown. I now own my own law firm in Memphis. As for SMU, it provided me the experiences and tools to be successful. I had to use them. At SMU there are certainly a fair number of rich people. Many of them were my friends. I still chuckle about my time tutoring some sorority girls about the legal effect of the Emancipation Proclamation. I studied Korean and Japanese Government with a Dallas Cowgirl…it was a surreal experience. My floormates (coed floor) in the honors dorm were my closest friends though. For a “Southern, conservative” university in the '90’s, my roommates were primarily gay. I’m not. It was a learning experience for all of us. In the end we became good friends, and we all learned more about ourselves and the acceptance of others. I had friends from other countries and other parts of the US. College, whether it is SMU or some other university, is what you make of it. Yes, there should be something of a fit, but there should also be a challenge. There are days I loved SMU. There are days I hated it. What I cannot deny is that SMU gave me a first rate education at a steal of a price (because of the scholarships). For that, I am eternally grateful.
I definitely agree with what the others mentioned. The vast majority of SMU students are not snobby. People tend to define a group of people by its extremes. In this case, SMU gets labeled by the extremely wealthy, snobby students.
Just take a look at the common data set and you’ll see quite a few SMU students receive aid.