<p>Yeah, well said.</p>
<p>Cost…SCU is expensive. If you love snow…well…you won’t get it at SCU. Occasionally there is a little ice (a LITTLE) but no snow. My DD says it’s weird at Christmas time to hear the carols, see a tree and have no snow. Some students want a larger school…at SCU it is likely that you will know a lot of students; it’s not that easy to get lost in the crowd. If you don’t want any religious presence, SCU is NOT the school for you. There are Jesuits living in most, if not all, of the dorms. There is a large mission church in the middle of the campus. </p>
<p>You know…my other kid went to college in Boston where you certainly could easily walk to or take public transport to most anything. The kid at SCU is as happy as her sib. </p>
<p>Their applications go up every year. When DD applied, they had a EA and then sort of a rolling admissions for the rest of the applications. My understanding is that now they have EA and are a deadline school for RD (meaning notification is mailed around April 1). The school was OVER enrolled when my DD was a freshman and there were a LOT of forced triples (like 100 or so). I would imagine (although I don’t know this for sure) that they are being more careful about offers of enrollment since that time. </p>
<p>EVERY school has its negatives.</p>
<p>Well, I guess it’s time for post 100 (in places that count). About 60% of the kids at TU have a TX address when they apply, but many of those have had a lot of experience living in other parts of the US and other countries. Texas is about the size of France.</p>
<p>This is anecdotal, of course, but there are more examples I could use. Just in my D’s 4 person suite, 3 had TX addresses, but only one was a native Texan. Of the 3 who were not native to TX, there is one who was born in Cape Town of British parents, has lived in a number of countries, but only in TX for three years. Another who is a child of military parents, who has lived all over, but parents only in TX a few years. The third is my D, OOS, from the Midwest, lots of international experience, URM.</p>
<p>SCU was one of five colleges we visited on our California tour. After each school we wrote our pros and cons in a notebook. My pros for SCU included “safe” and “wholesome”. My daughter’s cons included “too safe” “too wholesome”! SCU did have a Disney World perfect kind of look to it - everything very orderly with meticulously manicured landscape. In contrast, we visited UC Santa Cruz later that day which was quite the other extreme - it was more like a summer camp out in the woods.</p>
<p>My only con re SCU is that they are the arch rivals of my DD’s school, Saint Mary’s College ;). I am also not crazy about the older frosh dorms and there isn’t a ton to do right around campus. But the same can be said about Trinity’s immediate vicinity too. I will say that San Antonio > Santa Clara in terms of dorms options and somewhat but not hugely so for off campus action BUT Santa Clara’s transit system is way>than San Antonio’s.</p>
<p>We were really dissappointed when my D turned down SCU, which offered her the most merit aid by far. We really liked the Jesuit Philosophy, and frankly, the money was enough to make us parents overlook the small number of African Americans there ( in retrospect, I guess that was the point). I don’t think D worried about diversity, but she WAS put off by her “diversity” overnight experience, where she seemed to feel students went out of their way to emphasize a drinking, partying culture. Of course, this was her fourth or fifth “diversity” overnight, and the other schools seemed to nail it. She was also invited to an" honors" overnight, and I wonder if she’d attended that overlord her impression have been different.One of “besties” went though ( as did"besties" brother), and while for awhile, they both pledged to “hate” it, the friend seems happy there.They both went to a tiny Christian school about two hours (80 miles…yeah…traffic is crazy) away.</p>
<p>^^^ Yeah, that would be my concern that both SCU and TU are disney like!</p>
<p>But I am thinking from my son’s perspective - if he does not want to be a number in a big college then this works, right? He would still get a college experience, a nice campus, good education, good weather…</p>
<p>U.S news rankings have these two listed as top 2 Masters Universities, whatever that means.</p>
<p>Thumper-- Thanks for the info!
I hadn’t heard about the over enrollment (or maybe, I conveniently forgot it.)</p>
<p>That kind of info is just as helpful (maybe more-so) than the positives.</p>
<p>How is San Antonio as a college town? Kids can walk to the riverwalk?</p>
<p>^^^ I wouldn’t go that route, but they sure can walk around and have a lot of fun once there.</p>
<p>pixel, having been expats twice I can begin to understand your challenges in the college search. Do you plan to have your s visit before matriculating?</p>
<p>As for SA remember it’s the 7th largest city in the US, hardly qualifying as a “college town” but it does have lots of arts and sports.</p>
<p>There is certainly a lot for a kid to do in San Antonio. I lived in SA for 4 years and my med school had our graduation on the Trinity campus. Beautiful. Trinity is about 5 or 6 miles north of the Downtown/Riverwalk area (San Antonio has a population of about 1.3 million, with over 2 million in the metro area). Each year, at least one student from my D’s school, out of a class of 25-30, enrolls in Trinity. My D is only applying to 4 schools this year and Trinity is on her list. I think the school has a good track record for percent of graduates going on to professional schools and good graduate programs. Depending on the applicant, it may make a good “safety” - I think the entering classes typically have an SAT range in the state second only to Rice and slightly above Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX. Good luck in your search.</p>
<p>I think we will visit when the acceptances come in. So March/Apr.</p>
<p>Here is what my sophomore, out-of-state D does not like about Trinity:</p>
<ol>
<li>Campus is a “bubble”–there is no adjacent campustown area to go to</li>
<li>The River Walk is a one time deal–very touristy, very expensive, not in a college kid’s budget.</li>
<li>The only things her friends do for “fun” are go to off-campus frat parties–which my D doesn’t think are fun–I think she needs new friends</li>
<li>The dorms are not “palaces”–her room last year was what I would call a “dump”–There are feral cats on campus that the students have “adopted” and the carpeted rooms reek of their smell. I don’t know where the dorms are that Trinity raves about and shows pictures of on-line, but my D has never seen one as nice as they advertise.</li>
<li>She hates the food</li>
<li>Students are required to live on campus for 3 years–so the dorm and food issues are real negatives</li>
</ol>
<p>So, you can see she really isn’t in love with the place. Several of her friends are transferring out and she’s contemplating the same. Of course, this doesn’t mean that lots of kids aren’t happy there–my D is actually home this weekend so we can try to figure out what the real cause of her unhappiness is–Trinity itself or something else.</p>
<p>I’d like to add that although most kids are from Texas, my D knows lots of students from all over the US and the world.</p>
<p>It’s really hard to figure out ahead of time where one might be happy–Good Luck!</p>
<p>Having grown up near SCU, I have a lot of respect for it and consider it highly-rated within California and somewhat unknown outside CA. </p>
<p>To echo others, a negative would be that it is in a suburban area without the benefits of an urban environment many wish to have. Santa Clara the city does not have a central area and neighboring San Jose has struggled to make its downtown lively over the last generation. Both cities are better known as tech company headquarters with endless office parks than anything attractive to tourists. The SCU area is one of the older neighborhoods of California with many houses about 100 years old. </p>
<p>It’s mainstream suburban living with highlights topping out at lively drags of more upscale nearby cities Palo Alto and Los Gatos.</p>
<p>^^ thank you both for your honest responses. It just confirms the negatives about both colleges that I have heard and felt from various sources. The problem is that without visiting its like selecting something blind-folded!</p>
<p>Another issue - these 2 are son’s safety/matches. And he might end up going to one of these!! I think SCU is still a safer bet as it is near SF and thats where he wants to be eventually.</p>
<p>I have heard about the food at TU - that it is really bad and about the dorms too. I doubt that education alone without the basics can make a kid 10,000 miles away from home happy.</p>
<p>Really stuck now!</p>
<p>We ate the food at Trinity and thought it was very good; it’s Aramak as the vendor. You pay more if you eat more, since it’s a la carte. (or at least the stuff we ate was) We also saw several dorms; not dumps - very nice. Facilities there were good, except for the engineering building (but they were talking about building a new one - this was several years ago, so I don’t know what the update on that is.) San Antonio has lots of cheap and fun stuff to do, even in the tourist district… but no little shops etc. right by campus. still, it’s a lovely place, and we saw some great theater there from the theater department.</p>
<p>^ Kids who have to eat that food day in and day out might get bored pretty quickly. Plus no restaurants within walking distance I believe.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how I missed this thread - sorry for jumping in late…</p>
<p>I got my masters at Santa Clara - hence the screen name - and have been back on visits with both of my kids. I also visited Trinity with my DS about 2 years ago.</p>
<p>Both schools are strong academically - although choice of major would play a role in deciding which is stronger. I think that SCU is stronger when it comes to engineering - particularly if your son wants to end up in computers in some form. Santa Clara is a Jesuit university - something which I very much valued as a graduate student as the ethics classes were very strong and stick with me to this day. Other may see this as a drawback but the sense that I get is that the Jesuit presence is there but not overpowering. </p>
<p>Both schools are what I consider regional in reputation - well known in their areas and well respected - but not nationally known at the undergraduate level. Santa Clara’s business and law schools are nationally respected - especially in high tech. </p>
<p>From a dorm perspective, from the samples I saw, Santa Claras are nicer. Food was clearly Santa Clara - the lunch and dinner I had at Trinity was nearly inedible - and my son also complained about breakfast, eating at the airport prior to our flight home. Santa Clara was decent with more options.</p>
<p>From a things to do, I think both are fine when you get away from campus. San Francisco and San Antonio are both large cities with lots of options. Santa Clara does have the train which makes that really easy - but the sense that I got was that most Trinity students had cars or knew someone who had one and could get rides. </p>
<p>I would give the clear edge to Santa Clara on the things to do around campus. Restaurants - both fast food and somewhat nicer are within walking distance - and there are lots of ethnic choices a couple of miles away on El Camino. </p>
<p>I’d also give the edge to Santa Clara on sports on campus. They are a D1 school - no football but great soccer, basketball and baseball. Lots to go to and watch.</p>
<p>Lastly and this is very personal, Santa Clara was a more attractive campus to me year around. Trinity just didn’t look that attractive to either my son or myself. Grass was dead in lots of areas, not very many flowers etc. Santa Clara is a very attractive campus with roses 8-9 months out of the year, old hanging lilacs, huge trees and large expanses of lawn.</p>
<p>Scalum, thanks so much! You made my day!! :)</p>
<p>As a parent with a son who is pretty much “I will figure it out - when I get there” mantra, and who has not visited, I truly value all opinions. As a mother, I am keen on finding out about things now that can become a huge deal later on.</p>
<p>One parent on these boards has been very helpful with SCU questions but its nice to hear your feedback too.</p>