Why Trinity?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Trinity University (Texas)
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<p>In Texas, the top 10% of the class is an auto admit to any public university, which means schools like UT and A&M fill up the majority of their entering classes with those kids.</p>

<p>Of course, there's a big difference between school districts. In a suburban school, for example, if you took all on-level courses and had a straight A average, you wouldn't be anywhere near the top 10 percent. An inner city school probably has a much different profile, so the top 10 thing definitely isn't equitable. But it undoubtedly increases diversity.</p>

<p>For the GPA, honors level and AP courses have an extra point, i.e. a B is equivalent in GPA points to an A. Despite what private schools say about looking beyond the transcript, and that they account for the difficulty difference, the realilty is that they like to see As, in honors courses or otherwise, so I can see how a student who got "Bs" in honors courses would get screwed for merit scholarships.</p>

<p>By the way, Trinity isn't sterotypically "Texas" at all even if more than half the students call it home. Of the four kids from our school that I know have been accepted there, none are from Texas originally. We live in Houston, and I know very few people who even have a Texas accent. Like most LACs, Trinity just draws the majority of their students from the surrounding geographical area. And one thing about Texas -- it's BIG!</p>

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<p>Can anyone enlighten me on the frat/sorority social dominance (or not) at Trinity U? So much about it sounds really great, but my daughter isn't into the frat scene so I'd like to know how it REALLY is. Thanks!!</p>

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<p>Their website says only 30% of men and 30% of women are in frat/sorority and they are all local (non-national) so I don't think it is really huge like in some of the other southern schools.........</p>

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<p>Thanks froshtobe. Hopefully you'll hear the positive news soon! Please post your observations if you decide to go (as if you won't have lots of other stuff to do) but I'm convinced that the students' opinions are the most valid ones. Uh, obviously. So if there are any other Trinity ______ (what's their team name?) out there, please pipe up about the social scene. I'm actually a sorority sister from way back (Syracuse U.)and on balance wouldn't recommend it for my D -- if she would have asked me. So I'd really like to know the character of the social scene.</p>

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<p>My daughter got both her bachelors (2004) and masters (2005) from Trinity. It was a perfect fit for her! Her undergrad was in Math & the Masters is in Teaching. She did their 5 year program which prepared her very well for her current teaching job as an 8th grade math teacher.
As for the sorority/fraternity social scene. As someone else said, Trinity's greek system is local & not national which I liked a lot! Rush happens in the spring semester which gives the students ample opportunity to check out each sorority/frat and determine the fit. My daughter actually changed her mind about which group she preferred from the fall to the spring semester when she actually went through rush. She did pledge and it was a really great experience for her and quite different from the experience of some of her friends who joined National sororities at other universities. I was not and am not, in general a fan of the greek thing, but, in this case, it worked out very well. My daughter socialized with many different groups during her time at Trinity and never felt pigeon holed into just "one" group. As I said, Trintiy was a great fit for her. By the way, they are the Trinity Tigers!</p>

26

<p>I've been accepted to trinity and went to the "Science Day", spent hte night and went to "Trinity 360" the following day. Here's what i gathered:</p>

<p>First, i thought my 9500/yr scholarship was pretty big stuff, and i guess it is, but really, LOTS of people are awarded merit scholarships, I duno how they do it, but lots of people I talked to had been given them.
Academics... seems very hardcore... one thing that disapointed me that i'm definitely going to inquire more about is their biology major. The guy i stayed with overnight was initially a bio major and switched to chem just because apparently "the chemisty dept is much better equiped". I saw a lot of the equipment and its everything you'd excpect to see at a top institution. They have lots of money and aren't afraid to spend it.</p>

<p>Serrious research is available to undergrads if they have a drive/time to do it (you will NOT as a premed though). Undergrads from there are publishing in very well known scientific journals</p>

<p>This is a no bu!!***** school. From what I can tell no grades are "given" or influenced by a realtionship with a professor. You're going to have to work you ass off for your grades, and there are plenty of people there willing to do it.</p>

<p>for a liberal arts institution making you take some classes your not really interested in I assumed there would be a decent ammount of blow-off classes to help fill your requirements, but thats apparenlty not hte case, pretty much everything is going to required a lot of your time/effort</p>

<p>People- I really like the people... you have to of course visit to see what you think, but the majority of the students are the um intelligent, not too crazy, understated genuinely fun people to be arround. Atleast thats how I saw them. Theres a good diversity in outside activities. Plenty of people stay in to watch movies/do other stuff, while there is also a large ammount that love to party. Now i'll be superficial for a second... the girls.... i saw plenty... and all i have to say is eh.... i know college pr@wler gave them an A-, but i wouldn't really agree. The guy I was staying with seemed pretty intouch with the social scene and agreed with me, and "the ones that are hot are complete *******s." So if thats a concern for you, think about it.</p>

<p>Drugs: Alcohol wins by far. But don't get me wrong, there are a decent ammount of people there that are completley "straight edge." Outside of that.... if you want it... you can get it, but its not going to come to you and i get the feeling that more hard drugs(Excluding weed which will pop up here and there) are limited/create small groups of people that do them.</p>

<p>Dorms: Great.... very spacious, especially if you have a corner room. You leave the RA's alone and you can do whatever you want.</p>

<p>Class of '10- all seemed pretty much the same and like me(sorta funny actually). Most people are looking at vanderbilt, emory, wake, washington u etc. and this is the main backup school. I met a lot of really cool people.</p>

<p>Greek Scene- seems pretty worthless.. and just a means of getting drunk/partying and nothing else. They'll tell you otherwise, but keep one thign in mind, THEIR FRATS/SORRITIES ARE NOT NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED. Once you step off Trinity's campus, your membership means NOTHING. If I go there I will not be a part of it.</p>

<p>Overall- I know trinity will provide an education up there with pretty much any school i'm applying and the professors there are really there for you in and out of class, but you will not be getting any grades you don't earn.</p>

<p>There are other aspects of the school i haven't covered that i'm sure people are intersted in, so please feel free to ask me.</p>

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<p>Hey, this was great! So how about the area around the school like shops and restaurants etc. Good? Hard to get around if no car? What did you feel the merit aid was based on since there was lots of it. I mean, do you think it is grades, SAT stats or what? What are some of the groups or clubs that are good if frat/sorority stuff is lame? Did you get the feeling that kids are pretty accepting of all types like diversity and international etc? Glad you liked it and posted.....................</p>

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<p>Thanks flashback - excellent post and much appreciated that you shared.</p>

<p>I'd especially like to know more about the bio thing, if you follow up on why the guy thought the equipment/dept. was lame. Especially if the place has all of this money.</p>

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<p>I really can't comment a lot on the city as i really didn't go off the campus at all. San Antonio really doesn't offer much in terms of youth life i don't think, and from what i gathered pretty much everyone stays on the campus. My friend that goes to school with me that lived there for most her life commented to me that she though sanantonio was really "just a bunch of bitter white old people who didn't like mexicans"
The merit based awards... i really have no idea... i think the reasons ranged but sat/act scores were probably the most important.... for me it was either the sat/act or my school(i go to a very good private school), it definitely wasn't my gpa which is a whopping 3.2(but 4.2 this year)
my act was a 30
my sat was a 760 math 640 verbal 570writing(eek, but they weren't looking at the writing section)
maybe race? i'm half white/half indian(asia) so that might have been a possitive that i'll talk about in second
With the people there i really didn't get into discussing their standardized test scores as i know some people like to keep those private for w/e reason, so i can't really tell you why everyone else was given money.
As for diversity.... well... the school is very white, its one of their problems. The guy i was staying with told me the joke that i guess someone came up with that "san antonio is the 2nd alamo, some white people surrounded by a bunch of mexicans", which i guess is true to some extent
Me, being someone who maaay pass for white, but is darker than usual really didn't find my diversity to be an issue. Everyone i met seemed very accepting and very friendly. While the campus may not be diverse, the students that i met are very accepting.</p>

<p>as for clubs and whatnot... well first off i don't really know if its fair to say that the greek life is "lame," some people love it, but to me i just know that i'm not going to have time to be a part of it andi don't think it has any real long term benefits. I didn't actually hear too muchabout the clubs and all, but i did find out that there are plenty of community service opportunities which is something i'm interested in, sorry i don't have more info on them</p>

<p>and as for the biology thing i'll post up when i have more details.... but the conclusion i came to really is that its not necessarily that the biology department is bad... but more like the chemistry dept is just outstanding. Furthermore, Biology and chemistry majors(especially if you doing premed) really aren't that different, so again i don't see it as THAT much of an issue. The guy i was talking about who switched also mentioned to me that part of his reasoning is that if he doesn't get into med school he thinks a chem major has much better options other than biology, but ya i'll get more info on this.</p>

<p>and one thing i want to emphasize, don't necessarily take everything i said as fact. Remember , i was just arround a few groups of people for one night there, those are just the initial impressions I had from visiting. If your interested in the school you should definitely visit and spend the night there to see what you think.</p>

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<p>Thanks, I agree about looking but may have to do a rush see as the other answers come in. All and all you sound pretty positive, people pretty friendly, classes pretty good etc. etc. I have been in contact with another person I know who goes there and she says that outside the food is good generally. College food is essentially college food. She says that the stuff to do off campus is pretty decent when not hitting the books. Safety factor pretty good.</p>

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<p>You are right that a lot of students are offered financial aid, Flashback. Our son got a Murchison Scholarship of $12K per year and we didn't even apply for financial aid. This for a kid who was rejected outright by Haverford for ED! From the stats Trinity publishes, an amazing percentage of students receive significant awards. I think the average merit award is near $8K per year, if I remember what they said when we visited.</p>

<p>Our experience at Trinity was very different than yours. Our son was invited to an athlete's weekend in early February, so unlike the the kids you met at the 360 weekend, many hadn't been accepted yet. He was disappointed by the applicants he met- his comment was that they didn't seem as bright as the kids he had met during other college visits. I guess you could chalk it up to the 'jock' mentality of the kids that were visiting, but Trinity accepts two thirds of its applicants so most of these kids will get in. The team members he stayed with were really lame; the school had set up a party, arranged for attending a basketball game plus other events on Saturday night for the recruits, but his 'hosts' just wanted to hang out and watch TV. Compared with students we met on other campuses, the Trinity students seemed less confident and had less to say. It is a shame, but we came away not really having any insight into student life after spending the whole weekend there.</p>

<p>Our major impression of Trinity is that it has a really confused identity. It is a small LAC, but virtually all comparisons made by administration and faculty members during the program were to UT. No other LAC we've encountered has responded this way, because large research universities are clearly in a totally different category. I suspect that is why so much financial aid is offered: to make the costs comparable to the in-state tuition at UT. After visiting other LACs including Williams, Amherst, Haverford and Claremont McKenna, the facilities at Trinity are definitely not at the same level, especially for the sciences. Yet Trinity is only now starting a capital campaign, and its plan shows that a lot of the money is going to financial aid instead of facilities. You said that the many of the accepted students you met considered Trinity to be a backup; I think the high acceptance rate and low matriculation rate at Trinity indicate that this is a safety for a lot of applicants.</p>

<p>We still don't know where our son will go, and maybe he will end up at Trinity. It seems that this is a school for good students, mostly from Texas, who might have gone to UT but were intimidated by its size or who wanted a more intimate college experience. A good school, but not a great one.</p>

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<p>a lot of what you said sounds accurate and from my experience i can sorta see where your son is comming from
trinity's high acceptance rate ithink goes in the category of the high acceptance rate emory has... it has a self-selecting applicant pool. If your not intelligent and you visit(atleast in my experience) you would absolutely not want to go there... trinity is meant for people who want to work and i think that defines most of the applicant pool... people who don't want to work will choose other places(mainly UT austin) as it is a much better fit because trinity doesn't offer the blow off classes and perpetual partying that other schools will</p>

<p>as for your student hosts i can definitely understand his situation, as i tried to sorta say in my first post... there are definitely many hardcore people there that won't go out...</p>

<p>I was in a "science day" group of about 20 people(different from the usual HUGE 360 group which showed up the next day), so afterward we sorta talked about what we had done.... i'd say atleast HALF the people got pretty boring hosts that wanted to stay in/do something boring..... the point is, if staying in and doing nothing is your thing, youll have good company, but i really think if going arround being social is your thing then you'll have people that do that too</p>

<p>as for the common student... i can understand how the people your son encountered might be different.... the 'jock' crowd anywhere will have a reptuation(and its almost always right, except maybe at hte ivys) of not being as bright as the other students... but one thing i found weird there is probably 80% of hte people i asked about other colleges all said "vanderbilt, emory, washinton u, wakeforest" from my exerperience, the people who have been accepted are nothing to turn your nose at and i know that if i go there i will be competing with mostly people right on my level... there really weren't many extremes(stat wise) from what I saw</p>

<p>as far as the facilities go... did you son actually look at the chem facilities? personally I was impressed with them. keep in mind that even if harvard or stanford might have a few more expensive machines odds are your son as an undergraduate will never be allowed to touch them, whereas everything trinity offers is ONLY used by undergraduates... the professors ONLY work with undergraduates... there are NO science grad students. if you son is looking at the sciences, be sure your considering what recources are actually going to be available to him wherever he attends... and if sciences are his thing i would serroiusly consider looking at their next "science day" which is ~24th(? i think) if he wants to see what trinity really has to offer (if your son just did the normal 360 thing which i'm assuming he did, he probably saw none of the actual science department, i know i didn't durring the "360" part) durring the science day your actually divided into small groups and rotate arround and get one on one contact/small labs with the science professors</p>

<p>I hate to sound like a trinity fan boy... and there were plenty of things i didn't like about trinity, i just know from what I saw, and the professors and people I met, i'm VERY happy to have it as a backup school</p>

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<p>and to backup my statement... let me sorta talk about some other things i didn't like while they're on my mind</p>

<p>money-wise they sorta get you back as you are REQUIRED to pay for their dorms(although they are the best dorms i've seen anywhere by far) and you are REQUIRED to pay for a meal plan.. and the food is definitely mediocre at best</p>

<p>again San Antonio is not a great college city.... theres really nothing to do except for concerts</p>

<p>there are definitely plenty of people i know i won't get along with(mainly those who sit in watching movies on the weekends) but at hte same time i feel confident there are plenty of people i will get along with</p>

<p>the school's reputation really isn't existant.... as a premed this doesn't really matter, but the prospects of many good careers directly out of trinity i wouldn't imagine are too great</p>

<p>its hard, your really going to have to prove yourself</p>

<p>its not diverse ethnicity-wise</p>

<p>although some found the campus "beautiful" i really didn't think it was anything special and seemed pretty bland, all of the buildings look exactly the same</p>

<p>from what i saw... the girls aren't very attractive</p>

<p>and thats all i can think of off the top of my head, but yes, trinity is by no means perfect</p>

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<p>Way I figure it, all opinions are good as they give more insight and better perspective so thanks to you both. One other question for whomever wants to respond re Trinity. Were they almost all Texans? Seems like I mostly see Texans talking about Trinity, maybe because of that college plan they have in Texas..........</p>

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<p>We were there with about 200 applicants and were wondering the same thing; everybody wore name tags and we saw three or four that were from out of state; the rest were from Texas.</p>

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<p>Think of Texas as 10 states. We are huge. A school that is 100% Texas can have the diversity of 10 of those Northern "regular-sized" states.</p>

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<p>This is interesting...is there a general definition of diversity in Texas? Here in Miami, people from northern Florida are actually considered more exotic than our homegrown hispanic populations. So our diversity issue is actually getting more out of staters than hispanics, for example. How would you define "diversity of 10 of those...northern states"?</p>

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<p>There is a perception that the southern schools are not that accepting of minorities or blends. That may be right or wrong but quite frankly it should be important to us to that we get beyond that and have a community of people that we generally accept each other from what we can learn from them. So if there are lots of different kinds of people AND they are friendly to each other and MIX then we are better for it. Far more interesting. That is what I want to have in a university setting.</p>

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<p>One of my books says 70/30 instate/out of state. Does that sound about right? I am looking for diversity, which is quite important to my D, and I saw the statistic that it's 70% Caucasian, so I thought that the student body was probably pretty diverse. What do you think constitutes diversity on campus? Ethnicity, socio-economic strata or geography? I'll have to ask her what her definition is, because Trinity may or may not fit that bill. I hope it does, because it looks interesting to me.</p>

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<p>Actually a mix of all those things, not only color. 70/30 isn't too bad if correct. I guess I mainly think of it in terms of ethnicity and geography but then I am used to diversity in all of the ones you mentioned and LOVE IT. I am international and we have lots of types of people. Yea. I really like Trinity and while I wait on the fin/aid and merit from them and the others I am trying to get a feel for these places. Trinity seems to have a nice feel from what Europegirl and others write.</p>