An open-ended question for anyone at Trinity, those who’ve accepted for the class of 2020, and anyone else who had or has Trinity on their list. Wondering what made you pick Trinity, or keep it on your short list of options.
DD was unable to visit due to distance from us on the east coast, and some planning issues on our end. DD’s other short list schools are another LAC, and two big state school’s Honors Programs. Financially, all four on DD’s short list are okay, and they each have some plusses and minuses. From other discussions and what is online, Trinity looks great, but we’re bummed DD was unable to actually visit prior to having to commit to get a sense of the campus vibe and the general “feel” you get when visiting a place in person.
My kid chose Trinity over two LACs - one with merit, one without - and two public Universities - that were on the list as financial safeties - both with huge merit. He went into the process much preferring small schools. Visited Trinity twice. We like: it is a not-too-small- small-school, within a great city with a lot of history, culture and internship/service opportunities, beautiful campus, good food - and open all day most of the time, small class sizes, brilliant accessible professors, dorms are really large with walk-in closets and cleaned every 2 weeks. No winter coat needed. Shorts and flip flops most of the time will do. We spoke at length to a British soccer player that attended Trinity sight unseen. No division between athletes and / or other groups on campus. The student panels we heard shed light on how involved students are in a few or a laundry list of passions.
DS’s hot buttons: The CSI - if you have not visited, you can only get an idea of the magnificence of this Center for the Sciences and Innovation. It is open 24-7. Real, funded research opportunities - year round and in the summers. One of the Bio Profs that led us through the CSI on a tour stated that he taught one class, and one lab and the rest of his time was dedicated to mentoring students in research. That makes for happy professors with opportunities to teach, mentor and guide students without being over-burdened.
At each of the events we attended on two Saturdays, there were professors there from every department willing to spend time answering your questions.
Check out Trinity’s endowment if you have not already.
I’ll second the above comments. We visited this spring for Tower Scholars Day and came away very impressed. Trinity came off our list due to cost, but had our D won the top scholarship, we would not have hesitated to send her to Trinity. I’ll add that we spoke with several alumni parents who were there visiting with their kids. All of them spoke very highly of their experience and were excited to be sending kids there. The kids in the student panels were very impressive as well. They were well-spoken and capable young adults who are being prepared well for their futures. The campus is very pretty, in a great location. San Antonio seemed to be a very pretty and fun city.
Our S chose Trinity out of 10 acceptances, all with merit, including an Honors program.
He loved the weather, the CSI building, and the faculty in his projected major of CS.
Even though he travels 1000 miles to attend, he fit in well with his room and suite mates, and has transitioned well during his freshman year.
Zero regrets by our S or his parents. 
Trinity is a strong school academically, small class sizes are the norm, and professors are easily accessible. If that sounds like something that would be of interest, TU would be an excellent choice.
Finally, the job market and opportunity for paid summer research is real. Our S is studying the genetics of Naked Mole Rats (cancer immune critters) this summer on campus with one of the prof’s, and has housing and is also paid. He is really pumped.
Good luck!
Just wanted to say thanks to those that replied. Trinity turned out to be DD’s 2d choice, and based on her research, she thinks it would have been a great fit for her. However, she just enrolled in her first choice, Amsterdam University College in the Netherlands.
That sounds awesome @Bigmacattack ! Are you from the US or no? I am curious if your DD is sort of doing 4 years abroad or if the Netherlands is your home country? Sounds like a great opportunity. Congrats on her decision.
@Bigmacattack, can you tell us more about Amsterdam and how your DD evaluated it? Did she look at Leiden as well (looks amazing!)?
As a parent I wanted to comment about “why” even though our D will not be going to Trinity now. D was accepted off of another waitlist and it is just too hard to pass up. This seems to be a great school and I am not sure why more people don’t know about it. The ratings, the campus, the staff, everything seems to be excelent on this school. We had done several campus visits including big name schools like JHU, Yale and Harvard. While those schools are at the top of their game, it seems that Trinity can hold it’s own when it comes to an education. We had taken an accepted student tour last month and my wife and I love this school. ALL Ph.D staff, no graduate students are in the way. The size of the campus is smaller and the student base is smaller but that’s ok, how many people can you really build a friendship with if the campus was 20,000 large? While I am very happy with the school the my D will be off to in the fall, I am very sad the she will not be attending Trinity.
We are in the US. DD wants to study something along the lines of international relations, had has done two summer exchanges overseas already (One Rotary, one State Dept.). She was really after a small-scale LAC where she felt the sense of community. The Dutch university colleges are basically LACs created by, and within, larger Dutch universities, but physically separate and largely administratively separate. They are 3-year, B.A. programs, and for Americans you need a full IB diploma or a certain number of AP’s (maybe 4 or 5) for admission, and they are tough to get into for Dutch students. All education is in English, and they cap Dutch enrollment at 50% of the student body. Classes are between 10-20 students. COA, including airfare, will be about $25K a year. Only three of the university colleges have a FAFSA code, which you need if you’re funding from 529 plan savings. This restricted her to Amsterdam Univ. College, Utrecht Univ. Col., and Roosevelt Univ. Col.
At the end, it came down to Trinity or Amsterdam Univ. College, and she went with AUC. I think she also would really have liked Trinity. I think Trinity really has a lot to offer. It is virtually unknown in the metro Washington DC area where we live, and where we already have a Trinity (Washington) University. Not once in all my discussions with other folks here had anyone heard of Trinity, not that this lack of recognition bothered DD at all. The one thing that did concern DD was the high percent of in-state students at Trinity, but that didn’t rule it out for her.