Baylor University - University scholars. What do you think?

[LNC]

http://www.baylor.edu/univ_sch/

 

My husband and I are Baylor grads. I was in the old Honors program but dropped out. I'm fascinated by this newer University Scholars program. Check out the independent reading/ great books reading lists.

http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/69386.doc

 

The only potential drawback is graduating with a major in University Scholars. Instead of engineering or nursing for example. A true liberal arts/great books education, but you can specialize in your course load towards premed or whatever - just not major in a specific skill. I'm probably leaning towards a more practical approach to college degree planning with the state of the economy. Just wondering what anyone here thought of it.

Edited March 21, 2011 by LNC

[djkapp]

My dd is a freshman in the U Scholars program at Baylor and absolutely loves it. She's strongly considering medical school, but her primary interests after the first two semesters are classics and philosophy. She has good friends who have concentrations in all different areas.

 

The professors and support staff are top-notch, and my dd has been favorably impressed by the quality of the students. Not surprisingly, homeschoolers are well-represented in the program.

 

I suppose the biggest downside is graduating with a degree in University Scholars which will have to be explained many times. Seems like most of these students are planning on additional schooling anyhow -- grad school, seminary, med school, law school. From what we have been told by both students and faculty, the benefits of having written an undergraduate thesis, having strong mentoring relationships with professors, completing rigorous study in several areas, etc., far outweigh any difficulties of explaining the unusual degree.

 

I was also in the honors program at Baylor years ago, and what is available now is so far beyond what we had back then!

 

Another exciting program, which my dd says is characterized as "university scholars for practical people" is the Baylor Business Fellows program. DD2 has been accepted into that program and will be beginning at Baylor in the fall. It is a business degree based on a similar model as University Scholars --- it looks really exciting, and DD2 met with the head of the program last week and was very impressed.

[AngieW in Texas]

How religious is Baylor? There are only a few schools in Texas that offer neuroscience and Baylor is one of them. We've been concerned about Baylor because we were pretty sure there would be religious content in the classes and our dd doesn't want any (our dd really wouldn't be able to handle teachers witnessing or doing anything else religion-related in class).

 

We were especially worried about the psychology classes because they could really push a lot of religious material in there.

 

Any insight would be helpful.

[choirfarm]

Hi Angie,

 

I was waiting to see if someone with more recent experience would chime in. My husband and I went there 20 years ago. At welcome week, they emphasized the whole person which included the spiritual. We did have chapel, but even many of those were interesting speakers and not necessarily religious. I was not Baptist then and was worried, but it wasn't a problem at all and I had friends of all faiths including Catholic. I did not take any science classes, but the Mayborn museum has evolution in it. My husband leans toward old earth and he was a Biology major.

 

On our recent Baylor tour for our son, they have changed the 2 classes you have to take. Now it is one semester course on the entire Bible and then a semester course on the church. Our student guide said that although this is an unashamedly Baptist university, that these are taught as history courses and they don't try to convert you during the classes.

 

A friend of mine had a boy who just graduated and they were disappointed in his lack of spiritual involvement there. That said, this child wasn't active here so I'm not sure how she thought he would be that way there. Her middle child who was active spiritually has actually found more religious people at LA Tech than her oldest did at Baylor. But her oldest wasn't looking. It wasn't a priority to him. To me, it would be easier avoid religion at Baylor than at LeTourneau, the other school we visited.

 

I guess I like Baylor because it is religious, but not overly conservative. The minority population has grown substantially since I was there. There is just a bigger mix of people with a variety of opinion in the "Baylor Bubble" and I like that.

 

Christine

 

Christine

[TerriMI]

My daughter looked into the University Scholars program two years ago. We met with 2 professors and sat in on a class. I think it must be one of the shining stars of the university. My daughter really liked it too.

 

The professors are really passionate about the liberal arts and about teaching the Great Books. They are committed to strong student/prof relationships. Not only are their offices on the same hall as classes, but they require of the students several student/prof sessions out of class each semester. They give in-offices critiques and help on papers too. The lectures try to promote discussion and to accommodate these goals, the class sizes are small. In fact, the one we visited had about 15 in it.

 

The only serious doubts my daughter had was that music majors had major difficulties with schedule conflicts as several required US classes were impossible to attend because of required music ensemble rehearsals. That being said, she probably would had attended there and would have found creative solutions to the scheduling problems if we had lived closer.