yvonne Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 My son who applied and was waitlisted at Baylor just heard that he got in, with a significant enough amount of merit aid that we really need to think about it. Has anyone here attended Baylor? Or had a son/daughter attend Baylor? Can you tell me a little about your experience? Would you or your DD/DS pick that college again? Biggest downside/s? What were your/your DD/DS's plans for a major going in & what did you ultimately major in? Did your time at Baylor affect your direction and opportunities after graduation? I can read the basic facts online, but we've never visited Baylor or sat in on classes, so we don't have a real feel for it. I'd appreciate pretty much any BTDT thoughts. Thank you! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted April 25, 2018 Share Posted April 25, 2018 I cyber-knew someone who has/had two sons there. They lived several states away, so that was the biggest issue, but they made it work. She sang Baylor's praises. I know she joined a FB group for her state/area for parents of Baylor students. That was helpful wrt transportation (some shared rides), ideas for care pacakages, and general support. I am not sure if that group gets together in person, but she felt very connected to the Baylor community through that group. Congrats to your son!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plansrme Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 Chip and Joanna Gaines went there. You're welcome. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted April 26, 2018 Author Share Posted April 26, 2018 Really!?? Well, that seals it! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 I have a local homeschooling mom friend who has 2 sons at Baylor. She has become a walking Baylor commercial . She is very involved in the parent groups. Message me and I can put you in touch with her. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amathis229 Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 You had me at "significant enough amount of merit aid"...My son's calculus tutor has a PhD in mathematics from Baylor. I'll ask :-) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desiree77 Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 It has a very good reputation locally. Most people I know who went there are very good people. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodGrief Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 Two college friends sent their oldest sons across the country there, and now each of them is sending the next younger sibling. The young men all love it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted April 26, 2018 Author Share Posted April 26, 2018 1 hour ago, amathis229 said: You had me at "significant enough amount of merit aid"... They offer full tuition for NMF + a little more based on SAT score. Definitely makes one take a second look. Looks like they're changing it for 2019-20 applicants, though. We've been reading reviews and such about it and trying to dig further into those elusive "fit" variables. Based on that limited information, it's probably not the best "fit" of the options he has. But that aid...... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amathis229 Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 Full tuition is very attractive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodGrief Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 We attended one of their scholarship weekends, and I really liked it. It wasn't my daughter's favorite because of the location, and she is not so much a big sports person. But the faculty (at least engineering) was good and seemed available, and the dorms were nice. I liked Waco well enough. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 The gpa necessary to keep some of the scholarships seems high (3.5). I'd take that into consideration. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted April 26, 2018 Author Share Posted April 26, 2018 21 minutes ago, RootAnn said: The gpa necessary to keep some of the scholarships seems high (3.5). I'd take that into consideration. We saw that. I think it's higher than most. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h2bh Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 Congrats to your son Yvonne! I graduated from Baylor in 2000 with a psychology degree so I may be too old to be helpful, but I'll try. I followed the scholarship trail to Baylor. It wasn't my first choice, but I wanted to graduate debt free. I was in the honors program which was fantastic and I think has gotten better since I left. Although Baylor is large, they pulled out all of the stops for their honors students to succeed in college and beyond. I got accepted into every PhD program I applied to except one ( and I messed up the interview-not Baylor's fault) and I am convinced it was the close relationships with profs developed, encouragement in research, and mentoring I received from Baylor professors that helped me succeed. As for fit, Baylor was a definite culture shift for me coming from an east coast city. I'm not sure what it is like now. Perhaps others can help. It seems strange Baylor waitlisted him only to offer him a spot with a generous scholarship. College admissions is an enigma! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted April 27, 2018 Author Share Posted April 27, 2018 Thanks for the feedback, h2bh. I think the NMF tuition scholarship is set this year, if the NMF lists Baylor as his first choice colllege. There’s a blurb on the Baylor web site, though, that next year it won’t necessarily be guaranteed to all NMFs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted April 27, 2018 Share Posted April 27, 2018 I graduated from Baylor (back in the dark ages) with my undergrad degree. I went in as a math major but transferred to their (relatively) new computer science program. I had the four-year everything covered NMF scholarship back in the day and graduated without debt. Beautiful campus. Good sports teams. Excellent academics. Huge cultural shift since I was coming from Alaska, but it was easy to get comfortable there. If one of my kids wanted to go there (and could afford it), I would definitely recommend the school. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dereksurfs Posted April 27, 2018 Share Posted April 27, 2018 Hi Yvonne, Long time no talk. It looks like our sons are winding down at WHA and getting ready for college. Its kinda funny that WHA is in TX as well. Just curious what your son's major will be? Has he been open to states in other regions for a while now or is this something new? Our son has made it clear he wants to stay on the west coast. So we're focusing on schools over here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoggirl Posted April 27, 2018 Share Posted April 27, 2018 https://www.baylor.edu/estimator/index.php?id=943334 I believe this is a plug and chug calculator one can use to determine merit money at Baylor. I don’t know if it is still the case, but Baylor used to allow students to continue to take standardized tests (ACT or SAT) after acceptance in order to increase merit awards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted April 27, 2018 Share Posted April 27, 2018 2 hours ago, AK_Mom4 said: I graduated from Baylor (back in the dark ages) with my undergrad degree. I went in as a math major but transferred to their (relatively) new computer science program. I had the four-year everything covered NMF scholarship back in the day and graduated without debt. Beautiful campus. Good sports teams. Excellent academics. Huge cultural shift since I was coming from Alaska, but it was easy to get comfortable there. If one of my kids wanted to go there (and could afford it), I would definitely recommend the school. Small world. I went to Baylor for two years, and actually left because the computer science program was so small (early 1980's). I ended up at a state school that was in the forefront at the time. I still keep in touch with a friend from those days, and her daughter went there and graduated several years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootsie Posted April 28, 2018 Share Posted April 28, 2018 DH went to Baylor and his two older daughters (my stepdaughters) both went to Baylor. DD had several friends who are attending Baylor. Although Baylor has grown quite a bit in recent years, it still has a lot of smaller school, personal attention characteristics. As an example, DH's best friend's daughter was attending Baylor when DH's friend dropped dead from a heart attack. Baylor arranged for someone to drive the daughter from Waco to Dallas so that she would not be alone at all and would not be driving in the situation. DH was a physics major (and then did a physics and an economics masters--that was Vietnam War draft era). DH recently toured some of the new buildings and was very impressed with the facilities. Much has changed since DH went to school there. One of the popular activities has become boatgating, rather than tailgating, before the football games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted April 28, 2018 Author Share Posted April 28, 2018 On 4/27/2018 at 2:50 PM, dereksurfs said: Hi Yvonne, Long time no talk. It looks like our sons are winding down at WHA and getting ready for college. Its kinda funny that WHA is in TX as well. Just curious what your son's major will be? Has he been open to states in other regions for a while now or is this something new? Our son has made it clear he wants to stay on the west coast. So we're focusing on schools over here. Hi, Derek, My sons aren't sure what their majors will be. Because of that, the desire to have smaller classes, and the desire to have access to a wide variety of majors, they applied primarily to smaller LACs. I'm optimistic that an intelligent, educated person can be successful in many, many fields & careers, so I'm not worried that they haven't identified a specific, job-related major. They also applied to some UCs, more as back-ups, but it doesn't look like those are safeties for anyone anymore. Merit aid at the LACs put LACs at a similar COA as the UCs. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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