Student Profile
Travis
- Class: Sophomore
- Major: Government
- Gender: M
- High School: Westlake High School
- Transfer Student: N
Big Picture
AN HONEST MALE ANALYSIS -READ THIS- SMU is badass. The other schools I applied to were all in the top 30, and I'm pretty glad I didn't get into them. Just about everything about this school is amazing, but we do fall short in some aspects. The campus is gorgeous, and so are a significant majority of the women. Sometimes its difficult to find the right balance between looks and personality while keeping common sense, but they're definitely around. It's a small school though, so if you're hoping to sleep around with all of them, it won't work for various reasons. The football is in recovery; I had huge hope last season and it sucked. Most people tailgate and then go back to watch their home teams... games can get pretty empty, but we're still hoping to turn that around (think 2011ish). Dallas is really cool, parts of it are trendy. If you don't like to put on the occasional suit when you go do something nice/collared shirts even around campus sometimes the atmosphere may not be right for you. It's not a super liberal college. Social life is sick though. Greek life is huge around here, those not involved may or may not do too much socially. Greek life guarantees you not only a large loyal following, but a lot of members of the opposite sex wondering what your doing each night too: it's fun. Remember that SMU contains a lot of going out, if you fall into that category, it'll be great fun for you, and if you don't, congratulations b/c you have the advantage over your hung-over peers that got drunk rather than an early start on their paper. Administration can be a bunch of ***s sometimes and it can even seem like they're anti-student but if you're lucky you don't get incredibly involved with them. I feel like the top dogs aren't too bad, but everybody under them is.
Academic Life
I guess we don't have incredible prestige, but we're pretty widely respected by adults. Most professors are great and I've only had one or two that I thought shouldn't have their job due to a lack of rigor and college-level thought stimulation. SMU is harder than records suppose and you're going to have to do a decent amount of work, probably more than those at A&M or other sub-par but better-ranked schools. Many classes, to a degree, require attendance. Learn from your mistakes freshman year about scheduling 9:00's. Professor's are extremely accommodating and classes are small. Every one of my professors knows my name which is shocking to those at state schools. Networking is supposed to be great. I'm not worried about getting a great carreer when I get out of here.
Student Body
In my experience, while there is some homophobia and racism or pseudo-racism (they'll say the n-word and talk about stereotypes, but don't really mean anything about it) out of the conservatism, most people really don't care. You won't come across any minority-bashing as you walk around campus-that's more of a high school thing and a waste of time. There is a kid that walks around with one of those hemp hoodies with no shoes on; that is atypical of my school. If you didn't wear one collared shirt from Monday-Friday, consider this might not be the place for you. College is pretty accepting, people don't care much about popularity anymore, and there is a group for everybody, but the majority are girls and guys that like to stay classy.
The Best Things
Social Life-hands down
The Worst Things
Lack of prestige in national standards
