Student Profile
Michael
- Class: Junior
- Major: Art/Art History
- Gender: M
- High School: L.C. Anderson
- Transfer Student: N
Big Picture
The Best thing about TCU is it's small size. I applied all over the nation, because I wanted to get away from home. I didn't care if the campus was a building or a city, as long as it had lacrosse and Graphic Design. When I came to visit, the size was perfect, the teachers I met(even ones that weren't on the scheduled tour) were really nice. I knew I belonged here. The small size has it's pros and cons. The most obvious is EVERYONE is a true Horned Frog. I came from Longhorn Country, so seeing a campus with just as much pride in its colors as UT was awesome. You can buy anything from T-shirts to TCU trailer hitch covers. Another piece of TCU greatness is Send Home. Yes most TCU student are spoiled rich kids, and I like to think I'm one of them. Send Home is simple, swipe your ID at the cash register, it goes on a bill, at the end of the month, the total price is sent home for your parents to pay. This applies to everything in the bookstore (books, clothes, school supplies, gift cards, video games, etc.), club sports dues, parking fines, everything that isn't on the meal card. Now for the Cons. I love lacrosse, and I will play until the day I die. When looking at schools, I wanted to go to a school with a great lacrosse team. TCU is not one of those. Three reasons. 1. TCU lacrosse is not NCAA, so we don't attract the best players 2. It is new around campus, so until this past season, many students didn't know it existed 3. TCU is a small school (Yes it is the best thing about TCU, but with everything good, there is a negative opposite), so even if every student knew about the lacrosse team, we don't have enough players to have try-outs and take it as seriously as we need to in order to beat top national teams. I know, because I literally just got back from the MCLA (Mens Collegiate Lacrosse Association, TCU is in the Lone Star Alliance Conference) championship quarterfinals, and these teams are from big schools, which means that attract top players from across the nation, are able to hold tryouts to have a big team full of great players, and they are able to take the game seriously without the risk of loosing players. One of the largest problems on campus is parking. I know plenty of campuses around the US have this problem, but ours is irrational. They just knocked down the main parking lot that could hold over a hundred cars to build four new dorms. This means more students, less parking. Another problem, depending on where you live, decides where you can park. For instance, if you live off campus, you can only park by the academic buildings, and in a parking lot right by the rec center. If you live on main campus, there is a small parking lot by the basketball stadium and a tiny one by the rec center. If you are like me, and live in the Greek (which is a 20 minute walk from all the classes), you can only park in the Greek. Problem 3, parking fines are outrageous. The minimum is $50, and you don't get towed, they just keep giving you more and more. some are $100. TCU is literally taking away parking, specifically because it forces students to park in spaces they don't have a permit for (greek in main campus, commuter in Greek, etc.). TCU has a savings of over $1 Billion dollars, and they can't afford to build a couple parking structures? As you may know, Fort worth is called Cow Town. If you go to the Stockyards, that is a fair statement, but the rest of the city is a dump. It's no Bronx, but it could use a broom. I think because UT and A&M are so dominant colleges, those are really the only schools I see stuff for. So is Fort worth a college town? Yes. For TCU, not so much? The Greek. If you have seen the show on ABC family, turn the houses into dorm style, and you have a pretty accurate view on greek life at TCU. Each Fraternity and Sorority has a different story, from the snobby SAE's to the Drama Queen Sigma Phi Epsilon's, or the "overly charismatic" DG's (If you know what I mean) to the top shelf Chi O's. TCU student's may only be 40% greek, but if you aren't greek, everyone knows, because it is so powerful on campus. An experience I will always remember is pledgeship for my fraternity. I won't go into detail, but it was tough. I learned a lot about life, how to handle any situation, and I met great people along the way. I won't forget it, and I hope my future son's pledgeship is as memorable as mine.
Academic Life
Unlike my high school, where if you weren't in all honors you didn't get much of an education, TCU is hard. I'm a graphic designer, which means 3 nights of sleep a week, working on countless projects. If I have time I study for my core or business minor classes, and hope I do well on them. My favorite class was 3-D Design. We got to Braze (similar to welding), build with all sorts of different materials, and the projects were very interesting, such as building a 1:12 scale model of a fishing lure. In the graphic design program, it is very competitive, because only 15 people get into the school per year. I have heard other programs are nearly as competitive as well. TCU's core curriculum is well done in the sense that it is in categories. You have to take a certain number of hours, but gives you a long list of different classes that meet that requirement. However, you never know if a teacher is impossible or really easy, so your GPA could get a rocket boost, or torpedoed. I think that before the +/- system was enabled, students cared more about what they learned, rather than taking the easiest classes to get the better grades. I don't spend much time with my teachers outside of class, but when I do go in, they are usually open and easy to get along with.
Student Body
I think that racial, religious, and sexual preferences are not a big deal around campus. Everywhere I go, I see people of all backgrounds hanging out together. I would say the only person that would feel out of place is the person that wants to feel out of place. TCU may have a lot of snobby kids, but there IS a place for everyone. Clothing style is easy to spot. All girls wear those Nike shorts that are very popular these days, and North Face jackets are very common as well. Students that are greek are almost always wearing their letters, me included, and non greek typically wear TCU gear. One of TCU's big sponsors in Under Armor, so a lot of the clothes at the bookstore have the symbol on them, so that is another thing you'll see around campus frequently. Dining tables: 1)basketball players 2)football players 3)greek students 4)non greek students Most TCU students come from rich backgrounds, but TCU offers a lot of financial aid, so it is not uncommon to run into someone putting themselves through school, even at $34,000 a year. I try to stay away from politics, but the school newspaper keeps up with the races, so I at least have an idea of what is going on, as do most other students. If you were to have a conversation with a student about money, as long as they aren't a business major (they always think they will be millionaires one day), they will probably say they have no idea what they will make.
The Best Things
School Spirit
The Worst Things
Parking
