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Posted
13 hours ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

Jr is in Walton and got resident reserved parking in the stadium garage right next door. Football is going to be interesting for him, because his bed might literally be 100 ft from the stadium. 
IMG_8493.thumb.jpeg.be6b845a89d943ecb8c00f3599f54c09.jpeg

This was taken from right outside his dorm room. 

Whoa, can’t get much closer than that. 

My kid is in Holcombe and is loving Ark so far. It’s early, but he’s happy with his choice. 

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Posted
36 minutes ago, sasquatch69 said:

Whoa, can’t get much closer than that. 

My kid is in Holcombe and is loving Ark so far. It’s early, but he’s happy with his choice. 

Definitely get one of the permanent parking passes if you can. Having to move your car for every football and basketball game sucks and it will cost you more in the long run when “they forget” and get ticketed/towed… (Pomfriet kids last year)

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Posted
10 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

A very well known Austin musician is a graduate of Colorado College, and he is the polar opposite of a douchebag.  It doesn't necessarily negate your point, but he's the only CC grad I've met.

The only trust fund baby (real trust fund...like $500M) I know in Austin also went to CC and is not a douchebag. 

Posted
10 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

Dropped off little Chewy in Durango at Ft Lewis yesterday. He wasn't at all interested in big schools, nor did he want to leave CO. I think it's going to be a great fit for him, even though it's very different than what his parents chose ( both Trinity grads).

He's on a float trip down the San Juan right now through the outdoor rec program at the school. They do all kinds of hiking, biking, rafting and ski trips. I think I might have been the one to choose poorly.

I stayed in an AirB&B right by their campus a couple years ago. Rojo Jr looked into it, but they didn't offer the specific CS program he was interested in, and IIRC it was still kind of spendy for OOS. I'd also be afraid he'd never, ever go to class in that beautiful a place. 

Posted

Dropped off oldest son at LSU this past weekend. He really liked it when he visited and has already made some friends with kids in his dorm and is going through rush. They are going through welcome week right now and he is really enjoying it. We go out for family weekend towards end of Sept and I am looking forward to seeing a football game there as it is supposed to be nuts.

His little brother has already raided his room for PC equipment so I am looking forward to that fight at Thanksgiving.

Hats off to all the parents dropping their kids off hither and yon.

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Posted

Nice to see all the support for Arkansas.  My stepdaughter is only a sophomore, but Arkansas seems to be at the top of her list right now, and we have close friends who just moved their daughter into her freshman dorm.  I'll be very happy if that's where she ends up.

Posted
3 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

ATM says hi......;)

Don't laugh. After dropping Rojo Jr off in Fayetteville last Wednesday, I drove home, packed up Little Roja (his twin sister) and moved her into her off-campus apartment in that humid hellscape of strip malls and knock off fast food restaurants. To say the difference is stark would be an understatement. 

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Posted
15 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

Don't laugh. After dropping Rojo Jr off in Fayetteville last Wednesday, I drove home, packed up Little Roja (his twin sister) and moved her into her off-campus apartment in that humid hellscape of strip malls and knock off fast food restaurants. To say the difference is stark would be an understatement. 

Little Yaga said the same thing.  There are nice parts of almost any campus, but the majority of the campus sucks.  Didn't help that the corps groups were all over the place.  

The AR campus is gorgeous as are the surrounding mountains and small towns.  

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Posted
17 hours ago, mdmost said:

We went to the small college fair on Sunday over in Addison. Our college guidance guy gave us some schools to look at and talk to. It was pretty busy and very loud so talking with colleges wasn't as easy so we just grabbed brochures and talked to ones she was really interested in. She liked Willamette University in Salem, Oregon as well as Reed College in Portland. The lady at Willamette recommended we not even bother visiting unless she gets accepted. If she gets accepted, they reimburse you up to $400 for travel to visit. Not a bad idea honestly. Going on a tour has no impact on whether she gets in or not. We heard otherwise from places like Trinity but maybe that's because it's so competitive to get in there. He also recommended Austin College in Sherman and Southwestern but those had really long lines so we just grabbed their brochures. 

I'm not sure we're going to take the trip to San Diego so I may just get a travel credit that we can use later after things are more defined for her as far as where she could go. So many of these places have great virtual tours that it can give you an idea of how things are. We can always make a trip later if she gets accepted. There's another small college fair in September that has some she's already interested in/visited like Colorado College and Grinnell. We also are going down to Austin on Columbus Day since she'll be off school. We're going to drive by Southwestern to take a look around and have a full tour for Texas at 2pm. 

She has a deadline of Saturday to get a draft of her essay to our guy so he can help her. He gave her a great idea on a prompt that she could try so we'll see how it goes. 

Salem is fucking small. My wife went to Reed for a year and looked at Willamette. She hated Salem. The Willamette Valley is a weird mix of pretty and meth, and Salem is candidly an ugly little town.
 

 If you are going that path, you might as well chuck Lewis and Clark in there. Do your college visit in February. Make sure she understands what she is getting into with PNW weather. My oldest didn’t even do the campus tour at L&C because he hated the weather so much: he just flew home. My youngest was fine and is a rising senior at Oregon. 
 

With Trinity, she has to Early Admission. They just don’t let people in Regular Decision. The class is full by then with  kids who didn’t auto admit UT and don’t want to go to SMU or Tulane.

Posted
3 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

Salem is fucking small. My wife went to Reed for a year and looked at Willamette. She hated Salem. The Willamette Valley is a weird mix of pretty and meth, and Salem is candidly an ugly little town.
 

 If you are going that path, you might as well chuck Lewis and Clark in there. Do your college visit in February. Make sure she understands what she is getting into with PNW weather. My oldest didn’t even do the campus tour at L&C because he hated the weather so much: he just flew home. My youngest was fine and is a rising senior at Oregon. 
 

With Trinity, she has to Early Admission. They just don’t let people in Regular Decision. The class is full by then with  kids who didn’t auto admit UT and don’t want to go to SMU or Tulane.

Yes, we're planning to submit all applications before November 1st. We're not leaving anything to the spring other than a final decision. She has a deadline of getting the early draft of her essay to our college guy on Saturday. They'll meet next week to clean it up and work on other prompts. The Common app makes this so much easier than before. She's got most of the other portions done, it's just the essay that's hanging over her head right now. 

I hear you on the weather. That's the same objection I had to her being interested in Grinnell College in Iowa. That would be one where if she got in and wanted to consider it then we'd need to visit in January or February. Our plan is to go visit some of these if she gets in so she gets an idea of what reality is like at each of them. 

Posted
2 minutes ago, mdmost said:

Yes, we're planning to submit all applications before November 1st. We're not leaving anything to the spring other than a final decision. She has a deadline of getting the early draft of her essay to our college guy on Saturday. They'll meet next week to clean it up and work on other prompts. The Common app makes this so much easier than before. She's got most of the other portions done, it's just the essay that's hanging over her head right now. 

I hear you on the weather. That's the same objection I had to her being interested in Grinnell College in Iowa. That would be one where if she got in and wanted to consider it then we'd need to visit in January or February. Our plan is to go visit some of these if she gets in so she gets an idea of what reality is like at each of them. 

In all fairness to Midwest winters, they are cold as fuck, but the sun does come out. 
 

In the PNW a mood lamp and Vitamin D supplements are real.  
 

Do look at Lewis and Clark. They offered my son an enormous amount of money.

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Posted
9 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

Daughter’s current list: Arkansas, Clemson, NC State, San Diego State, Cal Poly, Colorado and Colorado State. All over the place!

That's a great list. We haven't really looked east as she hasn't shown any interest. Cal Poly is a great school. My niece goes there. We'll also apply to the latter 4. 

So far we've got: Trinity, Colorado College, Colorado, Colorado State, UCSD, UC-Irvine, Cal Poly, San Diego St. 

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Posted (edited)
27 minutes ago, mdmost said:

That's a great list. We haven't really looked east as she hasn't shown any interest. Cal Poly is a great school. My niece goes there. We'll also apply to the latter 4. 

So far we've got: Trinity, Colorado College, Colorado, Colorado State, UCSD, UC-Irvine, Cal Poly, San Diego St. 

My wife's cousin went to UCSD and absolutely loved it even more than his siblings that went to UCLA. 

Edited by SimonBolivar
Posted
1 hour ago, Bateshorn said:

My wife went to Reed for a year

My daughter considered Reed as part of her private school applications.  As she and I researched it more, it seemed like the Rice of the PNW -- a lot of really smart kids, but a pretty lame social environment.  

1 hour ago, Bateshorn said:

If you are going that path, you might as well chuck Lewis and Clark in there. Do your college visit in February. Make sure she understands what she is getting into with PNW weather. My oldest didn’t even do the campus tour at L&C because he hated the weather so much: he just flew home.

She applied to L&C and got some generous scholarship money, but wanted to go to a bigger state school with robust athletics.  I have a good client who went to L&C, and while he really liked it, he said that area of Oregon gets much worse rain than other parts of the state.  (See below).

 

1 hour ago, Bateshorn said:

My youngest was fine and is a rising senior at Oregon. 

My daughter is a rising sophomore at Oregon, and absolutely loves it.  I thought a Texas girl who loves the sun would have a tough adjustment, but she said the weather was okay.  The rain was mostly a constant drizzle such that students don't even bother carrying an umbrella, and instead rely on waterproof jackets and backpacks.  And maybe this year was a little different, but she got a fair amount of sunny days in the middle of the rainy season.  I was actually surprised to get from her so many photos in the Fall and Winter that showed sunny blue skies.  

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Posted
2 hours ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

I stayed in an AirB&B right by their campus a couple years ago. Rojo Jr looked into it, but they didn't offer the specific CS program he was interested in, and IIRC it was still kind of spendy for OOS. I'd also be afraid he'd never, ever go to class in that beautiful a place. 

I have no idea how spendy it is for out of state, but it's really reasonable for in state.  Total cost for this year including room and board is less than 20k after his scholarship is applied.

The going to class thing is gonna be real, though.

Posted
14 minutes ago, South Austin said:

My daughter considered Reed as part of her private school applications.  As she and I researched it more, it seemed like the Rice of the PNW -- a lot of really smart kids, but a pretty lame social environment.  

 

Reed is a hard study school, like Swathmore or Chicago.  Those kids spend all their free time in the library. You don’t go to Reed to rip toobs and play beer pong. You go to Reed to prep for a graduate degree. 

Posted
12 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

You don’t go to Reed to rip toobs and play beer pong. You go to Reed to prep for a graduate degree. 

dd73090f-dc58-47d7-b5cf-1dad55095c3c_tex

Young Brisketexan considered four priorities in his undergrad school: babes, partying, football, and a school with a decent reputation.  In about that order....and #4 was a DISTANT fourth.

Young Brisket generally thought with parts of his body other than his brain.

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Posted
On 8/19/2025 at 8:37 AM, Pescado_Rojo said:

Jr is in Walton and got resident reserved parking in the stadium garage right next door. Football is going to be interesting for him, because his bed might literally be 100 ft from the stadium. 
IMG_8493.thumb.jpeg.be6b845a89d943ecb8c00f3599f54c09.jpeg

This was taken from right outside his dorm room. 

Holy Shit, my boy is in the same dorm and even closer to the stadium. Dropped him off on the 9th.  Target was like thunder dome.  So many soriety girls in matching shirts everywhere. SEC SEC!

Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, South Austin said:

 

 

My daughter is a rising sophomore at Oregon, and absolutely loves it.  I thought a Texas girl who loves the sun would have a tough adjustment, but she said the weather was okay.  The rain was mostly a constant drizzle such that students don't even bother carrying an umbrella, and instead rely on waterproof jackets and backpacks.  And maybe this year was a little different, but she got a fair amount of sunny days in the middle of the rainy season.  I was actually surprised to get from her so many photos in the Fall and Winter that showed sunny blue skies.  

In the PNW, the only people carrying umbrellas are tourists.

You have to learn to wear the right gear (waterproof jackets, wool, layering) and GET OUTSIDE no matter what the weather is. Merino wool sweaters were the standard for me when living up there for 25years. 

My best friend's daughter (architectural major) is also a sophomore at UO and loves it. But she is also a from WA st.

Edited by BillyGoatHill
Posted
10 hours ago, BillyGoatHill said:

In the PNW, the only people carrying umbrellas are tourists.

You have to learn to wear the right gear (waterproof jackets, wool, layering) and GET OUTSIDE no matter what the weather is. Merino wool sweaters were the standard for me when living up there for 25years. 

My best friend's daughter (architectural major) is also a sophomore at UO and loves it. But she is also a from WA st.

 

The joke I always tell is whenever you see a Colorado Vs. Oregon game, the stands are full of a lot of California kids who didn’t get in their first choice UC school. 

 

Posted
12 hours ago, Bateshorn said:

 

The joke I always tell is whenever you see a Colorado Vs. Oregon game, the stands are full of a lot of California kids who didn’t get in their first choice UC school. 

 

Dropping my son off at University of Arizona in Tucson, or as it is known, UC Tucson.

Also, sooooo glad I don’t have daughters as the current standard dress is ultra tight spandex or body suit bottoms and mini tops.  Every nook and cranny is visible.   Great for my son but I would suffer as a girls father.   
 

And yes, Tucson is in Vietnam.

Posted
12 hours ago, Bateshorn said:

 

The joke I always tell is whenever you see a Colorado Vs. Oregon game, the stands are full of a lot of California kids who didn’t get in their first choice UC school. 

 

So kinda like Ole Miss vs Arkansas only with Texas kids

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Posted
23 hours ago, Dennis Taylor said:

So kinda like Ole Miss vs Arkansas only with Texas kids

or OU vs Arkansas or Bama vs Ole Miss, etc. Half of SEC West seems Texas kids now (sans Auburn & Vandy & UTk)

Posted (edited)
On 8/20/2025 at 10:09 AM, mdmost said:

That's a great list. We haven't really looked east as she hasn't shown any interest. Cal Poly is a great school. My niece goes there. We'll also apply to the latter 4. 

So far we've got: Trinity, Colorado College, Colorado, Colorado State, UCSD, UC-Irvine, Cal Poly, San Diego St. 

Outside of UCSD and UC-Irvine (which as stated by others, if your kid can't get into UT, they ai't getting in from out of state), adn Trinity, the list feels like a very, very expensive (out of state) list of 2nd tier/B-tier schools.

If saving money is a concern there are a much cheaper local (in state) options that are comparable. But I know there are a lot of folks who are biting the out of state bullet to get out of Texas for political reasons too...

Edited by Vegas64
Posted
7 minutes ago, Vegas64 said:

If saving money is a concern there are a much cheaper local (in state) options that are comparable. But I know there are a lot of folks who are biting the out of state bullet to get out of Texas for political reasons too...

If one could afford it... there's so much goodness to have your kids experience life outside of Texas. 

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Posted
2 minutes ago, YChang said:

Ha, you really are the animal poster aren't you?

Dude what? I agree with you. If I wasn't so brokeback poor you think I would live in Texas? Southern California is a paradise, brother.

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Vegas64 said:

Dude what? I agree with you. If I wasn't so brokeback poor you think I would live in Texas? Southern California is a paradise, brother.

Ah my apologies! With geographic mobility declining so much now for work... hopefully school is one of the few avenues kids can still experience this. 

Posted
1 hour ago, Vegas64 said:

Outside of UCSD and UC-Irvine (which as stated by others, if your kid can't get into UT, they ai't getting in from out of state)

I know of kids who were rejected by UT, but admitted to UC-Irvine and admitted or waitlisted at UCSD for the same major.

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Posted
7 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

I know of kids who were rejected by UT, but admitted to UC-Irvine and admitted or waitlisted at UCSD for the same major.

I've mentioned it before:  I know a kid who was top of his class at an Austin private school, 1580-ish on his SAT, rejected by UT EE but got a full ride to GaTech.  Uh, OK.  That's probably the better school anyway.  Horse race, regardless.

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Posted
10 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

I know of kids who were rejected by UT, but admitted to UC-Irvine and admitted or waitlisted at UCSD for the same major.

My MIL is a counselor in San Diego that specializes in placing and helping kids get into college. Over the last few years she’s seen it become easier for out of state kids to get into CA schools than CA kids. They want that out of state money. 

Posted
5 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

My MIL is a counselor in San Diego that specializes in placing and helping kids get into college. Over the last few years she’s seen it become easier for out of state kids to get into CA schools than CA kids. They want that out of state money. 

That makes sense. Probably an easy 5x uplift in tuition for OoS kids right?

Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, 4th&Five said:

the ones we're looking at are closer to 3x but yeah, still a big pill to swallow.

There is certainly a fair amount of privilege to be able to spend $50k a year to be educated in California (or New York or Seattle, etc.) and accelerate the move out of Texas for an education that is average-to-above-average (e.g. Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, San Diego St., Cal Poly, etc.)

Like I said, I'm old and poor-- my kids had to do for in-state tuition and if you can't get into the affordable good schools, we have McDonald's  cheap second-tier schools at home 

Edited by Vegas64
Posted (edited)

I already said the idea is cast a wide net and see what she gets. Maybe she gets into some of these, maybe she gets into none. Maybe some give her money. Maybe none of them do. Honestly, she may just end up at a small private that has some good merit money. Maybe she ends up at UTSA. We'll crunch numbers and see what's reasonable. There's not just a ton of great affordable schools in this state that I'd like her to attend or think she would enjoy attending. If an out of state private with merit money is close to what we might be able to spend in state then we're going to look at it. If Colorado State wants to give her some money to make it comparable, that's going to be a huge plus in their column. At this point, we just don't know. 

Edited by mdmost
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Posted

At one point, I heard Rice was thinking about being tuition-free if you get in.

An ugly realization I've had to make during this process is that outside of Austin, SA, and maybe San Marcos, there really aren't any places in Texas my boys have any interest in living and going to school.

Posted
3 minutes ago, mdmost said:

I already said the idea is cast a wide net and see what she gets. Maybe she gets into some of these, maybe she gets into none. Maybe some give her money. Maybe none of them do. Honestly, she may just end up at a small private that has some good merit money. Maybe she ends up at UTSA. We'll crunch numbers and see what's reasonable. There's not just a ton of great affordable schools in this state that I'd like her to attend or think she would enjoy attending. If an out of state private with merit money is close to what we might be able to spend in state then we're going to look at it. If Colorado State wants to give her some money to make it comparable, that's going to be a huge plus in their column. At this point, we just don't know. 

Understood and honestly super relatable. I wasn't really directing that last post your direction. I was thinking and processing it more as, well this is what I actually thought:

"What if, in 10-15 years, we have a generation of adults of are saddled with $200k of college debt and loans. Not because they didn't learn from the previous generation who can't afford anything due to the crushing debt, but because it was their ticket out of a red state"

And that's kinda sad. It's almost like looking at going to college like becoming a refugee or looking for asylum.

Posted
5 minutes ago, Damor said:

At one point, I heard Rice was thinking about being tuition-free if you get in.

An ugly realization I've had to make during this process is that outside of Austin, SA, and maybe San Marcos, there really aren't any places in Texas my boys have any interest in living and going to school.

The biggest problem (for those of us who post on surly, at least) if that the HHI is usually really low to qualify for free tuition. I joke, but also don't joke, about being poor, but it's really just being solidly middle class. Solidly middle class has never been a great place to take advantage of social programs, such as free tuition, etc.

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Posted (edited)

While the UT system isn't up to UC standards, there are a few options where a good education is possible.  UT-Arlington, UT-Dallas, and UT-San Antonio all have their good points.  Texas State has become much better from an academic standpoint seemingly simultaneous with Texas A&M's intent to shoot its tiny dick off.  I'm not all that familiar with Tech, but they do have some decent programs (but Lubbock).

Yeah, it's not like having UC-Irvine as your in-state "safety" school, but dropping $250K on a bachelors degree is mostly bad money in my eyes.

Edited by jimmyjazz
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Posted (edited)
13 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

While the UT system isn't up to UC standards, there are a few options where a good education is possible.  UT-Arlington, UT-Dallas, and UT-San Antonio all have their good points.  Texas State has become much better from an academic standpoint seemingly simultaneous with Texas A&M's intent to shoot its tiny dick off.  I'm not all that familiar with Tech, but they do have some decent programs (but Lubbock).

Yeah, it's not like having UC-Irvine as your in-state "safety" school, but dropping $250K on a bachelors degree is mostly bad money in my eyes.

100% in agreement. Dropping anything more than $100k for a bachelors degree IMO, outside of S-tier, truly transformational opportunities (e.g. Ivy League, Target schools with a plan).

Edited by Vegas64
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Posted (edited)

All things being equal, if she gets into UC-Irvine and UTSA, she's more likely to go to UTSA if UC-Irvine isn't kicking in anything to make it competitive. They most likely won't but it's worth a shot. The Common app and the CA variant of it make this less of a worry. Then it's just paying application fees and some aren't even asking for that like Trinity so why not apply?

Edited by mdmost
Posted
3 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I've mentioned it before:  I know a kid who was top of his class at an Austin private school, 1580-ish on his SAT, rejected by UT EE but got a full ride to GaTech.  Uh, OK.  That's probably the better school anyway.  Horse race, regardless.

 

ga tech is good program. ive worked with several ga tech grads, very good people 

Posted
5 minutes ago, mdmost said:

All things being equal, if she gets into UC-Irvine and UTSA, she's more likely to go to UTSA if UC-Irvine isn't kicking in anything to make it competitive. They most likely won't but it's worth a shot. The Common app and the CA variant of it make this less of a worry. Then it's just paying application fees and some aren't even asking for that like Trinity so why not apply?

might be the best tex mex in the state. go early, it gets damn busy ....

https://helotes.elchaparral.com/

https://maps.app.goo.gl/kz7GBgHzTNXMAzs77

 

Posted (edited)
44 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

While the UT system isn't up to UC standards, there are a few options where a good education is possible.  UT-Arlington, UT-Dallas, and UT-San Antonio all have their good points.  Texas State has become much better from an academic standpoint seemingly simultaneous with Texas A&M's intent to shoot its tiny dick off.  I'm not all that familiar with Tech, but they do have some decent programs (but Lubbock).

Yeah, it's not like having UC-Irvine as your in-state "safety" school, but dropping $250K on a bachelors degree is mostly bad money in my eyes.

If we're talking about UTSA and TxSt rising then it's fair to mention that UH has improved their academic profile a ton in the last 20 years. They're all the way up to #144 now in US News (flawed, I know) which is higher than all of Arkansas, LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma State, & Ole Miss that get a ton of Texas kids. Of course, your atmosphere and experience at those schools are going to be vastly different from UH, though I hear they're improving there too. 

US News on Texas:

  • #18 Rice
  • #31 UT
  • #51 A&M 
  • #91(t) Baylor
  • #91(t) SMU 
  • #105 TCU
  • #109 UT-Dallas
  • #144 Houston
  • #214 Texas Tech
  • #220(t) UT-RGV
  • #220(t) UNT
  • #231(t) Sam Houston
  • #231(t) UT-Arlington
  • #231(t) UTSA
  • #273 Texas State

 

 

Edited by SimonBolivar
Posted
9 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

If we're talking about UTSA and TxSt rising then it's fair to mention that UH has improved their academic profile a ton in the last 20 years.

Yeah, good call, I forgot that one.  Not exactly UCLA but not horrible.

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