Greenhill vs Hockaday (Houston, Dallas, Paris: mover, high school, camps)

[gsoy]

I know 1 headed to UTD.

[UnfairPark]

Originally Posted by EDS_

At least 10.

Good. I didn't see any on original list.

[turf3]

If you just graduated from Hockaday, why would you head to UTD when you could easily go to Austin? Mid-range commuter school vs. flagship of the University of Texas system?

[Taub201]

OU and Tulsa are ranked higher than UTD. I believe Arkansas is as well. UTD has a fine reputation for hard sciences but I have recruited there and haven't been impressed (vs. SMU/UT). I doubt a Hockaday parent paid all that money for them to go to a local public U.


Don't see Cornell (the land grant Ivy) on the list either. Interesting that USC is more popular than UT. USC is a very difficult school to get into and has done a great job of moving up the rankings. UVa and Vandy seem comparable to USC, maybe a notch above.


Also, for med school, the top-tier public U is great. For business, you can be an European Studies major and work at a bulge bracket invt bank if you went Ivy. It's also true at Rice to a lesser degree. Otherwise, you have to go to Cox or McCombs.

[jennifw]

Originally Posted by UnfairPark

Surprisingly not a single student heading towards school here in DFW, no love for UTD.

IMO - While I think UTD is changing, it still does not offer the "college atmosphere" of most of the other schools on that list - no big football, only 4 panhellenic sororities, etc. They are changing from a commuter-school but I don't think they are quite there yet. I think that is a deterrent for a lot of students who want the "whole experience."

[numbersguy100]

Originally Posted by Taub201

OU and Tulsa are ranked higher than UTD. I believe Arkansas is as well. UTD has a fine reputation for hard sciences but I have recruited there and haven't been impressed (vs. SMU/UT). I doubt a Hockaday parent paid all that money for them to go to a local public U.


Don't see Cornell (the land grant Ivy) on the list either. Interesting that USC is more popular than UT. USC is a very difficult school to get into and has done a great job of moving up the rankings. UVa and Vandy seem comparable to USC, maybe a notch above.


Also, for med school, the top-tier public U is great. For business, you can be an European Studies major and work at a bulge bracket invt bank if you went Ivy. It's also true at Rice to a lesser degree. Otherwise, you have to go to Cox or McCombs.

I am surprised by the popularity of USC as well, but reputation-wise, I wouldn't say it's comparable to UVA or Vandy. But it's a very wealthy private school in LA with lots of resources, close to the beach, and it's a great place to build a network if you want to live on the West coast and the academics are certainly well above average. Maybe they also give very generous merit aid to top students to try and poach kids who would otherwise go to an Ivy or one of the Claremont colleges.

It's hard for me to imagine how UTD fits as a choice for a Hockaday grad. Either you go to Hockaday and your parents have money, or you go on scholarship and you're bright. If your parents have money, I don't see why you'd pick UTD, as there are academically superior options for which you are likely qualified and your parents can afford the tuition. If you're bright and lower income (enough to get financial aid at Hock), even if you get a full ride to UTD, you probably also have better public and private schools bending over backwards to offer you need-based or merit aid. Heck, even if you really want to stay in DFW and you're committed to a public school, I'd pick UNT over UTD for both atmosphere/location and academics.

[turf3]

One other note for those who find the absence of one or another college perplexing: Do realize that Hockaday is a very small school (I guess they graduate 100 or fewer girls each year). Any one year's results can be skewed by things like a really good admissions person showing up on campus, and anyway the results are going to vary greatly year to year. What would be more useful and meaningful would be to look at say the last 10 years.

[Taub201]

To that point, I saw the Chicago admin rep at a HPHS event. Maybe they are investing in the DFW area. I know two USC anecdotes and both had generous scholarships. One didn't get $$ at Vandy. 20 years ago, it seemed like USC was ranked closer to the 40s-50s like Tulane but now it's in the low 20s with a sub-10% acceptance rate. Of all the schools in the Top 50, USC and Northeastern have arguably been the biggest movers.


Once in a while, a Hockaday (or other smart kid) would choose UTD because it's close, they don't care about the traditional college experience and maybe they've some camps or research there.

[numbersguy100]

Originally Posted by turf3

One other note for those who find the absence of one or another college perplexing: Do realize that Hockaday is a very small school (I guess they graduate 100 or fewer girls each year). Any one year's results can be skewed by things like a really good admissions person showing up on campus, and anyway the results are going to vary greatly year to year. What would be more useful and meaningful would be to look at say the last 10 years.

Most of Hock's peer schools have a graduating class of about 100. Not disagreeing with your point, just saying it's about in line with many of the elite PK-12 private schools. I went to a small public school (in a small state) but even we had a graduating class of about 165 so 100 is, by any measure, a small class.

[UnfairPark]

USC is buying good students with money, if Rice threw money at national merit scholars like USC does, it would rank much higher than USC.