• The KillerFrogs

For those that like to analyze TCU tuition to our peers

LeagueCityFrog

Active Member
Only suckers pay full retail to go to TCU is what I learned in 2020. Most kids get about 40% off the window sticker. Apply early and test well and tell TCU Admissions that is where you 100% want to go and then you won't be the sucker parents whose kid applies after Christmas after TCU has already given out the bulk of the money.

Hot tip for 2021.
 

TCUdirtbag

Active Member
Also, how is TCU more expensive than Rice?

Always has been! But agree with the sentiment.

The low tuition comes from their massive per capita endowment. In fact, when founded, Rice’s charter required it to be tuition-free (and also racist). They didn’t start charging tuition until the 1960s.
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member
Did I read that chart right; that we're tired for worst on that list in US News ranking?
If what you are asking is if we are ranked 97th out of the top 100 universities at the time that chart was created - yes

as someone said - I think US News has us around 80 in the latest

but in perspective- there are over 4000 institutions that offer advanced degrees in the US - so 80 or 97, both are still top tier

if you mean tuition wise - we are right in the middle mean and median-wise- so I guess you should say we are overpriced by about $4k a year if we wanted to align with our current ranking
 

TCUdirtbag

Active Member
Our target market is not the same as Rice, or Harvard or Princeton, Yale or Stanford.
Absolutely correct.

Our competition is Baylor, SMU (maybe), and OU academically. LSU put in a lazy river, and blew off improvements to their library. We compete with them.

I’d quibble with this list a bit. You first pointed out some of the schools in the elite tier that TCU doesn’t compete with. There’s absolutely an elite tier that isn’t on our radar. The Ivies and near-Ivies like Stanford, Rice, Duke, etc.

Then there’s a sort of second-tier. Your Vanderbilts, USCs, Notre Dames, Emorys, UCLAs, Michigans, etc. Objectively more rigorous admissions statistics and more national brands. These are our “aspirant” schools - or who we want to be. TCU competes with them for some students and tries to peel them away by offering huge scholarships. For example, a kid from Austin may apply to Vandy and TCU, get into both, and get a full or 3/4 ride to TCU compared to a 1/4 or 1/2 ride to Vandy. This probably works to TCU’s favor more than you might think. Especially for kids from the region.

TCU classifies its peer schools as SMU, Baylor, and Tulane (they actually cite Vandy, too, but I think that’s a reach). These 4 pull a large part of their student bodies from a very similar applicant pool.

What’s unique about private schools is they are pulling more from the extremes of their applicant pool. This is a feature of the private school enrollment model. When your sticker price is high and endowment massive, you use a big scholarship budget to pull some students from elite schools and let some further down the applicant food chain pay full freight if they want to come. That’s how you get a class with kids who turned down Vandy or Duke with no scholarship for a full ride to TCU, and kids who didn’t get into UT or A&M and didn’t get any scholarship offers from lower-ranked schools like OU or Tech but are still able to pay $50k/year+.

We aren’t competing with LSU. Sure, there are applicants that consider both. But TCU isn’t going to lose sleep over many applicants who choose LSU. Same goes for OU. Find me a TCU student who wouldn’t be an auto-admit to either of those schools.

Where TCU and SMU, Baylor, Tulane-type private schools miss out are at the level of very good—but not exceptional—non-upper class applicants/students. There’s a huge chunk of kids who can get in to TCU but just can’t afford it. And they often end up at a public school from UT or A&M to OU, LSU, or Tech if they aren’t competing for substantial TCU scholarship money.
 

HToady

Full Member
Absolutely correct.



I’d quibble with this list a bit. You first pointed out some of the schools in the elite tier that TCU doesn’t compete with. There’s absolutely an elite tier that isn’t on our radar. The Ivies and near-Ivies like Stanford, Rice, Duke, etc.

Then there’s a sort of second-tier. Your Vanderbilts, USCs, Notre Dames, Emorys, UCLAs, Michigans, etc. Objectively more rigorous admissions statistics and more national brands. These are our “aspirant” schools - or who we want to be. TCU competes with them for some students and tries to peel them away by offering huge scholarships. For example, a kid from Austin may apply to Vandy and TCU, get into both, and get a full or 3/4 ride to TCU compared to a 1/4 or 1/2 ride to Vandy. This probably works to TCU’s favor more than you might think. Especially for kids from the region.

TCU classifies its peer schools as SMU, Baylor, and Tulane (they actually cite Vandy, too, but I think that’s a reach). These 4 pull a large part of their student bodies from a very similar applicant pool.

What’s unique about private schools is they are pulling more from the extremes of their applicant pool. This is a feature of the private school enrollment model. When your sticker price is high and endowment massive, you use a big scholarship budget to pull some students from elite schools and let some further down the applicant food chain pay full freight if they want to come. That’s how you get a class with kids who turned down Vandy or Duke with no scholarship for a full ride to TCU, and kids who didn’t get into UT or A&M and didn’t get any scholarship offers from lower-ranked schools like OU or Tech but are still able to pay $50k/year+.

We aren’t competing with LSU. Sure, there are applicants that consider both. But TCU isn’t going to lose sleep over many applicants who choose LSU. Same goes for OU. Find me a TCU student who wouldn’t be an auto-admit to either of those schools.

Where TCU and SMU, Baylor, Tulane-type private schools miss out are at the level of very good—but not exceptional—non-upper class applicants/students. There’s a huge chunk of kids who can get in to TCU but just can’t afford it. And they often end up at a public school from UT or A&M to OU, LSU, or Tech if they aren’t competing for substantial TCU scholarship money.
You made a lengthy and precise argument pertaining to our academic standing and legitimate comparisons. My reference to LSU and OU pertain to other, than academic factors which play significantly in a persons decision to choose TCU. One is facilities and a country club attraction. Our swimming pool scene and in house restaurants rival schools in the same race regardless of academics. I believe that a prospective student in our wheel house could choose LSU over TCU because they have a lazy river. Second is politics. I mentioned OU because it is a conservative school in a conservative state. If you look at our California students, they are extremely qualified academically, yet may pass on a superior academic school in California, because of their extreme liberal leanings.
 

TCUdirtbag

Active Member
You made a lengthy and precise argument pertaining to our academic standing and legitimate comparisons. My reference to LSU and OU pertain to other, than academic factors which play significantly in a persons decision to choose TCU. One is facilities and a country club attraction. Our swimming pool scene and in house restaurants rival schools in the same race regardless of academics. I believe that a prospective student in our wheel house could choose LSU over TCU because they have a lazy river. Second is politics. I mentioned OU because it is a conservative school in a conservative state. If you look at our California students, they are extremely qualified academically, yet may pass on a superior academic school in California, because of their extreme liberal leanings.

I’m not so sure I buy the piece on California students opting for TCU because of politics. The UC System schools are incredibly difficult to get into—particularly the 2 most comparable to TCU (UCLA and Berkeley) in terms of overall experience (D1 athletics etc.). May be a factor for some, but probably not many.
 
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