By Frances George, a Baylor parent
Welcome to second semester! For the parents of prospective students reading this, I understand how you feel right about now: Huge, life altering decisions are facing your darlings, and you want to make sure the trajectory of their life’s ambitions are perfectly on course when next August rolls around. I know. I’ve been there…twice and still have one to launch from the nest into college just two years from now.
Rest assured, if your student chooses Baylor, they will have chosen well! So many things make Baylor an outstanding academic choice but as you know, college is about more than just the academics. I addressed that in my December blog. Character and legacy are components as well that should enter into your equation.
What, you ask, makes Baylor even more of a stand out than superior academic possibilities and the sense of community the students receive from faculty as well as newly made friends?
A Christmas Greeting Card!
When our daughter came home for Christmas break, her room, with remarkable speed, was so messy it looked like a bomb had gone off. Clothes everywhere, unmade bed, notes and gifts from Baylor friends and Christmas cards – full fledged photographs and professionally printed greetings from “named” dorm rooms and houses where upperclassmen live! I had to take a double take. It was true. Neatly placed on top of all the “stuff” that came from one (big) suitcase, were Christmas greeting cards from classmates with her own house picture on top! The boys had clearly taken time to stage, pose and have printed cards with greetings, addressed and mailed to the girls. Our daughter’s little green cottage of girls had done the same; standing on the porch, tastefully decorated with Christmas lights inside the house and out, were three wrapped “boxed” presents (the three girls) with enormous wrapping bows in their hair. Say “Sic ‘Em”! There was a professionally printed and handwritten greeting along with a beautiful verse of Christmas scripture printed on the back of each card…from the boys as well as the girls. What other school has students who do this? What other school has this kind of community that celebrates the season…the real reason for the season…with “family” members in dorms and in cottages scattered throughout a few streets of the college community? I have never seen this kind of university community. I have seen the lovely cards sent from the university front office (Baylor’s was lovely, for the record) from around the country but none from students to students! It made me smile.
When I mentioned this to our daughter, she said, in such casual stride (as if every school in the nation must do this), “Of course we send cards. It’s what family does!”
I hope this cheerful blog makes you smile and gives you a window in the type of university Baylor is and can be for your student.
Praying for you as you begin make life’s trajectory choices! Oh yes, academics are so very important, but a sense of family is very near the top in our house! Baylor accomplishes both and so much more, setting your student on the right course, unlike any other.