As *Tom Petty famously wrote, “The waiting is the hardest part.” Thankfully, you don’t have much longer to wait as TCU plans to notify Regular Decision applicants at the end of this week. Academic scholarship, if awarded, will be listed on the MyTCU student portal at the time of admission and need-based financial aid should arrive within a couple of weeks for those who completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the CSS Profile.
We wish that we could admit every applicant who expresses interest in joining the TCU community. Alas, we are forced to make difficult decisions. With roughly 19,000 applications, we will likely admit more than 8,000 students to enroll a first-year class between 2,150 and 2,200 students.
Some students will be placed on our waitlist. This means that while we do not currently have space in the incoming class, we will closely monitor the number of students who accept our offers of admission to see if spots open as we get closer to May 1, the National Candidate Reply Date. Since every crop of students behaves differently, we never know from one year to the next how many students, if any, we will be able to admit from the waitlist. In some years the number is a few hundred while in other years it’s a few dozen.
Those who are not admitted often wonder what they could have done better. There typically isn’t any one application element to which we can point. Rather, it’s the accumulation of factors we consider as we attempt to put together this puzzle called a freshman class. We need future doctors and graphic designers and ranch managers and human rights activists and musicians. We need students whose life experiences reflect a rich tapestry so that TCU never fails to be a breeding ground for the difficult conversations that propel society forward. We need students who will leverage Fort Worth, one America’s fastest-growing and economically diverse cities, to prepare for life after college.
In reading through your applications, we are reminded again and again of how you demonstrate strength in navigating your journeys. Many of you overcame significant medical challenges, natural disasters, family strife, and other obstacles that might derail other people. Your stories keep our staff going during the **long, dreary winter days of application review.
So, thank you for making TCU part of your college search. We know that you have many choices and are grateful you have considered us.
*Tom Petty was lead singer of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, an iconic rock and roll band that churned out one hit after another during its four-decade run. The band enjoyed both commercial and critical success. If you are unfamiliar with Petty tunes, I strongly urge you to stop reading this blog post open your Spotify app right now.
**According to www.usclimatedata.com, the average high temperature in Fort Worth in the months of December, January, and February are 57°F, 57°F, and 60°F, respectively.