Jack Lewis, ’13, attends Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He is working towards a major in engineering.
Q: What class did you enjoy the most? Hate the most?
A: The class I hate the most is my first year seminar, Art of Travel. It sounds pretty fun, but it’s awful. It’s an English class where we talk about travel and how it influences books and other cultural things. No one likes it. Calculus 3, or multivariable calculus, is my favorite. It’s like Calculus 1 but in 3-D. It’s more relevant to life than Calculus 1.
Q: How is the dorm, weather and food?
A: The dorms are pretty good. There are five freshman dorms. I am in the worst dorm, but it’s not that bad. My dorm is like an average dorm at most colleges. The other dorms are well above the average.
The food is okay. It gets tiring after a while. There are times where I just have to go off campus because I can’t stand it any more! Too much of the same thing.
The weather is pretty similar to Sacramento but hotter and more humid. It gets just as cold as Sacramento too, sometimes colder. It’s surprising because you think Texas is hot.
Q: Are you involved in Greek life?
A: I am in a fraternity called Omega Phi. It’s awesome! The rush is different from other schools. At most schools you rush for two weeks, but here you rush for the first semester. The pledge process was five weeks long. I got into the fraternity the first day of February. It was really easy. It wasn’t like scary or anything.
Q: What do you think of the area surrounding campus?
A: About five minutes away we have one of the bigger marketplaces which has a ton of restaurants and stuff. Downtown isn’t too far away. but I don’t get there much. The campus is pretty much close to the middle, so I am not far from anything.
Q: What surprised and disappointed you about your school?
A: Honestly, the food disappointed me. I am not disappointed with anything else. I was surprised by how open the people are. You think Texans might be racist, lump them in the South. A lot more people are atheist than you would think, and they are willing to talk about it. I mean, I see a lot of people wearing crosses for Christianity. But I was surprised by how many are not Christian.
Q: What delighted you?
A: I love the size. It’s really nice, similar to Country Day. It was an easy transition. The first two weeks are difficult, but after that it’s fine. We have about 2500 people. Also the school has a really big endowment for what size it is, so there are new science buildings. The new buildings are huge, and where all my classes are, so it’s amazing. There has been a lot of reconstruction going on, so nothing is outdated.
Q: Any advice for the class of ’14?
A: Don’t focus too much on first choices. Looking back, I would not want to be at any other school. Trinity was not my first choice for college. My first choice was the Colorado School of Mines.My parents were like making me apply here. I am happier here than I would be there.
