Trinity University
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Majors: Finance and Accounting double major
Minor: None
Student Self Identifies as: African-American Straight Male
Summary
I’m on the Student Conduct Panel, and am a Student Ambassador.
Background
Gender Identity: Male
Race/Ethnicity: African-American
Sexual Orientation: Straight
High School Experience: Public high school in Texas with a graduating class of about 1,000 students. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: No
Majors: Finance and Accounting double major
Minor: None
Extracurricular Activities: I’m on the Student Conduct Panel, and am a Student Ambassador.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience?
They haven’t had a huge impact. They were something to do with my time outside of going to classes and studying.
Academic Experience
Can you describe your weekly coursework for your majors?
It depends on what classes you’re taking. Right now, for Finance, it mainly consists of reading and doing research on certain companies and coming up with reports for them weekly. For Accounting, it’s the same across the board which is reading and studying the textbook, learning how to solve problems, and then taking exams.
Is there anything you feel that either of your majors’ departments do especially well or poorly?
I think the Accounting department does well because they have a whole system in place that helps get you ready to find a job after college. The Finance department could use a little work in helping you find meaningful connections and to help you figure out how to network with other people. I feel like I had to figure out all that information on my own in the Finance department.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
I think it leans on being more collaborative than competitive. I don’t feel the need to compete with my peers, the majority of the time we’re all working together to achieve the same goal, especially in Accounting. Finance is more competitive because there’s a lot of things outside of finance you need to know for internships and jobs that the classes don’t teach you.
How accessible are your professors?
The majority of them are very accessible. Our class sizes are relatively small, so it’s a lot easier to schedule an appointment to meet with them at their office. [About 47% of classes have between 10-19 students in them.]
What has your school done to prepare you for the real world?
I don’t think it’s prepared me for the real world that well. I don’t think they advertise much on potential internship opportunities outside of Handshake. They just tell you to go on there and apply to a bunch of random companies.
What has been your favorite part of studying in the business school?
[My favorite part has been] thinking of ways I can apply it to other life situations. I’d study a subject then think of ways I can apply it to things I read in the Wall Street Journal. My favorite class is Equity Valuation, which focuses on finding different companies and creating a research report on them that details their risks, their strategy moving forward, their competitive position, and how you’d value them.
Why did you choose your majors? Are you happy with your choice?
I used to be on the pre-medical track, but I didn’t find it enjoyable so I scrambled to take random classes and seeing what I actually enjoyed. I ended up taking an Accounting course which got me [interested in] business. From there, I decided to do Accounting and Finance.
Reasons to Attend
1) If you’re a business student looking for a career in accounting, Trinity has the whole curriculum mapped out for you.
2) Trinity has very small class sizes, so it’s easy to develop a connection with your professors. You can use those professors to help you find potential internship opportunities.
3) The professors teach well and want to make sure you understand the material.
Reasons Not to Attend
1) If you’re a minority, there’s not that much representation on campus. [The undergraduate population is about 56% White.]
2) Because of the small class sizes, there aren’t many professors on campus so it might be hard to register for certain classes you may want. [There’s a 9:1 student-faculty ratio.]
3) The food options on-campus are limited, especially at night when they close down early.
4) Make sure you form a degree program before selecting classes for that semester because the advisors you are assigned freshman year are not very helpful.
Around Campus
Where have you lived on and around campus?
Freshman: Calvert Hall with one roommate
Sophomore: Thomas Hall with one roommate and two suitemates
Junior: South in a single, with one three suitemates
How was transitioning from your hometown to San Antonio, TX in terms of location?
It wasn’t vastly different, I just had some homesickness in the beginning but you get used to it after the first week after making connections and friends with other people.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
I feel generally safe. I always see the police department around campus.
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
I normally like to exercise, play basketball, study, or find some volunteering activity for us to do. I was a huge party person during my freshman and sophomore year, but after I established a relationship everything started to die down and I began appreciating the time I spend with my friends rather than going out to parties. These were all fraternity parties hosted at off-campus. They normally happen every Friday.
What have been some of your favorite times at Trinity?
My favorite times are when they have the Spurs nights because I’m a huge basketball person. It’s a fun activity where I can get cheap tickets to an NBA game that I wouldn’t normally purchase on my own. Trinity developed a new gym and I’m huge into fitness, so that’s one of the things that excited me about coming back to Trinity at the end of my sophomore year.
How happy are you with the weekend options at Trinity? Is there anything you would change about them if you could?
I’d like for Trinity to make more of its own weekend activities. I don’t think we have enough outside of the basketball games. Most people I know try finding activities outside of Trinity because there aren’t many on-campus to do other than partying. The most recent thing we had was the MLK march, but I don’t know of any more coming soon.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
I met most of them during my freshman and sophomore years. I tried getting involved in a bunch of activities. I was on [two club teams] and did intramurals. I also went to parties and established friends there.
How would you describe the overall social scene at Trinity?
I don’t see big groups of people very often. I think people form small cliques. We have a variety of personalities and we’re a very liberal school, but there are lots of people who only click with certain people just like them.
To what extent do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
They normally stay close to who they’re comfortable with. The Hispanic or Latino groups normally don’t branch out to others. They stay in their own cliques and it’s the same with the African-American students on campus. [The undergraduate population is about 56% White, 4% Black, 6% Asian, and 18% Hispanic.]
How would you describe the Black community on campus? How strong is it?
I don’t think there’s that much Black representation on Trinity’s campus. Most of them are part of the Black Student Union. They mix and socialize with each other and it helps them form relationships.
To what extent do people in Greek life and not in Greek life mix socially?
It’s rare that I see people in Greek life mix with people not in Greek life. Most of the people in Greek life solely hang out with people in their same sorority or fraternity. After they rushed a sorority or fraternity, they hung out less with people not in those groups.
How would you describe the student body?
We have a bunch of personalities. Because it’s such an open and liberal college, you get a vast majority of students that have different chains of thought. There’s no one way to describe the group because everyone’s different here.
How do you like the size of Trinity in terms of undergraduate enrollment? How has it impacted your experience? [There are about 2,500 students at Trinity.]
It’s kind of large considering we don’t have that many dorms on campus. There aren’t many parking options on campus which makes the living situations difficult. [There is a 9:1 student-faculty ratio. See The Trintonian article, “Are student parking spots disappearing?”]
Careers
Careers
What have you used the career office for? How helpful have they been?
I use them to look over my resume and ask what companies want to see out of a resume, like when I’m applying to an accounting firm versus a financial or consulting company.
Have you learned any computer programs or computer languages that will be helpful professionally?
I’ve taken a one-credit Excel class called Spreadsheet Modeling.