Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university[2] in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the AddRan Male & Female College.[8] It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).[9]
The campus is located on 302 acres (122 ha) about 4 miles (6.5 km) from downtown Fort Worth. The university consists of nine constituent colleges and schools. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".[2] According to the National Science Foundation, the university received approximately $19 million in research and development funding in 2022, ranking it 298th in the nation for research revenue and expenditures.[10]
TCU's mascot is Superfrog, based on the Texas state reptile: the horned frog. For most varsity sports, TCU competes in the Big 12 conference of the NCAA's Division I. As of fall 2023, the university enrolled around 12,785 students, with 10,915 being undergraduates.[5]
The East Texas brothers Addison and Randolph Clark, with the support of their father Joseph A. Clark, first founded Texas Christian University. The Clarks were scholar-preacher/teachers associated with the Restoration Movement. These early leaders of the Restoration Movement were the spiritual ancestors of the modern Disciples of Christ and the Churches of Christ, as well as being major proponents of education.
Upon their return from service in the Confederacy during the Civil War, brothers Addison and Randolph embarked on a mission to establish a children's preparatory school in Fort Worth. This educational institution, known as the Male & Female Seminary of Fort Worth, was in operation from 1869 to 1874. The Clarks shared a collective vision of creating a higher education institution that would embody Christian values while maintaining a non-sectarian and intellectually open-minded spirit. To realize this vision, they procured five city blocks in downtown Fort Worth in 1869.
But from 1867 to 1874, the character of Fort Worth changed substantially due to the commercial influence of the Chisholm Trail, the principal route for moving Texas cattle to the Kansas rail heads. An influx of cattle, men, and money transformed the sleepy frontier village. The area around the property purchased by the Clarks for their college soon housed stretch of saloons, gambling halls, dance parlors, and brothels. By 1872, it had acquired it the nickname of "Hell's Half Acre". The Clarks found an alternative site for their college at Thorp Spring, a small community 40 miles (60 km) in Hood County to the southwest near the frontier of Comanche and Kiowa territory.
In 1873 the Clark brothers moved South to Thorp Spring and founded Add-Ran Male & Female College.[11] TCU recognizes 1873 as its founding year, as it continues to preserve the original college through the AddRan College of Liberal Arts.
Add-Ran College was one of the first coeducational institutions of higher education west of the Mississippi River. The college expanded quickly from its first enrollment in Fall 1873 of 13 students. Shortly thereafter, annual enrollment ranged from 200 to 400. At one time more than 100 counties of Texas were represented in the student body. The Clark brothers also recruited prestigious professors from all over the South to join them at Thorp Spring.[12]
In 1889 Add-Ran College formed an official partnership with what would become the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), though the church never enjoyed any administrative role at TCU. In 1889 the school was renamed Add-Ran Christian University.
The need for a larger population and transportation base prompted the university to relocate to Waco from 1895 to 1910; it purchased the campus of the defunct Waco Female College.[13] The institution was renamed Texas Christian University in 1902, often called TCU. It was during this 15-year sojourn in Waco that TCU in 1896 entered the ranks of intercollegiate football and adopted its school colors of purple and white, as well as its distinctive Horned Frog mascot. This also laid the groundwork for the rivalry between TCU and cross-town school in Waco, Baylor University.
In 1910 a fire of unknown origin destroyed the university's Main Administration building. A rebuilding project was planned, but before reconstruction could begin, a group of enterprising Fort Worth businessmen offered the university $200,000 in rebuilding money ($6,614,210 in 2024) and a 50-acre (200,000 m2) campus as an inducement to return to Fort Worth. This move brought TCU home to the source of its institutional roots and completed its 40-year transition from a frontier college to an urban university.
The TCU campus at its present location in Fort Worth in 1910–11 consisted of four buildings: Clark Hall and Goode Hall, the men's dormitories; Jarvis Hall, the women's dormitory; and the Main Administration building (now Reed Hall).
The university received its first charitable endowment in 1923, from Mary Couts Burnett, the recent widow of Samuel Burk Burnett, a rancher, banker, and oilman. Burnett received half of her late husband's estate of $6 million ($110 million in 2024), and in her 1923 will, she bequeathed her entire estate, including a half-interest in the substantial 6666 ("Four Sixes") Ranch, to TCU. Mary Couts Burnett Library is named after her.[14]
TCU's campus sits on 302 acres (1.22 km2) of developed campus (325 acres total) which is located four miles (6.5 km) from downtown Fort Worth.
The TCU campus is divided into roughly three areas: a residential area, an academic area, and Worth Hills. The two main areas of campus, the residential and academic areas, are separated by University Drive, an oak-lined street that bisects the campus. Residence halls, the Student Union, and the Campus Commons are all located to the West of University Drive, while the library, chapel, and most academic buildings are located to the east of it. All of TCU's surrounding streets are lined by live oaks.
Roughly half of TCU undergraduate students live on campus.[15] Housing is divided among 16 residence halls and on-campus apartment complexes.[16]
The neo-classical beaux-arts architecture at TCU incorporates features consistent with much of the Art Deco-influenced architecture of older buildings throughout Fort Worth. Most of the buildings at TCU are constructed with a specially blended golden brick tabbed by brick suppliers as "TCU buff." Nearly all of the buildings have red-tile roofs, while the oldest buildings on campus are supported by columns of various styles.
A notable exception to this rule is Robert Carr Chapel, which was the first building on campus to be constructed of bricks other than TCU buff. The chapel is built of a distinctive salmon-colored brick, a deviation that caused alumni to protest when the building opened in 1953.[17]
TCU is home to the Starpoint School, a laboratory school for students in grades 1–6 with learning differences.[citation needed] Starpoint's goal is to develop advanced educational techniques for helping students with learning disabilities. KinderFrogs School, an early-intervention laboratory pre-school for children with Down syndrome, is housed in the same building as Starpoint. TCU is the only university in the nation with two on-campus laboratory schools in special education. The laboratory schools, both programs of the College of Education, are located near Sherley Hall and Colby Hall.
Since 2006, much of the campus has been under construction, and many buildings have been either renovated or replaced. The old Student Center was demolished in 2008 and replaced with Scharbauer Hall, which opened in 2010 and houses the bulk of AddRan College's offices and classrooms. Renovations to Erma Lowe Hall, the building that houses the School for Classical & Contemporary Dance, were completed in 2011. [18] A new academic building for Brite Divinity School – the W. Oliver and Nell A. Harrison Building – was completed in 2012.[19]
The 717-seat Van Cliburn Concert Hall at TCU opened in 2022; the TCU Music Center had opened in 2020.[20]
The 2022 annual ranking of U.S. News & World Report categorizes TCU as "more selective".[22] For the Class of 2027 (enrolled fall 2023), TCU received 20,517 applications and accepted 8,740 (42.6%). Of those accepted, 2,488 enrolled, a yield rate (the percentage of accepted students who choose to attend the university) of 28.5%.[23] TCU's freshman retention rate is 94.3%, with 85.6% going on to graduate within six years.[24]
The enrolled first-year class of 2025 had the following standardized test scores: the middle 50% range (25th–75th percentile) of SAT scores was 1140–1345, while the middle 50% range of ACT scores was 26–31.[21]
The university experienced a record number of applicants in 2011, when over 19,000 students applied (a 5,000-student increase from 2010). The applicant pool also set a record with 60% applicants from out of state, whereas usually 1/3 of applicants were from out-of-state. While heightened national recognition due to TCU's victory in the 2011 Rose Bowl is one contributing factor, the university has experienced a steady growth for some time. In 2000, only 4,500 students applied. In 2023, out-of-state students accounted for 52 percent of the undergraduate student body, with the majority of those students coming from California.[25]
High school seniors who have been accepted must maintain solid academic performance senior year during the spring and not show signs of senioritis; in 2012, national media reported on a letter the admissions dean had sent to 100 college-bound seniors, threatening to rescind offers of admission without satisfactory letters of explanation for the slump.[26]