The truth.

[Duke Blue Blood]

Really hate posting school stats on this board, but you asked for them.

Dallas-based SMU believes it took a step closer to that goal this week when it disclosed statistics showing that its student-acceptance rates have declined to a record-low 66% over the last decade. The more selective a college is, the better chance it has of cracking the top 50.
The school has not had to resort to its waiting list of students in the last three years, and the average SAT score was 1187.

While Fort Worth-based TCU has no formal plan in place to boost its ranking, acceptance rates for the private institution have dropped from 79.4% in 1997 to approximately 71% this year.

Baylor University has lowered its acceptance rates from 88% in 1998 to 81% this year.

[VarsityShop]

Don't you think it best to source your facts Dukie?

<img src="http://www.circlecityclassic.com/images/SATBook.jpg" alt=" - " />

[Duke Blue Blood]

Dallas Business Journal - Sept. 30, 2003

[Stallion]

YEP! and what you didn't mention was that the article said that 6 years after the arrival of Kenneth Pye in 1993 acceptance levels had risen to "nearly 90%" which has been my point all along that that Kenneth Pye was a disaster to this school in fundraising AND academics. SMU's numbers have been bailed out considerably with the arrival of Turner who I have no real problem with. Further, according to the 2004 Barron's and U.S. News and World Report-A&M has overtaken SMU by about 10 points on the percentile ratings, Baylor and SMU are a statistical dead heat and TCU lags by a couple of points. Exactly what I said in my post about SAT scores. The acceptance rates are the result of Turner not Pye. The point is Texas A&M, TCU, and Baylor were not considered to be academically close to SMU in the mid-1980s. From a perspective timeline from 1980 through 2004 SMU academic performance has stagnated or declined in relation to those schools.

[EastStang]

There are plenty of reasons for the low applicant pool. (1) Tuition cost. (2) Unknown to east coast school advisors (3) Perceived religiosity. I was the first kid from my school to attend SMU. Since I went many more have followed. SMU was not even on my advisor's list of possible places for me to go. Instead, he pushed the University of Richmond , Sewanee and Hampton-Sydney. I have made it a point to be sure that an SMU book is in that school's library and know the advisor. Why? This is a private school where the high school tuition is identical to SMU's. Parents who spend $25,000 a year in high school tuition don't fear our tuition. As to (3) above, one SMU Admissions Dean told me that a Jewish school in New York would not allow him to meet with students. He asked why, they said, you're a Christian school. Then he asked, do you send kids to Duke, USC, and Wake Forest? They're "Christian" schools. We all need to do a better job of growing that applicant pool.

[SoCal_Pony]

Duke,

To validate or disprove Stallion’s claim, can you compare the numbers for UT, A&M, SMU, Tech, TCU and Baylor from 1985 versus the numbers today.

I suspect all 6 schools have seen an increase in their SAT scores and a decrease in their acceptance rates over the past 16 years. I also suspect, just as Stallion has stated, that the rate of improvement by SMU versus its peers is the lowest among the group.

I can’t type fast enough, Stallion just repeated my claim.

Still if someone has the exact numbers it would be interesting.

[Duke Blue Blood]

Stallion likes to come on here and beat his chest, but when he is wrong he can not admit it. He said that SMU was stagnant and or had declined academically. Just not true. He really shot himself in the foot when he pointed out that we went from 90% acceptance to our 65% or so now. I am done with post.

I just can't believe a guy that Stallion who clearly must care about SMU or he would not post 1000 times a day, would come on here and bash the school on every account. Constructive criticism goes much farther that vilification.