PonyFans.com

A couple of articles I have read refer to our status in regards to being an AAU school. What exactly does that mean? Thanks.

No, Southern Methodist University (SMU) is not a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), which is a prestigious organization of research-intensive universities in the United States and Canada. However, SMU is a nationally ranked private university that offers undergraduate and graduate programs in a variety of disciplines.

Deleted bad information from chatgpt.

According to their site, 9 of the 12 PAC12 schools are AAU members. https://www.aau.edu/who-we-are/our-members
Washington
Oregon
Cal
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Arizona
Colorado
Utah

Also note that San Diego State is NOT an AAU member; UC San Diego is a member. Some reporters have gotten them confused. Big difference between the two schools.

SMU is close to AAU status. Strong Engineering and Science programs are key.
Business schools contribute little to nothing to a given Universities AAU status.

Important to note that many AAU schools are not super academic. I think Nebraska
was AAU and lost their status after joining the Big 10.

It's harder for smaller schools like SMU to achieve this status for several reasons.
1. Far too much emphasis on the B school. 2. No Medical school and 3. Our
large Greek system which discourages students from taking on academically
rigorous majors.

GotMyESPY wrote:According to their site, 9 of the 12 PAC12 schools are AAU members. https://www.aau.edu/who-we-are/our-members
Washington
Oregon
Cal
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Arizona
Colorado
Utah

Also note that San Diego State is NOT an AAU member; UC San Diego is a member. Some reporters have gotten them confused. Big difference between the two schools.

AAU schools tend to be flagship state universities rather than cow colleges. I may be wrong but I think Kansas is the only AAU school in the Big 12. On the other hand it seems to be a criteria for the Big 10 which is why the Big 10 poaching of Oregon and Washington are the biggest threats to the PAC 12 if academic coherence is as important as some think.

Topper wrote:

GotMyESPY wrote:According to their site, 9 of the 12 PAC12 schools are AAU members. https://www.aau.edu/who-we-are/our-members
Washington
Oregon
Cal
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Arizona
Colorado
Utah

Also note that San Diego State is NOT an AAU member; UC San Diego is a member. Some reporters have gotten them confused. Big difference between the two schools.

AAU schools tend to be flagship state universities rather than cow colleges. I may be wrong but I think Kansas is the only AAU school in the Big 12. On the other hand it seems to be a criteria for the Big 10 which is why the Big 10 poaching of Oregon and Washington are the biggest threats to the PAC 12 if academic coherence is as important as some think.

You are correct. Once UT leaves, Kansas will be the sole AAU member in the Big 12. Iowa State left AAU status in 2022. It is easier to become AAU if you have a medical school or engineering program that receives large research dollars. All AAU members are also classified as Highest Research Activity (R1) Universities by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. SMU is currently R2.

SMU plan to be R1: https://www.smu.edu/Research/Road-to-R1

orguy wrote:SMU is close to AAU status. Strong Engineering and Science programs are key.
Business schools contribute little to nothing to a given Universities AAU status.

Important to note that many AAU schools are not super academic. I think Nebraska
was AAU and lost their status after joining the Big 10.

It's harder for smaller schools like SMU to achieve this status for several reasons.
1. Far too much emphasis on the B school. 2. No Medical school and 3. Our
large Greek system which discourages students from taking on academically
rigorous majors.

Concerned parties hypothesize that, had Nebraska's departure from the AAU have been revealed sooner, the B10 would have instead invited AAU member Missouri rather than the Huskers.

Also, is there any data to substantiate claims that Greeks select different majors? Or is this just a trope?

Our best students are in the business school. They are well higher on average than the other undergrad programs at smu. Engineering is second.

Also the majority of our best students are Greek - due to how hard it is to get into cox - and a majority of our business school students are in Greek organizations.

AAU measures phd driven research - usually driven by federal grants. Which is why virtually all AAU have a medical school, an agriculture school or both. We can reach R1 status but are unlikely to reach AAU without adding a med school.