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Incoming Freshman Class

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Re: Incoming Freshman Class

Postby Pony^ » Tue Jul 19, 2016 11:42 pm

Regarding US News rankings, the opinion surveys count more than anything. It takes more than improving SAT scores to influence these numbers. Academic raters are usually influenced by the amount and quality of faculty research as well as the prestige of a university's faculty.

SMU set out some goals in its Jan 25, 2012 Provost’s Report (no longer on line):

Our Goals--

*U.S. News Top 50
[Not there yet]

*Average SAT 1300
[Made goal in 2013, 2014 & 2015]

*Top 50 Endowment
[Not there]

*25% of Tenured Faculty in
“Endowed Chairs” or Professorships

[“The University also surpassed the goal of having 25 percent of tenured faculty in endowed chairs or professorships, reaching 29.6 percent in fall 2015, a percentage that places SMU among a select group of peer institutions.” https://www.smu.edu/SecondCentury/CampaignPriorities/FacultyAcademicExcellence ]

*Retention 94% or Better; 6 Year Graduation Rate 80% or Better

[Retention 90%: http://www.smu.edu/-/media/Site/ir/commondatasets/2015/CDS_2015-16_Part_B_Enrollment.ashx?la=en Line B22]

[6 year graduation 79%: http://www.smu.edu/-/media/Site/ir/commondatasets/2015/CDS_2015-16_Part_B_Enrollment.ashx?la=en Line B11]

*Acceptance Rate < 50%

[48.95% in 2015]

*50M+ in Research Expenditures

[$32,401,000 in 2014: https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/herd/2014/html/HERD2014_DST_19.html ]

*Multiple Grad Programs Ranked in the Top
25 by NRC

[Anybody know?]

*Multiple Faculty in National Academies,
Fellows, Etc.

[“Several faculty members have been elected to prestigious national academies. Those elected to the National Academy of Sciences are David Meltzer, Anthropology (2009); Lewis Binford, Anthropology (2001); and Fred Wendorf, Anthropology (1987). Faculty elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences are David Meltzer, Anthropology (2013); Charles Curran, Human Values (2010); David Weber, History (2007); Schubert Ogden, Theology (1985); and Albert Outler, Theology (1966). Delores Etter, Engineering, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. http://blog.smu.edu/yearofthefaculty/files/2014/04/SMUFacultyHighlights.pdf

SMU Lyle School cyber defender Fred Chang named to National Academy of Engineering
https://www.smu.edu/News/2016/fred-chang-09feb2016

Still a long way from a school like Berkeley:

“Even first-year students may find themselves in a classroom with one of Berkeley's 144 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 32 MacArthur fellows, 235 members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, 13 National Medal of Science awardees or four Pulitzer Prize winners.”

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/berkeley/ ]

*Faculty, Students Engaged, Locally,
Nationally, and Globally”

[vague, but I'm sure we can say that we meet this one]
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Re: Incoming Freshman Class

Postby friarwolf » Wed Jul 20, 2016 9:54 am

These goals are great but where is the strategy to get us there other than build a new campus that is beautiful, safe, and close to great shopping? We can't be everything to everyone so where is our focus to be exceptional in selected fields? Exceptional in finance, mathmatics, environmental science,law? We are stuck at being pretty good at some things. But did I mention we have a beautiful campus that gives Susie lots of shopping options nearby?

I am a business guy and I look at what Emory has going in Atlanta. Has anyone ever heard Turner or Niemi state that they want a world class business school for Dallas specializing in certain disciplines? More importantly, seen any action to start accomplishing something like that?

We are fortunate that California has lots of rich folks with smart kids who can't get into Berkley, UCLA, Stanford, or schools back east. I don't know how much longer we are gonna be able to ride that train. We need new leadership that is gonna shake us out of the current feel good mode......
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Re: Incoming Freshman Class

Postby Pony^ » Wed Jul 20, 2016 11:52 am

friarwolf wrote:These goals are great but where is the strategy to get us there other than build a new campus that is beautiful, safe, and close to great shopping? We can't be everything to everyone so where is our focus to be exceptional in selected fields? Exceptional in finance, mathmatics, environmental science,law? We are stuck at being pretty good at some things. But did I mention we have a beautiful campus that gives Susie lots of shopping options nearby?

I am a business guy and I look at what Emory has going in Atlanta. Has anyone ever heard Turner or Niemi state that they want a world class business school for Dallas specializing in certain disciplines? More importantly, seen any action to start accomplishing something like that?

We are fortunate that California has lots of rich folks with smart kids who can't get into Berkley, UCLA, Stanford, or schools back east. I don't know how much longer we are gonna be able to ride that train. We need new leadership that is gonna shake us out of the current feel good mode......


The reality is SMU has never had benefactors like the Coca Cola executives who have been there for Emory ever since its move from Oxford, Georgia to just outside of Atlanta in 1915. Emory’s move allowed it to become the designated connectional institution for all Methodist Conferences east of the Mississippi River. Of course, at the same time, SMU was designated the connectional institution for all Methodist Conferences west of the Mississippi River. The designations resulted from the Methodists loss of control of Vanderbilt University in a 1914 decision by the Tennessee Supreme Court.

The founder of Coca Cola, Asa Candler, donated $1 million dollars (a lot of money at the time) and 72 acres of land to facilitate Emory’s move to Atlanta. Asa’ s brother, Warren Candler, became one of Emory’s first presidents. Later Robert Woodruff, who purchased the Coca Cola Company from Asa Candler in 1919 and was its president for over 30 years, donated substantial sums to Emory University which have grown into its present day, almost $7 billion endowment.

Obviously Emory (a.k.a., Coca Cola U), with its considerable wealth, can more easily make the necessary investments to achieve its academic goals.

Turner, who has raised more money than any president of SMU will stay until he is ready to leave. The deans are another story and should be held more accountable.
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Re: Incoming Freshman Class

Postby tristatecoog » Wed Jul 20, 2016 12:44 pm

I believe the admin would very much like to overtake UT and climb into the Top 50. That would open SMU up to many other applicants that base decisions on rankings and help with advertising.

There's been more of a push lately with half scholarships for top students to get the price down to public school levels. That seems like a smart strategy. Also, there seems to be more focus on engineering where applicants have high test scores.

Niemi seems very focused on money. Hey, he's a b-school dean. All these 1-yr programs and specialty degree programs raise funds. Cox Scholars in undergrad is already a very high achieving group.
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Re: Incoming Freshman Class

Postby gostangs » Wed Jul 20, 2016 1:36 pm

If someone really wanted to move the needle for SMU they would invest 20 million into MBA scholarships. That would double our MBA scholarship fund, and overnight would put us in the 700 plus GMAT average (top twenty student quality) rather than the 670 minus GMAT (not top twenty student quality. When our MBA gets nationally recognized it will pull up everything - BBA is then a bigger deal which accelerates the trend toward undergrads wanting to come here for business. PHD's in the business school are also a big deal to academics - so that needs to improve.

Bottom line - we fixed facilities. Other than IPF we need to focus on more scholarship money for Cox in all areas, and more scholarship and teacher quality in business and sciences.
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Re: Incoming Freshman Class

Postby deucetz » Wed Jul 20, 2016 2:07 pm

Pony^ wrote:
The reality is SMU has never had benefactors like the Coca Cola executives who have been there for Emory ever since its move from Oxford, Georgia to just outside of Atlanta in 1915. Emory’s move allowed it to become the designated connectional institution for all Methodist Conferences east of the Mississippi River. Of course, at the same time, SMU was designated the connectional institution for all Methodist Conferences west of the Mississippi River. The designations resulted from the Methodists loss of control of Vanderbilt University in a 1914 decision by the Tennessee Supreme Court.

The founder of Coca Cola, Asa Candler, donated $1 million dollars (a lot of money at the time) and 72 acres of land to facilitate Emory’s move to Atlanta. Asa’ s brother, Warren Candler, became one of Emory’s first presidents. Later Robert Woodruff, who purchased the Coca Cola Company from Asa Candler in 1919 and was its president for over 30 years, donated substantial sums to Emory University which have grown into its present day, almost $7 billion endowment.

Obviously Emory (a.k.a., Coca Cola U), with its considerable wealth, can more easily make the necessary investments to achieve its academic goals.

Turner, who has raised more money than any president of SMU will stay until he is ready to leave. The deans are another story and should be held more accountable.


I definitely agree that SMU has not had a benefactor like other schools.

The student metrics aren't as important to me. SAT scores at most institutions in the top 50, will rise every year because students generally do better on the SAT as time goes by. There is inflation in terms of SAT scores and students grades in high school.

While SMU waits for another benefactor, SMU could help reduce its students debt through scholarships and reducing overall cost to attend the school. The more financial aid we are able to give students the more competitive we will be. You can't hamper your students with the most expensive university in the state of Texas, especially if they aren't getting high paying jobs. It's hard to raise money for scholarships compared to buildings and naming rights--which Gerald Turner has exhausted. If SMU is able to reduce the cost of tuition, and give more scholarships, students will generally be happier to give back once they are alums. Less debt also allows students to take more business risk that could pay off for the institution. At most of the top 15 schools, if your parents make less than 100K, your tuition is free. While SMU doesn't have the funds to truly implement this, they can start by increasing the amount of aid it gives.

Continue to reduce administrative staff, and do not build anymore buildings without it being fully funded by alums. SMU needs to focus on the students, faculty, research, and increasing its endowment. In addition, build up the SMU network (for both undergrad and graduate students). Every major city with SMU alums, especially outside of Texas, should have quarterly gatherings. I understand these type of events usually manifest with football for a lot of Texas schools, but other sports will suffice. Let's just pray that we get into the Pac-12 (I doubt Big 12 will let us in). As much as getting into a major conference is needed, i think the education bust will be even more hurtful to SMU. We are in an education boom--everyone is doing better but we need to position ourselves so that when the boom implodes we aren't left in the dust.

I still think Gerald should go, even though I understand why he won't. We need a new vision, and I'm sure the right leader could also help bring money. We need to exploit all the corporate money that this North Texas economy is bringing. The Board of Trustees should also be blamed. There should be half the amount of trustees. I'm guessing its hard to get things done swiftly with the amount of people. While the City of Dallas and the Dallas economy is still growing, I hope it brings SMU with it. I love what I'm seeing from Dallas, and I wish SMU could benefit from this growth.

I can't wait until football and basketball starts. There isn't much to talk about on this board sports wise.
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