First 500 students get free innoutburger starting at 5pm

[East Coast Mustang]

If its not 30% then its really close to that. Also, that will likely continue to rise. SMU spends a boatload of money recruiting and investing in the recruitment of Californians. We could have an incoming class of 1,500 well qualified kids from only California every year.

Really cool how we're becoming more and more of a national university each year. Sucks for football season ticket sales, but cool in every other regard.

[StallionsModelT]

SMU has made its decision to be a national university. Those wheels were set in motion several years ago. We could go the TCU route and be a more regional "Texas-centric) school, but the reality is that SMU will always be a better national draw than TCU. Partly due to location (Dallas vs. Fort Worth), but also in the higher quality postgraduate programs and the greater emphasis put on engineering.

There is really only room for one truly national university in DFW and SMU is it. TCU, and for that matter Baylor, really are not our peer institutions anymore. Our student quality is much, much, much higher than theirs and that gap is only going to get wider.

[mrydel]

I've already won 2 Whataburgers by sitting in Section of guy who hit 3 baskets-they did that in Garland it seems not in Moody. I'm reinvesting the prize money

They do it in Moody too but you are probably getting a beer when they do it

They do it at Moody but no one can make the shots.

[Pony ^]

I've already won 2 Whataburgers by sitting in Section of guy who hit 3 baskets-they did that in Garland it seems not in Moody. I'm reinvesting the prize money

They do it in Moody too but you are probably getting a beer when they do it

They do it at Moody but no one can make the shots.

This. What is up with picking out students that can't even dribble a basketball?

[deucetz]

SMU has made its decision to be a national university. Those wheels were set in motion several years ago. We could go the TCU route and be a more regional "Texas-centric) school, but the reality is that SMU will always be a better national draw than TCU. Partly due to location (Dallas vs. Fort Worth), but also in the higher quality postgraduate programs and the greater emphasis put on engineering.

There is really only room for one truly national university in DFW and SMU is it. TCU, and for that matter Baylor, really are not our peer institutions anymore. Our student quality is much, much, much higher than theirs and that gap is only going to get wider.

If that is true, why is SMU's acceptance rate so high, and its yield so bad?

SMU is still peers with TCU and Baylor even though the alumni think otherwise. They shouldn't be peers, but unless we fix the faculty and market the university to the area better so that we can reduce the acceptance rate and increase our yield, those schools will continue to be our peers academically. It takes a lot more than a few years to change the national perception of university.

[Harry0569]

SMU has made its decision to be a national university. Those wheels were set in motion several years ago. We could go the TCU route and be a more regional "Texas-centric) school, but the reality is that SMU will always be a better national draw than TCU. Partly due to location (Dallas vs. Fort Worth), but also in the higher quality postgraduate programs and the greater emphasis put on engineering.

There is really only room for one truly national university in DFW and SMU is it. TCU, and for that matter Baylor, really are not our peer institutions anymore. Our student quality is much, much, much higher than theirs and that gap is only going to get wider.

If that is true, why is SMU's acceptance rate so high, and its yield so bad?

SMU is still peers with TCU and Baylor even though the alumni think otherwise. They shouldn't be peers, but unless we fix the faculty and market the university to the area better so that we can reduce the acceptance rate and increase our yield, those schools will continue to be our peers academically. It takes a lot more than a few years to change the national perception of university.

The other thing that kills SMU's ranking is its freshmen retention rate. When I graduated in 2010, it was somewhere around 85%, which is 10% lower than schools we are trying to emulate (Duke, Vandy, Georgetown, etc.). That is truly awful.

[Stallion]

so what are girls that don't make Kappa PiPhi or Theta supposed to do?

[LA_Mustang]

Great promo! I like Whataburger but I'll take In-N-Out over Whata. Get the In-N-Out fries well done and the burger animal style. Both are great.

[StallionsModelT]

Would you call an accept rate of 50% given the quality of our average applicant "bad"? I certainly don't. The average student that applies to SMU is of a much higher quality than those that apply to TCU, Baylor, A&M, and yes even Texas. The only school in Texas that has a better applicant pool from which to draw from is Rice. We will never reach their academic prowess, but we have left Baylor, TCU, and A&M in the dust.

As to the retention rate I agree that needs some work. That's much too high when we want to be considered alongside some of the higher quality privates.

[East Coast Mustang]

so what are girls that don't make Kappa PiPhi or Theta supposed to do?

Stallion makes an excellent point.

As for acceptance rate, I know a lot of people when I was at SMU went there because they weren't accepted at UVa, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and other top-notch schools that are much more highly ranked than SMU. Not sure if that's the case for TCU and Baylor as much. Honest question: how many people choose TCU/Baylor over SMU? I'd imagine not many, unless there's a financial incentive to do so

[StallionsModelT]

That would be interesting to know. Baylor also has the religion aspect that plays heavily for and against it. Some kids that grow up Baptist have Baylor as their #1 school. My cousins went to Baylor that grew up Baptist and loved it there. TCU, like SMU, is really only church affiliated in name. There are probably less than 20 kids a year that choose to attend SMU because it is afffiliated with the Methodist church. Likely the same goes for TCU and its affiliation with Disciples of Christ.


I knew of no one at SMU that was denied entry to TCU or Baylor. It would take about 5 minutes on either of those campuses to find kids that didn't get into SMU. That's all you need to know.

[Mustangs_Maroons]

I chose SMU over ND back in the day, even though I realize that ND is a top premier academic school (similar to NW, Vandy, etc). I decided to stay in Dallas at that time, and I never for a second contemplated tcu, thought of it as a community college. People who think acceptance rates and yields are all alike have no clue unless you look at the applicant pool, and it's very different. We have much better stats, and those are facts. We are making progress, but we have a much longer way to go to bridge the gap vs. a Rice, and we don't compete with many of its applicants, similar to how tcu doesn't compete with us.

FWIW, this is a great promotional event.

[Harry0569]

so what are girls that don't make Kappa PiPhi or Theta supposed to do?

Stallion makes an excellent point.

As for acceptance rate, I know a lot of people when I was at SMU went there because they weren't accepted at UVa, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and other top-notch schools that are much more highly ranked than SMU. Not sure if that's the case for TCU and Baylor as much. Honest question: how many people choose TCU/Baylor over SMU? I'd imagine not many, unless there's a financial incentive to do so

While I am from out of state, I never even thought about applying to TCU/Baylor.

The only reason I went to SMU was because I didn't get into UVA, UNC or Vanderbilt and I didn't want to go to High School Part II (UGA). In fact, I went to SMU SITE UNSEEN. I came to SMU looking to transfer after the first semester. When I arrived, I realized how great it was and never looked back. Now, I wouldn't trade my experiences for anything else (within reason...).

[gostangs]

don't want to go off on anther student quality thread - but SMT is correct. Someone had the graph of average SAT scores as compared to Baylor and TCU from our provost on here before - and its not even close - although Baylor and TCU have both improved. They both used to be pretty bad.

Doesn't mean we don't have lots to improve on. National exposure in basketball can help us greatly - particularly on the east coast. Once someone sees SMU half the work is done. Once a male sees SMU co-eds the other half is done.

[Harry0569]

With all of this said, I got my cousin (an attractive girl) from Minnesota to take a look at SMU. She instantly fell in love with it, and I am happy to report that she got in early and will be going there this fall.

Once you visit the campus, it is GAME OVER.