SMU cost 2014-2015 $60,586

[malonish]

It was 40K when I began just in 2007.

[StallionsModelT]

I guess I don't understand the shock of the sticker price. Seriously, there are probably less than 200 kids at SMU who are paying $60K a year to attend. The overwhelming majority of SMU students are receiving some form of needs based or merit based scholarship that brings that figure down by greater than 50%. Jeez I bet you people also think 7.1 million people actually signed up for Obamacare too.

[SoCal_Pony]

When you compare our additional incremental cost to certain other Texas schools, absolutely.

Try selling a TCU or Baylor business degree to a Wall Street investment firm.

Actually, TCU's doing quite well on the investment side. They have their act together far better than Cox. I would love for Cox to steal a couple of their profs.

As an officer of a company who has visited Wall St mumerous times seeking capital, I can tell you investment firms value the people as much if not more than the business, at least in our industry. As such, your personal background, including education, matters.

Try selling yourself as a CFO with a degree from SMU vs TCU or Baylor. The extra $$$ for the SMU degree is well worth it.

[gostangs]

Baylor and TCU are not in our league. UT is however - and are as valued, if not more so. We actually do need to step it up - as much as everyone loves Neimi, i think it is time to think about successors - we are at a spot now that we could attract some of the best in the country. Our business school combined with Dallas as it is in 2014/15 is unstoppable - and we should not be willing to be anything but the best.

If we can get our football to match our business school and be half of our basketball program we will be onto something.

[NY Pony]

When you compare our additional incremental cost to certain other Texas schools, absolutely.

Try selling a TCU or Baylor business degree to a Wall Street investment firm.

Actually, TCU's doing quite well on the investment side. They have their act together far better than Cox. I would love for Cox to steal a couple of their profs.

As an officer of a company who has visited Wall St mumerous times seeking capital, I can tell you investment firms value the people as much if not more than the business, at least in our industry. As such, your personal background, including education, matters.

Try selling yourself as a CFO with a degree from SMU vs TCU or Baylor. The extra $$$ for the SMU degree is well worth it.

Mumerous. I miss Hal, too.

[JoeKidd]

When you compare our additional incremental cost to certain other Texas schools, absolutely.

Try selling a TCU or Baylor business degree to a Wall Street investment firm.

Actually, TCU's doing quite well on the investment side. They have their act together far better than Cox. I would love for Cox to steal a couple of their profs.

As an officer of a company who has visited Wall St mumerous times seeking capital, I can tell you investment firms value the people as much if not more than the business, at least in our industry. As such, your personal background, including education, matters.

Try selling yourself as a CFO with a degree from SMU vs TCU or Baylor. The extra $$$ for the SMU degree is well worth it.

No way that anyone cares by the time you're a CFO whether you went to school at SMU or TCU.

[SMU2007]

the extra money for a bachelors degree is in no way worth it. It's not like you are telling people you went to Harvard. Lets get serious here.

[StallionsModelT]

It was certainly worth it to me. I have an undergraduate degree from SMU and when I was entering the job market here in Dallas in 2006 the three individuals who made the final round of interviews for the job I wanted attended Cornell, Northwestern, and SMU (me). The practice leader who eventually became my boss was an SMU alum and took a chance on me despite the fact that the other two applicants went to better schools. Now I have his old job as he's continued to move up the ladder.

As to the money aspect, when I was a high school senior I applied and was accepted to SMU, UT, and Tulane. After scholarships and financial aid SMU was only marginally more expensive than UT. When you weigh in factors like class size, campus, student-teacher ratio, etc. it was really a no-brainer for me to attend SMU. SMU does fantastic work for kids that need the extra money.

That is just my story and I know it doesn't reflect everyone but I am deeply grateful for my SMU experience as it has allowed to work at a job where I've traveled all over the world and get rewarded handsomely to do so. I pinch myself everyday when I think of where I came from in nowhere East Texas to this. SMU is the reason for that.

Also, as to the tennis center, I am amazed at how fast that thing has gone up. It is seriously imposing as you are driving down Mockingbird. It will absolutely be one of the best tennis facilities in the entire country. That should be very encouraging for the swimming and diving folks when the new natatorium is built on the new East Campus. Also, I think you'll all be blown away by what we have in store for the IPF. This is SMU and we are not just going to throw up an ugly bubble or a metal frame monstrosity that will be an eyesore for the campus. It will be consistent with the overall campus aesthetic and again will be one of the finest facilities of its kind in the country.

As for lacrosse, you can expect it to be our next sport at the D1 level. The sport is spreading like wildfire now and SMU is the kind of profile school that can potentially build a very strong lacrosse program.

[CoxMustangFan]

The landscape for quality b-school education is changing quickly (especially in DFW). I wouldn't trade my SMU MBA for any in Texas (including Rice and UT), but to not acknowledge the shrinking gap between SMU and others is unwise. I'm not as concerned about rankings as I am in areas such as faculty quality, modern curriculum design and execution, and the efficacy of our alumni network.

[gostangs]

Cox - you are right that although we are ahead of everyone in this state but for UT - we can't stop looking in the rearview mirror. I think personally we need to make a change at the top of the business school and need a younger more aggressive dean that wants to engage at every level in the Dallas and Houston business community.

IPF will be best of class - it will be crazy nice. SMU will move up in lacrosse at the same time as at least UT and probably A&M - so that we have a 4 team circuit of SMU, Denver, UT and A&M in the middle of the country for lacrosse. It fits us better than anyone - and we are the most national university of the four - so we can draw from some spots that they don't.

We energize the business school and fix football and we are heading to some spots we have never been at SMU. Cant wait.

[SoCal_Pony]

When you compare our additional incremental cost to certain other Texas schools, absolutely.

As an officer of a company who has visited Wall St numerous times seeking capital, I can tell you investment firms value the people as much if not more than the business, at least in our industry. As such, your personal background, including education, matters.

Try selling yourself as a CFO with a degree from SMU vs TCU or Baylor. The extra $$$ for the SMU degree is well worth it.

No way that anyone cares by the time you're a CFO whether you went to school at SMU or TCU.

You are wrong.

Company went to Wall St for IPO funding. Officers were from Ivy League / UC schools + me. Investment firm, a reputable one, planned to market the bios of the officers, said it was important to their clients. Flat out told me in no way did they want the money man of this company to come from a lower tiered school. That was their words, not mine. They later clarified to me that they considered TCU & Baylor lower tiered.

[tristatecoog]

From my recruiting days at PepsiCo, I thought that Cox MBAs were equal to McCombs but just smaller in number. Cox recruits well at the top with its full rides but has a long tail. My mentee from last year is headed to a Houston IB. Not too shabby.

[JoeKidd]

When you compare our additional incremental cost to certain other Texas schools, absolutely.

As an officer of a company who has visited Wall St numerous times seeking capital, I can tell you investment firms value the people as much if not more than the business, at least in our industry. As such, your personal background, including education, matters.

Try selling yourself as a CFO with a degree from SMU vs TCU or Baylor. The extra $$$ for the SMU degree is well worth it.

No way that anyone cares by the time you're a CFO whether you went to school at SMU or TCU.

You are wrong.

Company went to Wall St for IPO funding. Officers were from Ivy League / UC schools + me. Investment firm, a reputable one, planned to market the bios of the officers, said it was important to their clients. Flat out told me in no way did they want the money man of this company to come from a lower tiered school. That was their words, not mine. They later clarified to me that they considered TCU & Baylor lower tiered.

Sorry, still don't buy it having done business on Wall St. and having many friends that are at the partner level with well known investment firms up there-most of them came out of Ivy League Schools and couldn't tell the difference between an SMU or TCU degree. Don't get me wrong I love my SMU undergrad degree and detest TCU and the Baptists, but in this day and age a degree is much less important than the connectivity you have (whether through school, family, etc.) and your talent level.

[StallionsModelT]

If we are arguing over "value" of a degree then SMU trumps Baylor, TCU, A&M. TCU and Baylor have a marginally smaller sticker price and A&M, unless you are an engineer, is nowhere near SMU quality.
We all can point to examples and outliers that pertain to our own personal experience but the reality is that SMU, while maybe more expensive, offers its graduates a far better ROI than anyone in the state other than Rice if that graduate utilizes every resource that SMU provides.

[smustatesman]

On a lighter note.......the alums from The University of Indiana must be very proud of their current undergrad, Julian Batts. As a participant on "Wheel Of Fortune's", college week; he was able to turn all the letters to a puzzle, but could not pronounce Achilles' name , and lost the round.......I'm sure it's on youtube.
As we say in the STL...what a effing hoosier.