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I say by the end of this decade SMU will trail only Rice in the national rankings. The amount of money, infrastructure, presidential library, prestige, and momentum surrounding SMU is truly unprecedented. You definitely get the feeling this institution is capitalizing on so many of its built-in advantages. What say you? In my mind its not a matter of if we can pass UT, but when.

I would think we would need to significantly increase the amount of research the university does. I haven't heard of any plan to address that.

Are we not making significant progress in this regard?

Not that I was aware of.

It is hard to ramp up research without a medical school. We are doing better with engineering and life sciences but it will be a long time - if ever - before we will be considered an elite research school.

As far as your initial question, we have in all likelihood passed them in regards to SAT scores and are doing very well in all the metrics. However, reputations take a long time adjust good and bad - in this case, you have over 300 school presidents whose minds must be changed and then of course the typical east and west coast bias so..........10 years maybe if we are lucky and keep going in the direction we are headed. Probably more like 15 and that is if Texas alums don't finally revolt and get the 10% rule canned.........

StallionsModelT wrote:I say by the end of this decade SMU will trail only Rice in the national rankings. The amount of money, infrastructure, presidential library, prestige, and momentum surrounding SMU is truly unprecedented. You definitely get the feeling this institution is capitalizing on so many of its built-in advantages. What say you? In my mind its not a matter of if we can pass UT, but when.

haha, by the end of the decade?

there are two things holding us back

1. significant lack of research being done, and lack of well-known researchers

2. we are not very well respected/thought of for graduate degrees outside of our law school, business school, and SW studies...that might sound like a lot to some alumni (cox,dedman) but it isn't much in the academic community.

If those things are holding us so far back why are we so close in the national rankings to UT right now? Its not like we are light years behind them.

i know i've mentioned this before, but this current momentum is not sustainable...the higher we climb the more difficult it is to move up to the next rung, that is not to say that we will not be able to pass them.

Why is it not sustainable? The caliber of graduates from SMU right now are the best in it's history. The caliber of students we are admitting has never been better. We have already passed A&M and Baylor. Why can't we keep it going?

StallionsModelT wrote:Why is it not sustainable? The caliber of graduates from SMU right now are the best in it's history. The caliber of students we are admitting has never been better. We have already passed A&M and Baylor. Why can't we keep it going?

1)Everyone else is working just as hard as us so it makes progress difficult

2)Low hanging fruit is gone - % improvement is going to get tougher

3)Most importantly - demographics are changing. To continue to improve, we have to get more students scoring over 1400 on the SAT who can also pay the freight. It means we are chasing white, affluent, very smart kids and this demographic is shrinking - not to mention the fact every private highly ranked school is chasing these same kids.......

SMu's best asset is its location....As Dallas goes, SMU goes...

Every Great City has a premier University that represents it...As long as SMU capitalizes as being Dallas's elite University and Dallas continues to grow SMU will be climbing.

Keep focusing on the athletic side and you will re-engage a large population of Alumni that aren't heavily involved but want something to root for.

I agree w/ Nick. Even though we are not at Northwestern's level we should aspire to be the elite university in the area like they are w/ Chicago. Dallas is growing exponentially and that growth is not expected to stop anytime soon. We have to continue to hitch our wagon to Dallas and the Dallas business and legal communities in order for us to get to where we want to go. I guess I just don't understand why this is not possible.

I also see athletics as another huge resevoir for support that we haven't tapped into. If and when we are admitted into a BCS conference, hopefully we have continued our success in football and have made strides in basketball so that we are nationally relevant. I don't see the momentum garnered from the Unbridled Campaign stopping. I think SMU's best days are still ahead of us and that becoming a Top 40 school is very attainable.

StallionsModelT wrote:I agree w/ Nick. Even though we are not at Northwestern's level we should aspire to be the elite university in the area like they are w/ Chicago. Dallas is growing exponentially and that growth is not expected to stop anytime soon. We have to continue to hitch our wagon to Dallas and the Dallas business and legal communities in order for us to get to where we want to go. I guess I just don't understand why this is not possible.

I also see athletics as another huge resevoir for support that we haven't tapped into. If and when we are admitted into a BCS conference, hopefully we have continued our success in football and have made strides in basketball so that we are nationally relevant. I don't see the momentum garnered from the Unbridled Campaign stopping. I think SMU's best days are still ahead of us and that becoming a Top 40 school is very attainable.

I don't think I read any of the above comments saying that it wouldn't or couldn't happen, just that it is going to take a long time.

Correct..........

SMU's model has for a long time been to hire the best professors money can buy but then let relative dummies into the school for a high price.