Makes Me Sick At My Stomach

[gostangs]

Because you learn more around smart people. So the schools with best student quality are where you want to be.

[Mustangs_Maroons]

Is this a serious question? Maybe I'm crazy but I would want my kid to go to a top university vs. community college.

I want my kid to go to a school that best fits his skills, abilities, and interests.

But back to the topic, I still don't get why it matters how SMU does vis a vis other schools. Define a specific mission or missions -- and a specific constituency -- and fulfill that mission with excellence whether you're Chicago or Texas A&M - Corpus Christi.

It's pretty obvious you just don't get how higher education works. To put Rice and a community college or UChicago and A&M Corpus Christi in the same sentence is laughable. If your point is that they serve different constituencies. Yes they do. Those that have no chance at Rice can perhaps think of other lesser options. Same goes for work opportunities. Google and McDonalds both have different employee pools and both may serve their employees very well but that doesn't mean that finding a job at google than working at a mcdonalds franchise will represent a very different lifestyle. Which one do you want?? I guess why strive for google when mcdonalds can work?

It's already been explained what rankings mean and what they imply in terms of opportunities, education, classmates, network, research money, etc. and they all matter. The top schools care where they rank in every field. SMU should as well.

You don't like comparing SMU to other schools yet in another post you asked if the tennis courts may be the best In the NCAA. You asked because you know facilities does make some difference. It's all a competition to attract the best and position yourself as the best. Rankings are meant to reflect those differences.its the same why AP rankings matter in football and basketball. Ask the recruits if they don't care. Ask Saban if he doesn't care. Your argument would work really well.

As for SMU, it's important to improve research funding, attract better professors and in turn students. This all attracts better employers which in turn brings even better students. It's all circular and interrelated.

[tristatecoog]

Whether you're Rice or A&M-CC, I'm interested in which TX schools have improved the most over the past decade. Improved relative to their missions or US News rankings. I believe SMU has done very well in this regard.

Years ago, before class started, I was talking with a fellow UH business school student who transferred from UPenn (Wharton). He was telling me about that experience when someone in the row in front of us said that she too transferred from Wharton (CC). God Bless America!

[Pony^]

Speaking of UNT:

The University of North Texas has potentially overstated its financial position by $23 million since 2012 due to misreporting, according to documents released by the university. . . .

It’s the latest financial problem to affect UNT. The campus may also have to repay the state millions of dollars in a separate matter for misusing state funds to pay some employee benefits. . . .

The Deloitte report also says the university overstated how much cash it had by $5.9 million. Smith found that particularly troubling.

“What happened to the money?” he asked. The report didn’t explain, he said. . . .

Three top finance officials all resigned Feb. 13. Andrew Harris, vice president for finance and administration and Jean Bush, senior vice president for finance, resigned from the Denton campus. Carlos Hernandez, who was serving as vice president of finance at UNT Dallas but was previously controller and associate vice president for UNT Denton, also resigned that day.

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20140417-unt-finances-off-by-23-million.ece

[Mustangs_Maroons]

Whether you're Rice or A&M-CC, I'm interested in which TX schools have improved the most over the past decade. Improved relative to their missions or US News rankings. I believe SMU has done very well in this regard.

Years ago, before class started, I was talking with a fellow UH business school student who transferred from UPenn (Wharton). He was telling me about that experience when someone in the row in front of us said that she too transferred from Wharton (CC). God Bless America!

If someone can get into Upenn (any school) they very likely would have gotten into Rice. Upenn >> Rice. So any posible reason someone would transfer from Upenn to UH is not only because of personal and local reasons but also economic hardship reasons. Why throw away an education at one of the best schools for UH unless you're forced to for personal reasons and have limited other options. That's not God bless America. That is a sad situation.

[tristatecoog]

(Please) God Bless America that we have people who confuse Wharton (UPenn) and Wharton CC.

The UPenn guy was sharp and was from Houston. Not sure why he transferred. Could be financial or family reasons. Maybe homesick or didn't like the culture. It doesn't happen frequently but there are transfers like that every year. When I worked in Admissions in the early '90s, I got a last minute freshman transfer from MIT to UH a $4K per year scholarship. He had a 1500+ SAT from a large suburban Houston high school. If financial reasons didn't exist, I wouldn't have been able to recruit 70 Natl Merit scholars to UH in 1992 and 1993.

I disagree that UPenn >> Rice. My dad tutors (mostly Indian doctors') kids on the SAT in east TX. Two I remember got into Chicago and Johns Hopkins after not getting into Rice. Not terribly many have Penn on the top of their list despite being an awesome school. Big 3 + Columbia/Cornell seem more attractive to a general TX audience. Then add Penn, Brown and Dartmouth. I think Penn is pretty comparable to Rice and much larger.

[gostangs]

if you ask 100 provost in this country which is the better school - Penn or Rice, 95 will say Penn.

[tristatecoog]

Just looking at the 2013 incoming class stats:

Penn:
Middle 50% SAT ranges -- Math 700-790 and CR 680-770
ACT: 31-34

Rice:
Middle 50% SAT ranges -- Math 720-800 and CR 690-780...so 20+ pts higher than Penn
ACT: 31-35
82% ranked in the Top 5% of their class.
Rice also has Division I athletics and 41% of the entering student class size of Penn.

[whitwiki]

If you went to either, you wouldn't complain. Success beyond that is up to the individual and it doesn't matter where the [deleted] they studied. These arguments are so arbitrary.

[gostangs]

U.S. News - Penn # 7. RIce # 18

Agree with whitwiki though - both unbelievably great schools. Rice is best in Texas by a country mile.

[tristatecoog]

For grins:

SMU:
Middle 50% SAT range -- 1760-2050
Middle 50% ACT: 27-31

UT-Austin:
Middle 50% SAT range -- 1690-2040
Middle 50% ACT: 25-31

Based upon its admissions formula, I'd guess that UT has more students that graduated in the Top 10%, and it has a wider range of test scores because top 8% are admitted automatically.

TCU:
Middle 50% SAT range -- 1630-1930
Middle 50% ACT: 25-30

TCU admitted just 41% of its applicants, versus over 50% for SMU. Their recent sports popularity may have helped increase applications but they aren't of the same quality as UT's or SMU's. Only 25% yield at TCU.

Baylor's ACT range was 24-29. 60% of enrollees from the last two classes were female. TCU had 59% female in latest class. SMU is much more balanced with just 51% female.

[tristatecoog]

Emory:
2000-2230 SAT range
30-33 ACT; 57% female; 46% white; 14% from Georgia. Got a ways to go to catch up with them.

[gostangs]

not too long actually. The ACT score next year will move up a point on both ends for SMU. Pretty dang close. to Emory.

Our admitted percentage will also drop below 50% - a pretty dramatic one year drop (which is a very good thing).

The California kids will tell you that all the Cali kids apply to both SMU and TCU, and everyone knows you go to SMU if you can and TCU if you have to.

[Mustangs_Maroons]

Rice is a great school but it's not UPenn or UChicago. Johns Hopkins is a peer school. Rice gets a lot of in-state applicants compared to the top 12 schools in the country. It's just not as diverse. This is all for undergrad. For grad studies, they're not in the same hemisphere as the other two.
Your stats I think are apples and oranges. I think for UPenn it's enrolled students and rice you gave admitted students. That's a big difference because only a percentage actually end up enrolling.


As for the transfer, there are always exceptions but no one will transfer from UPenn to UH unless there are family circumstances, economic issues or some very one-off circumstances. Be honest. What other logical reason could there be to transfer back to Houston and attend UH when you're already attending UPenn?

[tristatecoog]

Good catch on admitted vs. enrolled students at Rice. That's informative in its own way but inflated vs. enrolled students. No debate that an Ivy League student isn't transferring to UH for a more rigorous academic experience.

Cool news, gostangs.