Makes Me Sick At My Stomach

[ponyboy]

We are not far from the day when SMU will be 65% or more out of state.

Side note. As a smallish private school, out of staters have always been a problem for our football attendance. And if what you say is true, this is even more concerning. I believe that local alums are the core of a football team's season ticket holders and most out of staters move back home or somewhere else after graduation. I've always believed we need to get the percentage of Texans into the 75% range rather than focusing on out of staters. If that seems a bit odd, don't forget that most people associate a school with their football program. I'm not saying that's right or anything, just true.

[StallionsModelT]

ponyboy,


I agree that the increased out of state student population makes it difficult for SMU attendance-wise b/c the vast majority of these kids didn't grow up in football crazy Texas and come into SMU with allegiances to the big programs in the states or cities they call home. It is a challenge that TCU and Baylor do not face like we do at SMU b/c they have much a much larger percentage of students from Texas.

That said, the university set out on this path and it isn't going to change. The way we are trying to combat this is increased on-campus housing (Residential Commons) and other initiatives to hopefully create an energetic vibe on campus and to give our students no excuses for not participating in football/basketball. The new dorms are literally right next door to Ford and Moody. The campus footprint has been designed to create more energy on campus and it should be fascinating to see if it has the sort of impact SMU expects. One thing that has always irked me about SMU is that you can be on campus on a random Tuesday and it can look like a ghost town at times.

[Mustangs_Maroons]

ponyboy,


I agree that the increased out of state student population makes it difficult for SMU attendance-wise b/c the vast majority of these kids didn't grow up in football crazy Texas and come into SMU with allegiances to the big programs in the states or cities they call home. It is a challenge that TCU and Baylor do not face like we do at SMU b/c they have much a much larger percentage of students from Texas.

That said, the university set out on this path and it isn't going to change. The way we are trying to combat this is increased on-campus housing (Residential Commons) and other initiatives to hopefully create an energetic vibe on campus and to give our students no excuses for not participating in football/basketball. The new dorms are literally right next door to Ford and Moody. The campus footprint has been designed to create more energy on campus and it should be fascinating to see if it has the sort of impact SMU expects. One thing that has always irked me about SMU is that you can be on campus on a random Tuesday and it can look like a ghost town at times.

If ponyboy thinks we should have higher instate students in order to help fill the football stadium than I gave him too much credit when is said he didn't get higher education bc the truth is he's clueless. He's got the tail wagging the dog. News flash: the purpose of a university is academics. The rest including sports is only meant to complement and add to it but it is not the purpose.

If you want 75% in state go to a state school.

Ask notre dame if having a national applicant base hurts its attendance. There are plenty of opps in Dallas that the idea should be to get many of these top students to stay in Dallas but also to help build a stronger national presence. Having a national applicant base will result in a more complete, diverse and competitive student body.

[tristatecoog]

A geographically diverse student body is one of the selling points I use with my kids for SMU. The UH Honors College had about 50% or more out of staters in the dorms and that was fun. My roommate had a pic of Bo Schembechler on his wall, and he went to U-M Medical School, but he's a UH sports donor and goes to all of the bowl games. He's a bit different than most but smarties don't usually pick a school for its athletics, unless they're an athlete!

The advisor I mentioned is a finance and accounting recruiter in Ft Worth, not a college advisor. He may have come from a public school background and obviously takes pride in finding diamonds in the rough. But that's what you're doing at UTA, et.al.

[PonyTime]

Buried in the Obamacare pile of paper is a provision that constrains private universities from starting a Medical School as well as expansion of current Medical Schools that are on the campus of Private Universities. This will impact schools like Duke, Northwestern, Vandy, etc.

The goal is to eventually have all doctors come out of government funded schools.

People are going to continue to learn what is buried in that law over the coming years.

[NavyCrimson]

We'll said- ponytime. Whatever the case re/ this BS of a 'tax' (LOL!!!) It is NOT PRETTY!!!

[couch 'em]

I can't find anything online that references such a provision

[PonyTime]

Someone in Sr. administration at SMU told this to a room full of people. I will find out more...

I think it has to do with the cutting off of grants and federal monies to Private Universities. Perhaps stated in a better way: The Government plans to make it financially impossible for a Private Med School to compete.

[Mustangs_Maroons]

Most of the top med schools are private. Don't see how this plan would hold any water.

[East Coast Mustang]

More good news coming out of the Affordable Care Act- like herpes, it's the gift that keeps on giving.

[NavyCrimson]

LOL!!! That's putting it mildly. Nothing 'affordable' about it for sure.

[deucetz]

LOL!!! That's putting it mildly. Nothing 'affordable' about it for sure.

Y'all really sound simple. Why do y'all have to make it a political issue on this site? Can we stick to the institution and sports. SMU doesn't even have a medical school, so why is this a topic? America's two party system simplifies things so much, that we sound like idiots talking about politics. Each side has pros and cons to their system.

Not that I agree with all the policies in the affordable care act but to play devil's advocate, shouldn't the majority of government money be spent on public medical schools owned by the states, and not private medical schools that already have large endowments? The majority of private medical schools that receive the most money from the government already have large private endowments. With limited dollars why should your money go to Harvard and Stanford's Medical Schools when it can go to UT Galveston or Texas Tech School of Medicine?

I hope the school administrators are focused on cracking the top 50, and not what other schools with medical schools are doing. In terms of our undergraduate experience we should be ashamed that: UCONN, Pepperdine, Fordham, University of Washington, UT Austin, Northeastern, Ohio State, Florida, UC Irvine, and George Washington are ahead of us. These are great institutions, but these large public schools and lower tiered private schools shouldn’t be able to compete against our undergraduate education. The best in Texas can't compete with the best in NY, DC, CA, or MA.

We aren't competing against the bottom tier in the east and the west. Shoot we aren’t even the top academic school in the AAC. We have more important things to discuss then policies that don’t affect us.