Cost to attend SMU $57,756

[PonyKai]

You know, it's possible for both emerging camps to be "correct" on this issue. I will submit that I fully understand and appreciate that it's necessary, every school does it, there are tangible benefits to giving back (well duh) and we all should. I will also submit that in my personal experience, and in my personal opinion, my issue arises with the general attitude and approach to the issue that the current administration has taken- not the act itself.

I'm willing to bet plenty will disagree with me on the subject. That's fine, and that's all that I'll say. If that makes me a bitter, ungrateful whiner, so be it. But it's not an isolated opinion, and it's more prevalent among young alumni that have passed through SMU in my general age group. And when you begin to have a group of people, all who should be supporting the school, and all who aren't, and who all share the same- we'll call it concern- that's an issue.

[mustangxc]

Maybe it is generational? I know I am still considered a young alum, but do realize that my generation has a huge sense of entitlement and it only gets worse every year! I guess even SMU churns out the 99%.

[couch 'em]

I suspect feelings on donations are related more to whom went to SMU on full scholarship (be it football, academic, or daddy) vs coming out with student loan debt.

[mrydel]

But please explain why, if SMU is supposed t be a highly rated academic school that it takes 4 years or more and a degree to come to the realization that SMU is too expensive and has no decency when appealing for financial contributions. All of these complaints about the cost of the school make me wonder why these folks chose to go to SMU. If the cost was too high then go elsewhere. If attended because of the excellent education and future employment prospects, why degrade the school when they ask for support?

[blackoutpony]

You know, it's possible for both emerging camps to be "correct" on this issue. I will submit that I fully understand and appreciate that it's necessary, every school does it, there are tangible benefits to giving back (well duh) and we all should. I will also submit that in my personal experience, and in my personal opinion, my issue arises with the general attitude and approach to the issue that the current administration has taken- not the act itself.

I'm willing to bet plenty will disagree with me on the subject. That's fine, and that's all that I'll say. If that makes me a bitter, ungrateful whiner, so be it. But it's not an isolated opinion, and it's more prevalent among young alumni that have passed through SMU in my general age group. And when you begin to have a group of people, all who should be supporting the school, and all who aren't, and who all share the same- we'll call it concern- that's an issue.

+1

Couldn't have said it better.

[gostangs]

yeah...i am a bit confused also, as it seems Mrydel is. If you are on this board you are an SMU supporter, presumably not just the athletic team but the school in general. And if you are mature enough to know SMU at least partially depends on yearly donations from alumni, i just don't get how you could be offended by our school officials doing their job. Of course they are going to suggest an amount. They should be fired if they DONT ask you for money.

Seems overly sensitive or out of touch..one or the other. I actually want them to do more solicitation so we can get to the IPF, natatorium and other sports things faster, since no administration in the country is going to raise money for just sports stuff - the more non-sports stuff gets raised, the faster we can get to the sports stuff.

Give early and give often. You aint going to miss it. What are we talking about, a 12 pack every three months?

[CalallenStang]

It is insulting. And they start at 500$, not 1-2. And they call weekly.

Just go online and you can give whatever you want to give.

[StallionsModelT]

Meh. There are so many things in this world to be insulted by. I would think your alma mater asking for a donation would be very far down that list.

[rodrod5]

http://www.smu.edu/admission/FinancialAid/Costs

53% of students at SMU get a financial aid package of MORE THAN $25,000 and another 7% get from $20,001 to $25,000

so 60% of the students are paying nowhere near $57,756 for their education and I personally do not consider room and board as part of "college cost" or "college expenses" because the reality is if you exist you have food and housing cost if you are at college or not at college and if you don't understand that try spending nothing on food and housing and let me know how that works out for you and the reality is $1,166.25 per month on food and housing and utilities is pretty damn cheap

where are you going to live for that if not at home for "free" with mom and dad.....hell if you live in the freaking ghetto you are looking at $600 for rent and ghetto housing is not energy efficient by any means so you are looking at $200 for electric right off the bat and that leaves you $366.25 a month to eat, pay a natural gas bill if you have that, phone, and internet.....good luck with all of that especially when you will be coming home monthly to your $600 dollar a month apartment with the door kicked in and all of your stuff missing....LIVING is not a "college" expense unless your choices are college or homeless and starving to death

so the cost of COLLEGE at SMU is $43,800 and when 60% of the students get at least $20,001 in aid that knocks it down to $23,800 which is more than state schools (as is pretty much every private school), but it is not something that is just dreadful or that should break someone for the rest of their life to cover

and again that is 60% of the students and a large portion of that 60% are paying even less than that and some significantly less than that

if you feel you have paid enough to SMU that is a personal choice, but it seems that many think they paid a lot and they had such a great experience and it was so personally beneficial to them that they desire to give more in the future so others can share that same experience for a lower cost or a similar cost with inflation

I personally feel that alumni giving in college rankings is a metric that has meaning because in the USA people rarely if ever give money to something they feel was a ripoff or that was meaningless to them when they paid for it the first time.....and hell I am not even an SMU alumni

I was reading on another forum just the other day when a guy ask everyone to explain the "Aggy Network" because he had bid for a company with a company and he was pretty certain that what his company offered was far and above what another company offered for a similar price and that the other company would possibly not even be able to fulfill the contract.....but the company went with the other choice because the owner was an A&M grad and the other company was owned by an A&M grad from 20 years later

hell it is really not that difficult to figure out....if SMU (or A&M or any other schools with a strong network) was producing crappy law students, crappy business students and crappy everything else then those that go on to have success would surely know their success was because of their own hard work ad NOTHING else and more importantly they would know that the future graduates from their university were probably not prepared so they only reason to hire them or even give them a chance would be because of personal interviews and experience and even more so there would be no reason to give them a leg up on anyone else because you would know they were coming out of a university that you felt poorly prepared you and that surely poorly prepared them.....and if owners and companies ignored that and hired people anyway how long would they last hiring poorly prepared students based on a poor quality university degree and nothing else.....their company would get eaten alive.....and yet the reality is SMU has a large number of successful business owners and graduates and the often hire SMU graduates for their business.....and their business continues to have success......which is why they are able to give back large sums of money and willingly do so.....because the are appreciative of their personal experience and of the people they are able to easily find and interview and often hire to help them achieve more personal and business success and they want SMU to be able to continue to attract those types of students and produce those types of graduates into the future

you can only fake it so long and you can only ride on a piece of paper with a university name on it for so long of that degree and experience was useless because outside in the real world even if SMU all "stuck together" knowing they were just sticking together for the sake of sticking together and not because of any type of transformational experience while at SMU......well those companies and those individuals would get eaten alive and over time it would lead to the opposite effect of "just stay the hell away" from that clique of people all telling themselves something other than reality

SMU may not work for everyone and that is how it will always be, but it appears to me that it is working for a hell of a lot more people than it is not working for

[bubba pony]

53% of students at SMU get a financial aid package of MORE THAN $25,000 and another 7% get from $20,001 to $25,000
------------

I don't think this is free scholarship money. I believe the "aid package" includes college loans, preferably at a reduced percentage.

[BigT3x]

I don't think this is free scholarship money. I believe the "aid package" includes college loans, preferably at a reduced percentage.

Ding ding ding ding ding

I've been paying back my "aid" for years.

As far as the diatribe above, the numbers are so laughably off that I can tell that person hasn't had to survive like a 20 year old for decades... or they've had Daddy cut a check. Oh and "living" is a college expense when your university forces you to pay OUTRAGEOUS rent in the dorms for a certain number of years.

[gostangs]

The numbers mentioned above do NOT include student loans.

just admit you are wrong and throw SMU a 25 dollar bone every year.

[StallionsModelT]

My parents were public school teachers in rural East Texas and thanks to SMU financial aid and scholarships, it was actually cheaper for our family to send me to SMU than UT-Austin. I'm eternally thankful to SMU for that opportunity. Very few kids from where I grew up ever dream of getting the kind of education and exposure that I was able to get at SMU. For that I will gladly give the university $200 a year so that maybe in some small way I too will help a kid realize their dreams of a world class college education. I'm not a rich guy but I live comfortably. You can't take money with you to the grave. Use it for causes that you are passionate about. SMU is my passion.

[RGV Pony]

My parents were public school teachers in rural East Texas .

Arp?

[StallionsModelT]

Lone Oak!