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smudubs wrote:

tristatecoog wrote:smudubs,

I used to recruit NM Scholars for U of Houston. The UH president, [deleted] Van Horn, in 1985-86 started a full ride for NMS and left for OU a few years later. He started the same program at OU and they've taken it even further. The UH head of admissions from that time went to Minnesota and I see that the Gophers offer a very competitive deal as well.

We would buy students' contact info from the testing service/Epsilon and screen for PSAT scores over a certain threshold. If your son showed some interest, he would be recruited hard. Not only by UH but a lot of other schools that place an emphasis on NMSs. Check out this list of schools that give sponsoring scholarships (page. 35+) and you'll see where your son would probably get extra attention.

http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf

Peer schools with high numbers of sponsoring NMs include:
Chicago -- 220
Wash U -- 159
USC -- 189
Vandy -- 175
Northwestern -- 167
Baylor (not peer) -- 72
Tulane -- 37

I'm surprised some of those schools aren't showing more interest. Rice will reject NMs, so will the Ivies of course. As you know, at SMU, the big 'ship to go for is the President's Endowed scholarship. It's very leadership based and gives lots of perks. Good luck!

Wash U, Vandy, and Baylor are the only schools on that list that he has not heard from. And I failed to mention that he has received a bit of correspondence from UH. It's just that he is not considering any in-state schools except Rice and SMU. But honestly, SMU lags far behind the other schools he is considering. He is applying to MIT (top choice), Chicago, Harvard, Rice, SMU and now OU.

He runs track and MIT has been recruiting him to run track and got a huge head start on everyone who is waiting for his indoor results. Most of the D-1 schools want him to clear 6'8 in high jump in a meet. He's done it in practice several times but never in a meet. As an aside, there were only 10 kids in the entire state last year who cleared higher than 6'6 and seven of those were in our region so he did not qualify for the state meet. I was talking to the parents of the top high jumper in the nation last year--he's now a freshman at Arkansas--and was told that Chris was better than his son at the same point in the high school careers and that he believed Chris would be the top jumper in the nation this year. If that happens he may end up considering other schools but he is more focused on academics than track. He's only focusing on the jumps now and believes he will go 7'0 this year. SMU is the only school he's considering that lacks a men's track program. I mention that only because I think we all agree SMU needs a men's track program and because this is, after all, a sports site.

PhantomPhi wrote:In the past 30 years that I have been around SMU, a friendly environment has always been fostered along with robust efforts in hiring minority staff and recruitment of students. (No, I am not an employee).

smudubs wrote:

tristatecoog wrote:smudubs,

I used to recruit NM Scholars for U of Houston. The UH president, [deleted] Van Horn, in 1985-86 started a full ride for NMS and left for OU a few years later. He started the same program at OU and they've taken it even further. The UH head of admissions from that time went to Minnesota and I see that the Gophers offer a very competitive deal as well.

We would buy students' contact info from the testing service/Epsilon and screen for PSAT scores over a certain threshold. If your son showed some interest, he would be recruited hard. Not only by UH but a lot of other schools that place an emphasis on NMSs. Check out this list of schools that give sponsoring scholarships (page. 35+) and you'll see where your son would probably get extra attention.

http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf

Peer schools with high numbers of sponsoring NMs include:
Chicago -- 220
Wash U -- 159
USC -- 189
Vandy -- 175
Northwestern -- 167
Baylor (not peer) -- 72
Tulane -- 37

I'm surprised some of those schools aren't showing more interest. Rice will reject NMs, so will the Ivies of course. As you know, at SMU, the big 'ship to go for is the President's Endowed scholarship. It's very leadership based and gives lots of perks. Good luck!

Wash U, Vandy, and Baylor are the only schools on that list that he has not heard from. And I failed to mention that he has received a bit of correspondence from UH. It's just that he is not considering any in-state schools except Rice and SMU. But honestly, SMU lags far behind the other schools he is considering. He is applying to MIT (top choice), Chicago, Harvard, Rice, SMU and now OU.

He runs track and MIT has been recruiting him to run track and got a huge head start on everyone who is waiting for his indoor results. Most of the D-1 schools want him to clear 6'8 in high jump in a meet. He's done it in practice several times but never in a meet. As an aside, there were only 10 kids in the entire state last year who cleared higher than 6'6 and seven of those were in our region so he did not qualify for the state meet. I was talking to the parents of the top high jumper in the nation last year--he's now a freshman at Arkansas--and was told that Chris was better than his son at the same point in the high school careers and that he believed Chris would be the top jumper in the nation this year. If that happens he may end up considering other schools but he is more focused on academics than track. He's only focusing on the jumps now and believes he will go 7'0 this year. SMU is the only school he's considering that lacks a men's track program. I mention that only because I think we all agree SMU needs a men's track program and because this is, after all, a sports site.

One Trick Pony wrote:Some people are looking for road blocks where they don't exist

dirtysouthpony wrote:I'm late to this thread, but it strikes a chord with me. My son played football, and he graduated last year. He told me about a couple of racial incidents that he had during his time at SMU. He got a little more scrutiny from the police when he wasn't wearing his smu foogball sweats. But he also met an African Americsn history professor who invited him to lunch with Ta Nehisi Coates when he vlsited campus. My boy is now in business school at Duke. He said that his smu education helped him to make a smooth transition to Duke. I think Dubs 2.0 will be successful wherever he lands.