ord89 said:

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There was only one SEC school that had a major Pro Palestinian protest on campus. Want to guess which one?

SEC schools seem to be, unfortunately, heading down the woke trail, but tu is wayyyyy ahead. Talk about a cultural mis-match.

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All public schools are woke. Some more than others, for sure, though.

Science Denier said:

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Texas A&M acceptance rate (2024) is 63.25%

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True, but there's some detail needed. The overall acceptance is 63%, but this includes the automatically admitted high school top 10% which is state law. If you remove the top 10% which is 100% accepted, then you're left with about a 35% at large acceptance rate.

A&M will update their stats in September so the 35% is an educated guess until the numbers are announced. There are annually a crap ton of students applying to A&M.

Tree Hugger said:

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My niece is about to start her senior year of HS and my SIL has been bragging about how she has already been accepted to her top school choice.

It's Tarleton.

The cheese from between my toes could get into Tarleton.

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You sound like a swell uncle. No need to crap on someone else's choices. Particularly family.

Bazooka Joe said:

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Science Denier said:

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Texas A&M acceptance rate (2024) is 63.25%

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True, but there's some detail needed. The overall acceptance is 63%, but this includes the automatically admitted high school top 10% which is state law. If you remove the top 10% which is 100% accepted, then you're left with about a 35% at large acceptance rate.

A&M will update their stats in September so the 35% is an educated guess until the numbers are announced. There are annually a crap ton of students applying to A&M.

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And a crap ton on campus.

TX_COWDOC said:

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Tree Hugger said:

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My niece is about to start her senior year of HS and my SIL has been bragging about how she has already been accepted to her top school choice.

It's Tarleton.

The cheese from between my toes could get into Tarleton.

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You sound like a swell uncle. No need to crap on someone else's choices. Particularly family.

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It all depends on the major. Maybe she is studying something at Tarleton that is actually a stronger program than the same one at A&M.

Most public schools in the South have had an increase in applications driven by a variety of factors. You have states like Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia that have grown significantly in population and at the same time have become popular destinations for OOS kids to want to attend. Part of that is value. Part of that is weather. Part of that is culture.

One big driver is less about woke per se as experience, especially for boys. Boys don't want to go to Liberal Arts schools anymore. Same with drab public schools with no culture outside of school that are common in the Northeast. A dirty little secret in college admissions is the boys drive the applications because the girls chase the boys. Boys don't care about what the ratio of male/female generally but girls do. It's considered a death spiral for most schools when they go over 60% female because girls don't want to go there and boys likely weren't interested to begin with. They tend to be Liberal Arts focused schools and most boys are majoring in Engineering, Business, or Sciences. You also have the reality that overall the college student population is now 60/40 female. It's gradually killing colleges, many of which are in financial trouble and are unlikely to pull out of it. I expect the number of colleges that close in the next decade to explode.

The public schools of the South offer a great college atmosphere that boys are interested in and thus girls follow. They also tend to focus on Business, Science, and Engineering, not Liberal Arts. Covid also played a hand in this for a lot of people, they want a fun atmosphere that has sports and activities. Girls love the Sororities and activities as well and to have fun. The rankings, job placement, and value of those schools is also going through the roof and a lot of them offer nice scholarship money (esp the states that aren't growing as fast).

The strong schools in the South are also now becoming super selective, especially in the most popular majors. UNC is probably the most difficult OOS admit in the country. Georgia Tech for some of the Engineering specialties is harder to get into than MIT. Florida and Texas are pushing 100k applicants. Those schools have strong advantages for In State students in admission so OOS is just insanely competitive with so many applicants for so few spots. It's thus moving down level by level. UGA and NC State are getting really competitive as is A&M of course. Then Auburn/Clemson/UT etc are moving from virtually automatic admission to more and more competitive and less scholarship money thrown around. In the end as the Liberal Arts private schools are dying the big publics are doing better than ever down South.

If I had an 18 year old kid right now Id be pushing him to become a welder, plumber, electrician, HVAC, then get his business degree on the side if he wants to. Use the acumen he's learned being raised by educated parents to learn his trade then run his own business.

I'm 5 years away from my daughter starting college and already trying to do my homework on how I best position her for the future.

10 years ago I would have said no doubt I'm hoping for my kids to be Aggies like me and my wife. But, at this point there are probably 5 or 6 schools higher on my list for her. A&M has spent 20 years prioritizing growing enrollment at any cost. As another poster said earlier, the focus should be on finding the right academic program. If that's at a smaller school, so be it. It meant everything for me to get into and graduate from a top university, but I'm not so sure that same logic applies anymore with so many of the top universities devaluing their own degrees with woke policies and curriculum.

Both of my daughters roommates at Ole Miss last year were from Orange county California. She also had friends from Baltimore and Philly.

Are there any state schools in Big 10 that' are losing enrollment? Increasing acceptance rate?

This seems to be a trend much wider than the south

Both of my kids went to, and graduated from, A&M Consolidated. Neither of them wanted to attend A&M. Due partially to my "mental brutality" before they took the ACT, the score 33/36 and 34/36. They both got full ride offers at three SEC schools. Those schools made it clear that they wanted to poach great students and good kids from Texas (and skipping over Louisiana). Alas, my daughter decided on Texas (which offered a pantry $1,500, and my son got virtually all of his undergrad paid for. Then, the same school paid for his Masters. If Texas parents are t looking at options out of the state, they may be needlessly throwing a lot of $$$ away. There are a few good SEC options. Auburn is one of them. And there are other good options beyond the SEC.

Independence H-D said:

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Both of my daughters roommates at Ole Miss last year were from Orange county California. She also had friends from Baltimore and Philly.

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Yeah … TCU is full, so Cali girls are moving further East.

Bazooka Joe said:

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Science Denier said:

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Texas A&M acceptance rate (2024) is 63.25%

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True, but there's some detail needed. The overall acceptance is 63%, but this includes the automatically admitted high school top 10% which is state law. If you remove the top 10% which is 100% accepted, then you're left with about a 35% at large acceptance rate.

A&M will update their stats in September so the 35% is an educated guess until the numbers are announced. There are annually a crap ton of students applying to A&M.

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What you'll never see from any schools, including A&M, are the attrition (including failure) rates after the first and second semesters. And you'll sure as heck not see what percentage of that number were top 10% admitted … or from what high schools … or the ethnic and socioeconomic status of those students.

Science Denier said:

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Texas A&M acceptance rate (2024) is 63.25%

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People conflate the terms acceptance rate vs enrolled. A&M has to accept all top 10% applicants. If every one of them enrolled there would be no room for review applicants.

TheEternalOptimist said:

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My daughter spent 12 of her first 17 years in Texas. We were Texas taxpayers.

We moved to Minnesota, and she wanted to be an Aggie. Her GPA was in the lower 3.9s and scored in top 20% on ACT. She applied....and they offered her a enrollment at Commerce or Corpus Christi with conditional admittance to College Station after a year......

...Meanwhile both Alabama and LSU offered her not only spots, but both offered her significant scholarships. LSU had the highest scholarship so she took it. Unfortunately, she hated LSU and Baton Rouge, while still loving Tiger Football. Baton Rouge just.... sucks. Especially when a student is shot 50 yards from your dorm at Acadian. She left, on the deans list, and went with a small Catholic School in Bismarck.

But I have little doubt she would have stayed at TAMU had they admitted her.

The frustration for me is many of her childhood friends from Midlothian who had lower GPA's and lower test scores got into TAMU still.....

To me, my 30 years of paying taxes in Texas prior to us moving to MN, should have given us some sort of more reasonable shot for her to get in. But it doesnt work that way. Sucks.

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She was going to be admitted as a sophomore as long as she kept a 3.0, correct? There are a lot of kids who become Aggies through this program. They come in and backfill the spots from dropouts or kids who flunk out. Not all top 10% applicants are equal in comparison, but they have to take them.

This is a positive trend but even SEC schools are still run by leftists. It may be marginally better than going to some prestigious northeastern school, but these kids will still be indoctrinated for the better part of 4-6 years.

Tree Hugger said:

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My niece is about to start her senior year of HS and my SIL has been bragging about how she has already been accepted to her top school choice.

It's Tarleton.

The cheese from between my toes could get into Tarleton.

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Tarleton is a great school and getting bigger and better every day.

Science Denier said:

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Texas A&M acceptance rate (2024) is 63.25%

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Probably a little higher due to people not in the top ten percent even bothering to apply. My son applied and was admitted to A&M in 2010. He was told if he wasn't in the top ten % not to bother by a counselor. He was in the top ten % so he did get admitted.
This could drag down the volume of applications.

Tree Hugger said:

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txyaloo said:

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Tree Hugger said:

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My niece is about to start her senior year of HS and my SIL has been bragging about how she has already been accepted to her top school choice.

It's Tarleton.

The cheese from between my toes could get into Tarleton.

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Why **** on Tarleton? It's probably a better experience than CS these days.

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My intention is to state that Tarleton is incredibly easy to get into and that my SIL doesn't need to be waving her purple flag around as if my niece just got into Harvard Law or something.

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I'd be more proud and happy my kid got into Tarleton than Harvard. Harvard is an evil place. Whatever prestige it had at one point it is quickly fading.

Im Gipper said:

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By comparison, I checked these randomly selected non-Southern schools for admission rates:

Wisconsin
now: 43.4%
2010: 54.5%

Michigan
now: 18%
2010: just under 50%

Penn State
now: 58.7%
2010: 55%

Washington
now: 43%
2010: 55%


Is this a trend across all state schools?

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Yes, for flagship universities. All others are getting hammered.

From the WSJ:

Quote:

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Large flagship universitiesblessed with strong academic reputations and high-profile sports programscontinue to boost local economies. In such cities as Ann Arbor, Mich., University of Michigan, Madison, Wis., University of Wisconsin, and Gainesville, Fla., University of Florida, students fill dorms, restaurants and bars.

A Wall Street Journal analysis of 748 public four-year colleges and universities in all 50 states shows that full- and part-time enrollment at the most prominent state universities increased 9% in 2023 compared with 2015. At lesser-known regional state universities, enrollment fell 2%. The shift represents tens of thousands of students who have abandoned struggling college towns.

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Quote:

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At the University of Tennessee Knoxville, the state's flagship school, enrollment jumped 30% in 2023 compared with 2015. Enrollment at Tennessee's 10 regional state colleges fell a combined 3% over the same period. In Wisconsin, enrollment at the University of Wisconsin in Madison jumped 16% and fell 9% at regional public campuses over the same period. Between 2011 and 2023, the economies of the metropolitan areas that include Madison and Knoxville grew faster than the U.S. as a whole.

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Quote:

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Smaller, less distinguished private schools have similar troubles, which have resulted in the closures of at least 242 institutions that issue college degrees in the past decade, according to the Hechinger Report, which covers education news.

Of students choosing to enter college, more of them are aiming for prestigious universities, believing those diplomas will get them better jobs, said Richard Vedder, an economist at Ohio University who studies higher education. "It's a flight to quality," he said.

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I was thinking the exact same thing.
A&M is waaaay too big, and T-State is a lot more of what A&M used to be.

jja79 said:

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Tree Hugger said:

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txyaloo said:

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Tree Hugger said:

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My niece is about to start her senior year of HS and my SIL has been bragging about how she has already been accepted to her top school choice.

It's Tarleton.

The cheese from between my toes could get into Tarleton.

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Why **** on Tarleton? It's probably a better experience than CS these days.

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My intention is to state that Tarleton is incredibly easy to get into and that my SIL doesn't need to be waving her purple flag around as if my niece just got into Harvard Law or something.

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When I applied to A&M they wanted to know if I graduated HS and did I have $1,000. It wasn't some elite academic school.

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I feel yall need to give this guy a break. What he was saying had nothing to do Tarellton and everything to do with his SIL and her insinuation. Which I totally get.

Everyone take a breath fellas!

WestHoustonAg79 said:

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jja79 said:

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Tree Hugger said:

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txyaloo said:

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Tree Hugger said:

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My niece is about to start her senior year of HS and my SIL has been bragging about how she has already been accepted to her top school choice.

It's Tarleton.

The cheese from between my toes could get into Tarleton.

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Why **** on Tarleton? It's probably a better experience than CS these days.

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My intention is to state that Tarleton is incredibly easy to get into and that my SIL doesn't need to be waving her purple flag around as if my niece just got into Harvard Law or something.

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When I applied to A&M they wanted to know if I graduated HS and did I have $1,000. It wasn't some elite academic school.

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I feel yall need to give this guy a break. What he was saying had nothing to do Tarellton and everything to do with his SIL and her insinuation. Which I totally get.

Everyone take a breath fellas!

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At the same time I think a lot of people are telling a grown ass man to let a 18 year old girl have her moment.

Sid Farkas said:

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I'll affirm Travis' assertion about merely having a pulse to be admitted back in the day. I likely wouldn't have been accepted to A&M if they were using today's standards and got the absolute flood of applicants they currently get. #boomerprivledge.

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I agree w/r/t myself and to many of the friends I made at A&M. Some of whom are pretty accomplished guys today.

And that begs the question -- How many of A&M's "Distinguished Alumni" would even be admitted under today's standards and policies, and not told to look elsewhere as they just didn't "measure up?"

And the followup question -- Are 'academic standards' all they're cracked up to be?

And no, I don't have a good answer, but I do know some kids who wanted badly to be Ags and would have made excellent representatives of our school be told 'nosir.'

Bazooka Joe said:

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WestHoustonAg79 said:

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jja79 said:

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Tree Hugger said:

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txyaloo said:

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Tree Hugger said:

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My niece is about to start her senior year of HS and my SIL has been bragging about how she has already been accepted to her top school choice.

It's Tarleton.

The cheese from between my toes could get into Tarleton.

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Why **** on Tarleton? It's probably a better experience than CS these days.

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My intention is to state that Tarleton is incredibly easy to get into and that my SIL doesn't need to be waving her purple flag around as if my niece just got into Harvard Law or something.

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When I applied to A&M they wanted to know if I graduated HS and did I have $1,000. It wasn't some elite academic school.

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I feel yall need to give this guy a break. What he was saying had nothing to do Tarellton and everything to do with his SIL and her insinuation. Which I totally get.

Everyone take a breath fellas!

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At the same time I think a lot of people are telling a grown ass man to let a 18 year old girl have her moment.

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His comment has nothing to do with her. But can agree to disagree. Yall are being way too dense here.

aggie93 said:

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Most public schools in the South have had an increase in applications driven by a variety of factors. You have states like Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia that have grown significantly in population and at the same time have become popular destinations for OOS kids to want to attend. Part of that is value. Part of that is weather. Part of that is culture.

One big driver is less about woke per se as experience, especially for boys. Boys don't want to go to Liberal Arts schools anymore. Same with drab public schools with no culture outside of school that are common in the Northeast. A dirty little secret in college admissions is the boys drive the applications because the girls chase the boys. Boys don't care about what the ratio of male/female generally but girls do. It's considered a death spiral for most schools when they go over 60% female because girls don't want to go there and boys likely weren't interested to begin with. They tend to be Liberal Arts focused schools and most boys are majoring in Engineering, Business, or Sciences. You also have the reality that overall the college student population is now 60/40 female. It's gradually killing colleges, many of which are in financial trouble and are unlikely to pull out of it. I expect the number of colleges that close in the next decade to explode.

The public schools of the South offer a great college atmosphere that boys are interested in and thus girls follow. They also tend to focus on Business, Science, and Engineering, not Liberal Arts. Covid also played a hand in this for a lot of people, they want a fun atmosphere that has sports and activities. Girls love the Sororities and activities as well and to have fun. The rankings, job placement, and value of those schools is also going through the roof and a lot of them offer nice scholarship money (esp the states that aren't growing as fast).

The strong schools in the South are also now becoming super selective, especially in the most popular majors. UNC is probably the most difficult OOS admit in the country. Georgia Tech for some of the Engineering specialties is harder to get into than MIT. Florida and Texas are pushing 100 applicants. Those schools have strong advantages for In State students in admission so OOS is just insanely competitive with so many applicants for so few spots. It's thus moving down level by level. UGA and NC State are getting really competitive as is A&M of course. Then Auburn/Clemson/UT etc are moving from virtually automatic admission to more and more competitive and less scholarship money thrown around. In the end as the Liberal Arts private schools are dying the big publics are doing better than ever down South.

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Nailed it

There is no way I would be accepted into A&M with today's standards. I was top 25% in my high school class...barely.

Now, I did have an incredible ACT score of 32 which might still get me in (but then offset by an extremely average 1080 SAT).

Dunno.

except it does not appear that is limited to "the south" see article from YouBet above

BMX Bandit said:

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Are there any state schools in Big 10 that' are losing enrollment? Increasing acceptance rate?

This seems to be a trend much wider than the south

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I see the job market starting to push kids to either trades/licenses or whatever big name school you can possibly get accepted into, to bolster your career odds. People come to Texas because of our industries, and almost every major university is tied to them.

Big state universities are what kids love to brag about online, and smaller private schools are on the ropes as a result. Deeper than that the novelty of a degree isn't what it once was, and small liberal arts colleges are practically dying.

I knew people who had full rides to smaller private schools in Upstate NY and Pennsylvania because the CUNY system has a choke hold. Same with those California kids who run to Arizona and Arizona State as a result.

YouBet said:

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There is no way I would be accepted into A&M with today's standards. I was top 25% in my high school class...barely.

Now, I did have an incredible ACT score of 32 which might still get me in (but then offset by an extremely average 1080 SAT).

Dunno.

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Not so fast my friend. While A&M is a test optional school, just five years ago +/- they had a second automatic qualifier that if you were top 25% and scored at least a 30 on your act then you were accepted.

While the second automatic qualifier has been removed (probably because of a numbers problem), I think you're still in if your GPA wasn't atrocious.

The LSU grads I know are sending their children to Arkansas because Baton Rouge has gotten so dangerous. Fayetteville is much safer and nicer in comparison to BR. So I can definitely see parents in blue state ****holes sending their kids off

Thanks for that link!

What I expected!