Are the woke schools up north losing good students to the SEC? Are good students in the SEC states getting the shaft?

I looked it up: in 2010, the UT acceptance rate was around 85%.

https://unischolars.com/blog/university-of-tennessee-acceptance-rate/

When I was a high school senior, you basically needed a pulse to get in to the University of Tennessee. (And many other SEC schools.) This year the UT admit rate was 38% with over 60,000 applications. SEC schools are on fire. Everyone from all over the country wants to attend.

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 1, 2025

Several southern schools are seeing the same phenomena. Higher applications from all over the country and the resulting lower acceptance rates. The Common App contributes for sure but COVID and woke culture were a wake-up call for parents and students IMO. Acceptance rates don't really mean much IMO because the quality of the education hasn't changed but it is definitely harder to get into some schools now than it used to be. UT implemented an in-state preference last year.

You can get a good deal as an out of state kid at schools located n states without rapid population growth. Thats why the Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Arkansas schools are pretty generous. Schools in Texas, Florida, North Carolina etc. have all the qualified in state applicants they need and can really overcharge out of state applicants.

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?

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

Is the admission rate for "those not admitted under auto-Top 10%" published?

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.

There's more to the story regarding the University of Tennessee….

We've lived in the Knoxville area for 16 years. In that time, UT has become quite popular. It reminds me of my time at A&M in the 70's, when the student population was around 25,000…and then experienced rapid growth.

It's a very good school. It's got a nice campus, and costs aren't out of control. However, it's in the city of Knoxville so it does not have the luxury of physical expansion like we've seen at A&M. Also, the lack of student housing is a big deal, which has put a limit on enrollment.

The area known as the strip, similar to A&M's North Gate, was once packed with restaurants, bars, and shops. Much of it is gone, as owners sold out to corporate entities that have built off site student housing. Still, housing is tough to find.

It's got its DEI stuff…but all in all I'd have no issue sending my kids there. In fact, two of my daughters have degrees from UT…and both have good careers.

One other thing, though it is like A&M with a Vet School, Ag programs, and Engineering, it is not a Morrill Land Grant College as it was founded in 1794.

I kinda agree with Clay though. Getting into A&M in the 70's was not big deal. UT used to be the same ten years ago. Not so much now.

Im Gipper said:

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Is the admission rate for "those not admitted under auto-Top 10%" published?

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You can get pretty close by backing into it as s weighted average that equals the overall rate. If the auto admits are 100% then the holistic admits will be about 37% or so.

Science Denier said:

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

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With a 33% increase in undergraduate students over the past decade

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One other thing, though it is like A&M with a Vet School, Ag programs, and Engineering, it is not a Morrill Land Grant College as it was founded in 1794.

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it is a Morrill act Land Grant. It was initially founded in 1794 as Blount College.

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In 1794nearly a hundred years before the Morrill Act and two years before Tennessee became a stateUT was known as Blount College. After two more name changes (East Tennessee College in 1820 and East Tennessee University in 1840) and the rehabilitation of a war-ravaged campus, the Morrill Act finally took effect in 1869.

The state legislature designated the university as the state's federal land-grant institution, which finally allowed the school to benefit from the Morrill Act with the purchase of nearly 300 acres of land. In 1879, the state legislature changed the school's name to its present name of the University of Tennessee, thus beginning UT's modern era.

"The Morrill Act put UT on the road to becoming a modern university," says Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. "That legislation helped us grow and expand. The College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, AgResearch, the College of Veterinary Medicine and UT Extension are all direct results of the Morrill Act and other legislation."

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https://torchbearer.utk.edu/2012/11/ut-celebrates-150-years-of-morrill-act/

Im Gipper said:

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Is the admission rate for "those not admitted under auto-Top 10%" published?

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Don't know. My quick search didn't land any results, but I suck at googling.

Got it. Thanks for the correction!

I don't think this is limited to the SEC schools. My nephew from Cleveland just got in to Ohio State and was bummed because most of his close friends (he runs with a good crowd) got turned down. I guess it's a lot more competitive than it was 10-15 years ago.

Late May of 1979 I drove to A&M with my transcript. I found my way to the admissions department and was admitted to the university. I walked over to the engineering department and was admitted into my preferred engineering discipline. Later that same afternoon, I got an apartment from the college. Less than two weeks later, I was attending classes.

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 should have applied to TAMUG and then transferred departments her second year. One of my kids got in that way and I could have whipped him when he turned it down.

What if acceptance rates are higher than they admit?

Trajan88 said:

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Fall of '83 ... received an A&M application at college night at my high school.

Application was one page ... fill in front and back.

I was in the top 11 to 15% of my hs class.

A&M did not req. a foreign language (I did have 1 yr of Spanish in 9th)... no essay to write/submit, no letters of recommendation.

Needed to take the SAT or ACT... because of my class rank I did not have to have a min. score. Just take one of these exams.

Also had to take a couple Achievement Exams (English and Math I think)

Mailed in the application along w/ my hs transcript

Received my acceptance letter some time in Spring '84.

Painless.

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Pretty much my experience a little more than a year later. I actually got started late in the process, and didn't get my acceptance letter until May of 85, same month I graduated high school.

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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Nothing wrong with being proud of your kid and being their biggest fan. If that's where his daughter wants to go I think it's awesome that he is treating it like Harvard. I bet his daughter loves it as well.

Sounds like a great and supportive parent to me. BTW, nothing wrong with Tarleton and at least she is unlikely to come out with a degree in Gender Studies and wanting to cut her breasts off and shave her head.

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nothing wrong with Tarleton

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Haven't you heard? Chaos. Chaos in the air.

I believe the A&M acceptance rate is lower than what they publish. The 43% acceptance rate includes Team Blinn and conditional acceptances. If you go to system school for one year and make good grades, you are accepted into A&M as sophomore.

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.

Stressboy said:

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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 should have applied to TAMUG and then transferred departments her second year. One of my kids got in that way and I could have whipped him when he turned it down.

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yes tamug is considered as TAMU - you can buy a student sports pass and just get accepted to a college in campus - you don't have re-apply to move to main campus after year 1.

My youngest was the first student outside the top 10 at his HS and went Blinn -CS route. He was accepted to ID - college of engineering after his first semester.

Windy City Ag said:

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Several southern schools are seeing the same phenomena.

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It is a trend that goes far beyond SEC schools. Big 10 and Pac Schools are also seeing a huge spike in out of state applicants who go on to enroll. Huge numbers of talented Texas kids are going out of state because of the Top 10% rule.

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I was just commenting on the schools I'm familiar with. I really think the Common App has made it so easy to apply that kids are applying to a dozen or more schools. Last year, UT was going deep into their wait list because a lot of kids that they admitted turned them down for better schools. Same with Auburn.