re: Thanks to SEC and Heisman - A&M receives record 37,000 applications

Thanks, IP--appreciate it

How many Aggies did it take to call me wrong? Classic.

People are incredibly stupid if they apply to a school just because they are good athletically.

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How many Aggies did it take to call me wrong? Classic.

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Your ignorance is what was classic, tbh

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37,000 applications for 8,000 freshman spots.

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and 5 hot girls

That is the issue. There are some really elite public HS's in Texas. Some have more than 10% of the graduating class that are National Merit Finalists. The problem is most high schools in Texas don't have anyone at that level or maybe one or two kids at that level yet the Top 10% rule requires them to all be admitted.

In the mid '90s when the law came into being due to the Hopwood case eliminating race based admissions (instead of accepting X number of minorities they could just accept the Top 10% of EVERY school) it wasn't an issue really. The problem is now Texas has grown significantly, the number of HS grads is growing at about 2% a year, so the finite number of slots at A&M and Texas are going more and more to the Top 10% regardless of other qualifications. It's not at a true crisis yet but it's getting close and with such disparity between the HS's in Texas it's a real issue. For instance a lot of my buddies from A&M worry about whether our kids will be able to get in even though we are multi generational legacies (which doesn't factor in admission by law). The option for a lot of kids is to go JUCO for a year or two and then transfer in which is much easier than being admitted as a Freshman.

It is becoming more and more common for SEC schools to offer scholarships or in state tuition to Texas kids from those top Texas HS's (primarily located in the suburbs of the big cities). It certainly makes sense, a lot of these kids come from families with 2 parents with college degrees, have excellent grades, high SAT scores, and even some college credit and yet they fall outside the Top 10% of their HS, some outside the Top 25%. A lot of it is driven by the tech boom in Texas where so many people have moved into the state that are highly educated and thus they stress education to their kids.

It's a real problem for Texas as a State long term though, it's foolish not to provide quality opportunities for so many bright kids. They are trying to bring Tech and Houston up to Tier 1 Status but realistically it is going to take a long time if ever for that to happen. The reason A&M and Texas are who they are is because of the Permanent University Fund (PUF) which is essentially a bunch of land that was set aside way back when in West Texas that was later found to be loaded with oil and other valuable minerals and is worth over $20 Billion now and growing. That money is divided 2/3rds for Texas and 1/3rd for A&M and thus is the source of our massive endowments. There is just no way politically that Texas or A&M is ever going to share that money with Tech, UH, or whomever though so the money to make those schools Tier 1 just isn't there otherwise. Personally I think they should focus the attention on schools within the Texas and A&M Systems that have a chance for access to the PUF (UTSA, UT Arlington, UTEP, Texas A&M Kingsville, Texas A&M Commerce, West Texas A&M, etc.) That would be more politically feasible. Either that or force schools like Texas State and North Texas to become a part of those systems. Eventually you could build something like the University of California System with 10 schools that are all basically Tier 1 and Berkeley and UCLA are the crown jewels.

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and 5 hot girls

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It's true that we tend to get a lot of "smart" girls, as opposed to "hot" girls. That's the price we pay for the demand and admission standards. While our proportions of hot:smart may not be nearly as high as other SEC or Texas universities, we have a frick LOAD of students.

So, say LSU has 25,000 students. Of the 25k, 50% are women. Of the women, assume 20% (or 10% of the overall student body) are hot. So, 2500 hot chicks at LSU.

A&M has 50,000. We'll assume 50% women, but I know it's more. Only 10% (5% of total student body) are hot. 2500 hot girls.

What we lose in percentage, we gain in numbers.

Still, there are 25,000 DUDES chasing that arse. 10:1 sucks arse. That's where we need to improve. We can start by getting some fricking cheerleaders.

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Yeah I've read a couple times where athletic success leads to a boost in applications.

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I would agree. 20% of my senior class in Houston wants to go to Bama. And almost all of these are just bandwagoners

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Either that or force schools like Texas State and North Texas to become a part of those systems. Eventually you could build something like the University of California System with 10 schools that are all basically Tier 1 and Berkeley and UCLA are the crown jewels.


This is one area where California has Texas beat.

California has only two four-year university systems, the University of California System and the California State University System. Every public university in the state is aligned under one of them.

Texas, meanwhile, has SIX systems: the University of Texas System, the Texas A&M University System, the Texas Tech University System, the University of Houston System, the University of North Texas System, and the Texas State University System (which includes a couple of what are really community colleges). PLUS we have four public universities not aligned with anyone: Midwestern State, Stephen F. Austin State, Texas Woman's, and Texas Southern.

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Texas is not good at organization of school systems that is for sure. We also have 1265 separate school districts. I mean really? Do we really need 1265 completely separate Superintendents, District offices, etc? It's an incredible misallocation of resources. Essentially every little town or area has its own and the politics are too thick to change it. So instead of paying teachers more and for other purposes we maintain a massive bureaucracy because no one wants to give up control of their area. You also create a market for top Superintendents to make several times more than the average teacher and the school districts have to pay it to keep those administrators and thus keep up their rankings.

The lack of a master plan for the educational system in Texas is mind boggling. Instead of addressing core issues like that they are spending all their time and money on standardized testing because there is some government money there to go grab. It's just tax dollars though, right so who cares?

Top 10% rule is shitty. I know people who didn't get it and had way higher test scores than people who got in just because they took all on-level courses in high school and had high GPA's because of that.