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

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I agree, never understood the obsession with huge enrollments. I want my university to be more selective and not just admit anyone, devalues the degree in my opinion. I wish Arkansas would stop increasing like it has in recent years, the campus is starting to grow on top of itself.

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Arkie is in a very different situation from A&M. Texas has grown from under 17 million to over 27 million people since 1990. Texas has a net gain of about 500k people per year currently, it's just crazy. There are 3 Tier 1 Schools in the State and one of them is Rice which is a tiny private school.. Thus the pressure is on A&M and Texas. Texas was 50k in 1990 and is 50k now. A&M has grown from 43k to 51k. Thus both schools have gotten far more selective.

A&M plans to grow to 75k by 2025 or so, though a lot of that will be Grad School and other areas. Still this year is 37k applicants for 8k slots. The issue A&M and Texas has is the "Top 10% rule" that guarantees admission to any grad in the Top 10% to any public University (realistically A&M and Texas). All HS's aren't created equal so it is actually good news for SEC schools. More and more smart Texas kids from top HS's that are outside the Top 10% but are great students are leaving the State because it is such a step down to many of the other Texas publics and not everyone wants to go private (SMU, TCU, or Baylor).