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This is an embarrassment to me, and even more so with Birmingham so close to Tuscaloosa. Get our recruiters out of Illinois/California/New Jersy/New York/Pennsylvania and into the metros of Birmingham, Huntsville, and Mobile or else you will continue to see more of the kids with AU gear. Even our alumni do a horrendous job of keeping legacies of UA to actually go to UA. I can't tell you how many split households where there is one AU parent and one UA parent and their kids will choose AU over UA. I can understand them going to AU if they want to be a vet or pharmacist or something that UA doesn't have, but they are going there because all their friends go there and major in something like Business.

This is part of UA’s business strategy, actually a longterm investment strategy. Recruiting Long Island and California kids and even providing them with full scholarships in order to attract more $$ in the future. Basically, Auburn is now the “University of Alabama” while UA should be called the New University of New England or sth. Nevertheless, lots of GA and TX kids attending Auburn these days…

UA is ‘extreme case’ of state schools recruiting out-of-state residents, report finds

https://www.al.com/news/2019/03/ua-is-extreme-case-of-state-schools-recruiting-out-of-state-residents-report-finds.html

“UA has made ten times as many out-of-state recruiting visits as in-state visits, the report found. Of the 4,349 off-campus recruiting visits made by UA in 2017, only 392 visits – or 9 percent of all visits – took place in Alabama.”

How the University of Alabama Became a National Player

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/06/education/edlife/survival-strategies-for-public-universities.html

“The University of Alabama has 45 recruiters — 36 outside of Alabama, including Dee McGraw-Hickey, a Tuscaloosa native living on Long Island.”

This post was edited on 9/8/21 at 6:11 pm

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Posted by phil4bama

Emerald Coast of PCB

Member since Jul 2011

11470 posts

Posted on 9/9/21 at 8:21 am to AUreo

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Alabama’s strategy and in some ways it makes sense but they need to tweak the plan. Recruiting California and New England and Chicago is rather silly IMO. You will never hold onto those kids once they earn their degree. I would change a couple of things about their plan.

1) you are the University of ALABAMA! Take care of your in-state kids first. That is your primary mission. Don’t fail it. UF, UGA, and probably several other state flagship schools, including Alabama are doing just that. They can’t even attempt to accommodate the number of applicants they are receiving even from in-staters so they don’t even try but they are still heavily recruiting out of staters. That shouldn’t happen. UNC probably has the best solution I have seen: their state legislature mandated that something like 80% of their freshman classes come from in state. Out-of-staters fight for a slot in that other 20% and it’s damn near impossible to get one. It allows UNC to really cherry pick that OOS kid.

2) Draw a circle around Tuscaloosa with a 500 mile radius. That is your out of state territory. Concentrate your efforts there. Those kids have a higher probability of staying and contributing to Alabama the state because they are regional kids and won’t be so far from home or from a totally different area of the country.
3) Create more cooperatives with neighboring states so that a kid from Pensacola or Starkville or Columbus, Ga. pays in state rates and vice-versa. It helps everyone out.

This post was edited on 9/9/21 at 8:22 am

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