re: Alabama rated as the EASIEST school in the SEC to get into

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Are those schools SEC?

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How many have undergrad degrees from UT?

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How many have undergrad degrees from UT?

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See my original post. It mentions ugrads, grads, and UTSI. That said, if you're going into such a specialized field grad work and post-graduate school work often matter far more than your ugrad although your ugrad can give you easier access to certain grad and post-grad programs.

Seriously, we're talking rocket science here but this part isn't rocket science.

The Presidential merit scholarship (100K over 4yrs) for applicants with an ACT score of 32 or above is a major contributor for the increase in out-of-state attendees. I believe that over 50% of the student body is from out of state now. My son just finished his freshman year there and most of his friends are from states other than AL.

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You know I don't live in East Tennessee, right?

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Judging by your come-back remarks, I suppose it doesn't really matter where you live. But, does it matter (redundancy is on purpose)?

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SJTide
Alabama rated as the EASIEST school in the SEC to get into
The Presidential merit scholarship (100K over 4yrs) for applicants with an ACT score of 32 or above is a major contributor for the increase in out-of-state attendees. I believe that over 50% of the student body is from out of state now. My son just finished his freshman year there and most of his friends are from states other than AL.

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Correct. The Univ of Alabama has very much made a concerted effort to recruit students in a few key areas. And when I mean "key areas", this is possibly but not necessarily geographic in nature. Though that is certainly going on.

First, the population boom in Texas is astounding. Texas state law guarantees admission to a state public school if you finish in the top ten percent of your public high school class. This has been in place since 1997. This doesn't mean that students can AFFORD to go or have scholarships, but it does guarantee admission. Like many other states, Texas college resources and slots are not keeping up with population growth. This means that some really good students who might even be strong legacies cannot get a guaranteed slot into Univ of Texas, Texas A&M, etc. Many of these students are from wealthy and upper middle class families - a significant number of them find their way into SEC schools. Roughly 5% of all Univ of Alabama students come from Texas. A LOT of SEC schools have high numbers of students from Texas.

Secondly, other states are experiencing financial pressure for post secondary education needs and many good students find that they can attend SEC schools more cheaply and do it in better weather. Alabama has over 1500 students enrolled from Illinois alone. The Illinois state budget is a pure crapshow, one of the worst in the nation.

Thirdly, Alabama has been very aggressive with scholarships for academic merit. Many students can come here on full or partial academic scholarships and pay housing expenses and still come out cheaper than living in their home state. This is particularly true of the northeastern region.

Fourthly, the football factor is actually real. a LOT of students come because of the success of the football program and they love to be participating in a national championship atmosphere on campus. Saban's salary has been one of the best economic bargains the Univ of Alabama has ever made.

Despite all of this (including a financial preference for out-of-state students), Alabama still does try to serve the state population while keeping standards. Alabama is not a top tier level public institution. But it is improving, improving rapidly, and it is far better than most.

Finally... the structure and intent of the majors offered must be considered. For example - The Univ of Alabama medical school is now run through UAB. While there is always overlap, a few of the primary mandates at Tuscaloosa are Education, Social Services, Community Health, and Communication. Alabama is the top educator in the state for these fields. But they are not all top paying types of positions. UAH will always have higher average starting salaries - because a much much larger portion of their graduates are engineers. Does this mean they are a better school? Of course not - they just have a different mission. You'd expect Johns Hopkins graduates to have higher starting average salaries than Coppin State, right, even though they are both in Baltimore? Just illustrating a point.

The bottom line is that so many of the ratings are pure and utter BS without a view of the proper context. College has morphed into the realm of less learning ... and more towards credentialing and networking. It's sad to see.

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See my original post. It mentions ugrads, grads, and UTSI. That said, if you're going into such a specialized field grad work and post-graduate school work often matter far more than your ugrad although your ugrad can give you easier access to certain grad and post-grad programs. Seriously, we're talking rocket science here but this part isn't rocket science.

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Graduate Programs (even accredited) today are designed to where students never have to step on campus. Some of the more questionable Grad programs are in strip malls.

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This is just silly. Not everyone attends Phoenix.

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You are out of touch if you think that is the only school that hands out degrees that way.

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The average SAT score for this year was 1400. This is admitted students who are indeed ATTENDING.

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Explain to me again where ADMITTED and ENROLLED/ATTENDING are the same thing? Because nowhere else in America, besides Georgia, apparently, do these equate. Not even according to your own link does Georgia say they are the same.

Again, I'm saying these SELF-REPORTED academics simply do not make sense. The academic credentials that Georgia cites approach or exceed that of many Ivy League schools. The odds that the average SAT scores are in the 1400 range is virtuall nil with one possible exception.

Say you have 20000 applicants and 5000 are actually admitted (to keep the math simple). Usually, and IN GENERAL, only the best students who plan on submitting to universities outside the region will take the SAT in the South - the South has been ACT territory for going on decades now. One might reasonably conclude that those who DO take the SAT test are very top tier students. Say that 1000 of those actually enrolled do score an average across the board for their SATs in the 1400 range - that might be plausible. But, that's only a fraction of ADMISSIONS and not really representative of the big picture. Yet UGA can claim their average SAT scores are in the 1400 range - albeit somewhat disingenuously.

Furthermore, they say that 5% of the incoming freshman consist of valedictorians and salutatorians - the problem is that this criteria is GPA based and not testing based - they are NOT directly related.

Look, make no mistake, UGA is a great school. It has a better academic reputation than MY school and probably always will. But nonetheless, they are playing games with numbers and the bottom line is that the self reported numbers simply do not pass the common sense test without some pencil whipping. Facty.