re: High School Senior Recognition Day at Church - SEC Schools They Will Be Attending

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Question for you- why do you think that is? It is JUST the difference in academic requirements for incoming freshman or something else?

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I can't speak for AU as I'm a Bama grad; however, a ton of Bama legacies are going to AU at least in the Huntsville area for a couple reasons. The parents are concerned with the party atmosphere that UA tends to express. A lot of that is social media with how easy it is to video parties. Parties haven't changed over the years and AU parties too but it seems that UA suffers from a reputation standpoint moreso than AU. Momentum also causes more kids to go to one place more than the other. If a bunch of kids are going to one school a lot of their peers want to be with their friends even if they had no previous connection to said school. AU just has a better momentum with in-state kids at the moment. That is not to say that Bama won't come back around like when I was in school 20 years ago.
I've spoken to the new UA president and I believe Bama is going to start turning this around. We are already gaining in in-state students over the past 2 or 3 years to a point where the number of in-state kids at both AU and UA are almost the exact same. As I've previously noted though the in-state kids seem to come from the rural areas and this was the same thing AU did for almost their entire existence until the past 20 years or so and they ended up fine.

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In almost every state that has a Flag/Ag designation... And the communities they are in are not too dissimilar... The Ag school has way more in state students... and generally the Ag school basically routes the Flag school in terms of rural enrollment. The Flag usually does better with suburban students and out of state students.

Here in Oklahoma... OU only out recruits Oklahoma State for freshmen in state enrollees in only about four of the 77 counties... And the four that they beat OSU in are basically the ones right around Norman.

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That is actually interesting, and makes me feel better about UAs stance in state.

Alabama has recruited hard out of state and has passed on making Alabama kids a priority so the school can receive more out of state tuiton money. Alabama now has a lot of students from up north and the Chicago area. More local kids from Alabama now attend Auburn.

So, they spent most of the service for announcing this stuff?

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So, they spent most of the service for announcing this stuff?

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It was like 5 minutes dude. I don’t think it qualified as heresy.

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As I've previously noted though the in-state kids seem to come from the rural areas and this was the same thing AU did for almost their entire existence until the past 20 years or so and they ended up fine.

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Your entire post is spot on. I do think Bama suffers a bit from the party school reputation but also agree this can often be overblown. There are loads of great kids who don’t like to party at Bama. At the end of the day, these schools are huge and anyone can find their group there.

In regards to Auburn attracting more rural kids 20 years ago… yes sort of. I think that was really more the case 40 years ago and longer back. Auburn started to take over much of the OTM and Huntsville areas at least 25-30 years ago.

If you look at the SchoolDigger rankings of Alabama Public High Schools and filter out just the large public schools that send at least 40 kids to Auburn/Alabama, Auburn took more kids from 11 of the Top 16 such high schools, including 9 of the Top 12

The only Top 10 schools in which Bama took more kids were #1 rated Mountain Brook (Bama +1 enrollee, 75 kids to Auburn’s 74 kids), #6 Spanish Fort (Bama +6 enrollees, 29 kids to Auburn’s 23 kids), and #10 rated Ramsay (+49 enrollees for Bama, 41 kids to just 8 kids going to Auburn).

If you look at just those Top 10 rated large public High Schools in the state, Auburn took a combined 614 kids to Bama’s 422…. Auburn took significantly more from those other schools… #2 Vestavia (AU +59), #3 Hewitt-Trussville (AU +46), #4 Fairhope (AU +20), #5 Homewood (AU +35), etc.

I think Auburn has the market right now on the large suburban areas of the state, and Bama has the market on the valedictorians of the very small rural schools who I’m sure are great kids who dominated academically at their small school.

Both are getting great kids but they’re just operating from different philosophies.

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is Emory in a bad neighborhood?

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It’s in a fine neighborhood. Especially if Subarus and comfortable shoes are your thing.

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Where exactly are you referring to?

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No, you're right. I read Emory but my brain went Tech.

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it's really a pretty cool/charming area

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We visited Emory with my daughter - the area around the school seemed cool and (maybe it was the route we took to get there) the neighborhood seemed pretty upscale. The campus though was a little weird. All the buildings looked the same, and every thing was so clean, neat and tidy (like too clean, too neat - almost like the movie Pleasantville if you remember the black and white part of that film). It just seemed almost sterile. It was like 11am and there were no students out hanging around. At one point, one of the parents on the tour actually asked "Where are all the students?"

I cannot tell you how it all works for students in general but I can give you the rundown for me, my wife, my 3 daughters and 4 nephews.

I was the "dumb one" from the entire group. I graduated from an OTM high school in the dark ages with a 3.8 GPA (not great but not too bad). I choose to go to The University of Alabama for two reasons. (1) to play football and (2) to get a degree in Petroleum Engineering. None of the other reasons why a kid would choose where to attend even apply to me. I got out of school and went to work.

My wife, same OTM high school. 4.2 GPA. Accepted at Vandy, Alabama, Auburn, Samford, and Hawaii. Chose Auburn. Grew up going to Auburn often because her older sisters graduated from there. She was ranked #1 in her class (field of study) at Auburn. Got her Master's here in Atlanta paid for by her employer.

3 daughters. #1 & #2 Graduated from Vestavia Hills High School. 4.3 GPA (both). Auburn did a much better job of recruiting them and rolled out the red carpet. Both Graduated from Auburn with a 4.0 GPA and had fantastic experiences while at Auburn. #3 daughter grew up going to Auburn often with her mother and sisters. She attended a high end private school in Atlanta (Pace Academy) and had a 4.2 GPA. Alabama did the best job recruiting her and offered her the best total package. She was accepted at Duke, Vandy, Florida, Miami, FSU, Georgia Tech, and Texas. She chose Auburn. Currently has a 4.0 GPA and is loving her experience at Auburn.

4 Nephews. #1 full ride at Vandy and just finished his PHD at U of Chicago, #2 Full ride at University of Alabama School of Engineering. #3 Full ride at Covenant near Chattanooga. Currently working on Master's at NYU. #4 Not a full ride but generous package from University of Alabama.

All enjoyed / are enjoying their experiences at the schools they chose. Not a single one of them wanted anything to do with UGA. All of them have or will finish their education with no student loan debt. All of them made the "right choice" for what they wanted out of a college experience. 4 of the 7 have completed Master's or PHD level work. 1 working on his Master's. 1 more has already mapped out her Master's plan.

So much for

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all the dumb kids in atlanta go to bama and auburn

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