No personal offense taken.

Oh yeah! And how many teams get to play a game at Bryant-Denny in their inaugural season? GSU lost 63-7, but what a experience for a brand new program.

We had a lot of out of state students because paying out of state tuition at an SEC school is still cheaper than some state schools up north.

I had not heard that before. I'm a lifelong resident of this state and have zero intention of leaving. I love West Michigan and can't imagine living elsewhere. Well, maybe the northwest corner of the state except the winters are too long. But a year round cottage up near Suttons Bay or Omena would be nice. :)

I'm a 6th generation West Michigander! I agree with you, but the winters are less and less fun the older I get.

Somebody in this thread might be able to guess which state is #1, because somebody who's posted is from there. Anybody want to guess?

when is rush at U Michigan? Spring? (sorry for continuing the randomhijack!)

September

thanks! I think a friend's (biological) little sister is going through!

It's all about the automatic scholarships. If you have a 32 on the ACT and above a certain GPA (3.75 maybe? Don't remember off hand), you have an automatic free ride. HaloStar considered it, for a minute, until he talked to my brother who discouraged it. He thinks my son would have a very hard time fitting in there.

We've heard that here too. When we had our statewide luncheon in Michigan last spring, I had the collegiate seniors sign in with their contact information and where they expected to be after graduation. There were seniors from 8 of our 9 chapters in the state present. Only about 20% of those who signed in expected to remain in state after graduation. This defeated my purpose of obtaining this information to give to our alumnae chapters and clubs!

I know a fair amount of people who went south from my neck of the woods and transferred to a northern school within a year.

This happened several times to kids in my graduating class! They would go to big southern state schools like Alabama, Florida, etc. and then for one reason or another (usually finances) come home to my in-state school for this upcoming academic year. I'm actually the farthest south student left in my 350+ person class.

Many of these scholarships are also tied to maintaining a certain GPA. If you start with a class that is all coming in with a 32 ACT and a 3.8 GPA and tell them they have to maintain a 3.5 to keep their scholarship, it doesn't take very long to realize not everyone will be returning the next year. :(

As far as the GPA/Scholarship situation at UA goes- it really is a great opportunity for many academically minded students! My daughter was recruited pretty hard by UA, however she really felt it would put her under extreme pressure to try and maintain that GPA at a school like Bama with her chosen major. (too many FUN social distractions!!)
We do live in the south, and I graduated from a SEC school so it made sense, but she felt she didn't really want the pressure. (she did accept a very similar situation at a smaller university- where she felt she could be academically successful without so many distractions!)

I love the fact that UA is becoming more demographically diverse! I love the southern traditions- but I think some great OOS students can only improve things! :) I also am excited for ALL of the young ladies who had a wonderful recruitment at Bama and AU-- especially my daughters friends! (several AGD, KD, Phi Mu, DG, Zeta, and ADPi pledges!)

I know that Bama is really recruiting Texas kids and making a lot of visits to the high schools in the area. Their scholarships are very generous.

I love when folks update their list with how many legacies pledged each group. I am just speculating here, but I think that many chapters will be taking a good hard look at all legacies for the next several years to help pay for the beautiful new houses. The checks might be a tad more generous if DD find her home with her legacy chapter as well.