I'm sorry this last part on not meeting standards made me laugh-- when I was coming through all of us SEC bound high school seniors (which being from down south was about 90% of my graduating class) knew the "smart kids" went to Vandy or Auburn the rest of us got to go to the fun schools…. :-)

I didn't find an Auburn standard for unconditional acceptance on the Auburn site -- it seems as if some of the college websites have become vague on specific numbers and post averages instead.

It was my understanding years ago that a potential freshman needed a 24 on the ACT for unconditional admittance to Auburn (don't recall the GPA).
According to the following stats, 37% of Alabama freshman and 18% of Auburn freshmen scored below this threshold (between and 18 and 23):

Auburn
Alabama

Honestly I was a little surprised that 37% of Alabama freshmen scored below a 24.

Other stats from above links concerning enrolled freshmen:

Auburn average ACT: 27
Alabama average ACT: 26

Auburn average GPA: 3.78
Alabama average GPA: 3.57

Auburn GPA of 3.75 or above: 56%
Alabama GPA of 3.75 or above: 41%

What do you think is responsible for their willingness to pay OOS tuition to attend Alabama?

Is it the Greek system that attracts these girls, or is it simply that they want a large SEC-type school and Alabama is where they were able to gain admittance?

I could not find the newspaper article I mentioned before.
Here is the graphical representation of this data
- for Alabama http://collegeapps.about.com/od/GPA-...pa-sat-act.htm

for Auburn -http://collegeapps.about.com/od/GPA-...pa-sat-act.htm

My understanding is schools do not give out a minimum ACT or SAT score anymore and prefer to present averages because these types of exams tend to favor white upper middle class males. They also put students that are home schooled at a disadvantage.

So Alabama appears to be more selective because they have a lot more applications; however, the applicant pool is of a wider range and the range of students accepted is wider. It looks like students that do not think they will get into Auburn don't apply.

Exactly.^^^ Bama has an acceptance rate of about 45% and Auburn 70%, yet the median SAT/ACT and GPA's are similar. Seems like Auburn's applicant pool is of high quality- perhaps due to their awesome engineering/science programs.

I wanted to mention that Bama is doing a great job of attracting quality students. They seem to have lots of money for generous scholarships and they are constantly building new facilities. The dorms are incredible and the campus is gorgeous. With a 28 on the ACT you can go to the honors college and attend a small school within the larger university setting. Lots of personal attention.

I am sure there are out of state students who pay full price (I know a few) for Bama and Auburn because it's worth it. Many Florida students are shut out of Univ. of Florida/FSU because the prepaid program and state scholarships have made it very competitive. Bama and Auburn are great schools and are attracting good students who just don't have the stellar stats to get into UF.

I will venture a guess that many that fall in this 37% are athletes. I worked with student athletes a few years back and quite a few of the students I worked with would be below that 24, not much below it, but below it.

Honors at Bama is 28 ACT and 3.5 GPA in high school
Honors at Auburn is 29 ACT and 3.75 in high school

I am starting to see a pattern....

Very true- and it is the case at many universities. I live in an area considered to be a hotbed for high school football and many athletes are admitted to universities with gpa and test scores that are way lower than the averages for students that are not recruited athletes.

The girls with the GPAs below 3.0 were from northern states. Up until this year, I thought OOS students from far away would be going to Bama because they were recipients of scholarships. This year, with the low GPA girls, I couldn't say.

You are seeing the pattern because it is very much there.....

Also note that Auburn does not try to entice out of state students with merit money as much as Bama. I tend to think they attract high quality applicants because of the strength of certain programs.

The other poster who mentioned merit money and football being the main draw for Bama- maybe for some people. However, the dorms and other facilities are awesome and the large scholarships are definitely are draw- even if one is not a football fan.

I've seen low GPA-high ACT kids and high GPA-low ACT kids go to college and do fine...and not...I've seen brilliant students getting into the party scene and flunking out, I've seen poor-to-average students go to college and do fine, or even better than fine.

It's what you do while you're there that counts....and sometimes, not even then. You can succeed at life and drop out of college.

Life is a crap shoot.

I can't speak to the Northern OOS but I know quite a few West Coast students and families look at schools east of the Mississippi for a variety of reasons:

1. Football - it's a draw
2. History/tradition - SAA
3. 4 years - students can enroll in the classes they need and if they don't goof around graduate in 4 years. Lots of budget cuts in CA with students being impacted and some public colleges are coming out and saying it will probably be 4+ years to graduate. For some offsetting the cost of OOS tuition vs 5 years in state is worth it. I have a friend whose daughter has been trying to take a general ed summer school class for the last two summers and the class has been full at multiple JCs in the counties.
4. Admission - can't get into the in-state public schools. Big uproar in CA that some of the UC schools are accepting more OOS and foreign students than in-state.
5. Scholarships - some of the OOS schools seem to be more generous with scholarships than in-state schools and the cost is a wash.
6. Sometimes the kids just want to get out of the state.

I'm curious how many OOS kids finish at the OOS school. I know quite a few kids who went OOS but then transferred home their sophomore or junior year.

Very true on all points. I have a number of friends/acquaintances that did not go to college and are doing quite well. I don't emphasize that with my own kids because they *are* going, LOL.