More Texas Recruitement Info

[AznSAE]

surprised SMU wasnt named

[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by AznSAE

surprised SMU wasnt named

Uh, SMU is not a public school so there is nothing that the Texas legislature could do to raise it to "top tier" status.

I wasn't even sure what the article meant by top tier, but it is clear that they're discussing what can be done for public schools, not private. If you're thinking private there are certainly many contenders - SMU, Baylor, TCU, etc.

[catiebug]

The article mentioned three "top-tier" universities in Texas: University of Texas, Texas A&M and Rice.

Last time I checked, Rice was a private university. I think the previous poster was mentioning that while the article's writer *did* consider Rice top-tier, SMU was not considered in the same league.

Originally Posted by breathesgelatin

Uh, SMU is not a public school so there is nothing that the Texas legislature could do to raise it to "top tier" status.

I wasn't even sure what the article meant by top tier, but it is clear that they're discussing what can be done for public schools, not private. If you're thinking private there are certainly many contenders - SMU, Baylor, TCU, etc.

[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by catiebug

The article mentioned three "top-tier" universities in Texas: University of Texas, Texas A&M and Rice.

Last time I checked, Rice was a private university. I think the previous poster was mentioning that while the article's writer *did* consider Rice top-tier, SMU was not considered in the same league.

I also tend to think that what they really meant by "top tier" in that article is "Research I University" and I don't think SMU would qualify in that regard as it is more of a liberal arts college - a prestigious one to be sure, but not a place where professors are primarily focused on research.

That's just my general impression from the article.

[catiebug]

I agree with you there - as much I love SMU, it is not a Research I uni.

Originally Posted by breathesgelatin

I also tend to think that what they really meant by "top tier" in that article is "Research I University" and I don't think SMU would qualify in that regard as it is more of a liberal arts college - a prestigious one to be sure, but not a place where professors are primarily focused on research.

[texas*princess]

UNT would loooooooooooove to be the next Texas flagship. My entire time there that is all the administration would talk about. When I was a student though I just didn't "see" it. UNT is a really big commuter campus. They do offer a lot of great programs, I think I just always "saw" a "flagship" school as a place students want to live on and be around all the time with tons of school spirit (a'la A&M or Texas). When I was there the school spirit was pretty small, but it's been a few years since I graduated so maybe things have changed. Their greek system has expanded a lot (a few IFCs and 2 NPCs added in the last 3 yrs) and I think the sorority row that the school put there a few years ago was partly because the other big Texas schools have greek homes for all the GLOs. I know the school has several research facilities but I don't know anything else about them. They've also improved their UNT-Dallas campus in the last couple of years.

[breathesgelatin]

Frankly, if the Leg is thinking in terms of practicality, Texas Tech is probably already really really really close to being "Tier 1" so it would make sense to work on them first. Also in a less-served area.

I have a question... which is "better" (academically, eg, which is harder to get into) - UT-Dallas or UT-Arlington?

[epchick]

Do you think the "lawmakers" that are trying to find the next top tier university will look at the new Forbes.com list?

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/94/..._State_21.html

If they do...then UTEP out ranks all the list of "possible contenders"------I'm pretty shocked!

Apparently 1st spot goes to The University of Dallas, while the last goes to UT-Dallas.

UTEP ranks #7 in Texas, right after Baylor and before Texas Tech.

[breathesgelatin]

Interesting about the Forbes list! I would have probably put UTSA as the top UT system school, not UTEP. But I don't really know a whole lot about all that - just basing it on what others have told me about the prestige of various schools. I'm not a Texas native so I don't know it from a college application perspective like I do NC schools.

209 University of Dallas
215 University of Texas, Austin
243 Austin College
260 Texas A&M University
326 St. Mary's University
352 Baylor University
365 University of Texas, El Paso
385 Texas Tech University
431 Texas State University
442 University of Texas, Arlington
444 Abilene Christian University
467 St. Edward's University
502 University of Houston
508 University of North Texas
509 University of Texas, San Antonio
512 Sam Houston State University
513 Texas Christian University
521 University of Texas, Dallas

I gotta say that it looks like something is off with this list. I don't know what their metric is or what the list claims to demonstrate, but if it's prestige/competitiveness, something is off. First off, where is Rice? Did they opt out of Forbes' list? Rice should be on there and it should be the highest ranked school in Texas more than likely. SMU is also missing. And the idea that a University of Dallas degree is more competitive than a UT-Austin degree, or that UD is harder to get into than UT, or even that UD is a "better school" is nonsense to me. And Abilene Christian being ABOVE TCU and UH? That's total crap. I know a thing or two about Abilene Christian and what I know is not good - it's not a good school. Or at least NOT better than TCU or UH and for that matter UNT and UT-D. Some of the other things I could believe depending on what metric they're choosing - like UTEP at #7 for example, but Abilene Christian from what I know of it is pretty flat out crappy. And I still want to know where Rice and SMU are...

It's interesting stuff, though. Although in terms of the legislature, I think what they're interested in is another "research university" and this is definitely not a measure of that.

FWIW, Virginia was on this page too and W&L was the top-ranked school in Virginia. I love W&L and think it's an AWESOME school, but in some contexts at least (definitely in the research u. one) there is an argument to be made that UVA is better. So I dunno. I think Forbes' list might be kind of crappy.

ETA: I just looked at NC's list out of curiosity. UNC and Wake are above Duke - surprising but possibly plausible. Salem being ranked above Davidson though? That's a pile of crap.

What exactly is Forbes' metric???

[lawgal]

We already have a thread on the forbes list in the general chat forum for academics. http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=98776

Not sure if I linked it correctly. This disucssion of tiers academically probably ought to be in that forum rather than sorority recruitment.

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by breathesgelatin

I gotta say that it looks like something is off with this list. I don't know what their metric is or what the list claims to demonstrate, but if it's prestige/competitiveness, something is off. First off, where is Rice? Did they opt out of Forbes' list? Rice should be on there and it should be the highest ranked school in Texas more than likely. SMU is also missing. And the idea that a University of Dallas degree is more competitive than a UT-Austin degree, or that UD is harder to get into than UT, or even that UD is a "better school" is nonsense to me. And Abilene Christian being ABOVE TCU and UH? That's total crap. I know a thing or two about Abilene Christian and what I know is not good - it's not a good school. Or at least NOT better than TCU or UH and for that matter UNT and UT-D. Some of the other things I could believe depending on what metric they're choosing - like UTEP at #7 for example, but Abilene Christian from what I know of it is pretty flat out crappy. And I still want to know where Rice and SMU are...

Yea.. I went to UNT, and I can't figure out why it's ranked above TCU either Something in that list is not right for sure... which is why I think those types of lists that make "tiers" are all crap anyway

For some reason I thought Austin College was a 2-yr school??