Quote:
Originally Posted by Low C Sharp
...some percentage of the high school population really wants to go to a flagship, period. They'd rather go to OU, LSU, or one of their peers than what they see as a non-flagship or second-choice Texas school.
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I would absolutely agree with that.
Because of the 10% rule we're changing who goes to our flagships. Where kids with lesser grades would have followed their parents to one of the flagships and ended up with a respected degree, now they don't have that option. So, a lot of them have to go our of state or settle for a second tier school. The responsible ones end up out of state and the left overs end up at places like my alma mater - which is I think an improvement over when I was there and I think half the student body seemed like they had previously failed out of UT or A&M.
That reshaping of the student body at the two primary schools has also pushed a few top-10% grads out of state for other reasons as well. There's some perception that it's just not the same. I can't say if they're also taking a lot more out-of-state students, but if you've been to Austin lately, it seems like Californians took the place over. There's a more significant chunk of students from there then I've seen before.
As far DFW, I think TCU & SMU cover the flagship role there. I know they're VERY expensive privates, with UTA & UTD picking up the slack but very far down the list.
I don't classify UNT as part of DFW, but I do think they can be an emerging institution. They are head of their own univ-system with a lot of freedom. If they'd could fix their football program they might get a little more respect.
It's the same situation in Houston with Rice versus UH (and HBU floating around unnoticed).
I think though if you're looking for flagships in major metro areas, that tends to not work as well. They're best in small to medium sized towns where they have more influence and regional draw.
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