Texas A&M: To rush or not to rush?

[irishpipes]

Originally Posted by als463

The Clemson program sounds just like Gamecock Gateway at University of South Carolina. I know that those students who are accepted, and it's a smaller number like 90-100, still receive the same acceptance envelope as undergraduates at USC who are accepted fully into the university with the Gamecock logo saying, "YES!" That way, it doesn't feel like an outright rejection because it isn't. The students live in the dorms, eat on campus, and also attend various campus sporting events and activities. Like you feel about Clemson, I would really like to see University of South Carolina eventually allow students in this program to go Greek because I think it would help them feel more like students.

As far as universities trying to mess with their enrollment numbers, I was under the impression that the ones in Gamecock Gateway and Clemson's Bridge Program were also top students who slightly missed out and got cut for some reason like lack of being prepared for college. I'd love to see my other alma maters do something like this also.

But the South Carolina schools don't have a 10% rule (or something similar) like Texas, do they? Clemson and USC don't have especially rigorous admissions standards, so if those transitional students were college-ready, they would have gotten in. I would think they would not be great candidates for Greek life, and may have difficulty making it through recruitment because they may be viewed as grade risks. Or, if they did get bids, the time commitment of Greek life could derail their admissions goals.

[als463]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

But the South Carolina schools don't have a 10% rule (or something similar) like Texas, do they? Clemson and USC don't have especially rigorous admissions standards, so if those transitional students were college-ready, they would have gotten in. I would think they would not be great candidates for Greek life, and may have difficulty making it through recruitment because they may be viewed as grade risks. Or, if they did get bids, the time commitment of Greek life could derail their admissions goals.

University of South Carolina has an acceptance rate of 60.6% and Clemson has a 57.9% acceptance rate. Texas A&M has a 67.1% acceptance rate while University of Alabama accepts 53.1% and University of Texas-Austin accepts 46.8%. I'd say that University of South Carolina and Clemson are definitely on par with some of these other schools. Even other schools in the SEC like UGA (56.1% acceptance) and Tennessee (67.3% acceptance) are comparable to South Carolina while other schools in the ACC like Syracuse (51.3% acceptance) and Pitt (56.1% acceptance) are comparable to Clemson. These are all really good schools, in my mind.

I will have to respectfully disagree with you on this one irishpipes (even though you always have so much great insight on stuff). I don't think Gamecock Gateway or Clemson's Bridge students would be less attractive as members in terms of sorority recruitment. I only say this because I know the programs that are currently and being put in place for these types of students at these schools to maintain high academic standards and help retention.

[clemsongirl]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

But the South Carolina schools don't have a 10% rule (or something similar) like Texas, do they? Clemson and USC don't have especially rigorous admissions standards, so if those transitional students were college-ready, they would have gotten in. I would think they would not be great candidates for Greek life, and may have difficulty making it through recruitment because they may be viewed as grade risks. Or, if they did get bids, the time commitment of Greek life could derail their admissions goals.

I think that some of the Bridge program students were absolutely academically ready for Clemson while others weren't. My boyfriend's younger brother got accepted to the Bridge program, and I was angry because IMO there's no reason (that I know of) that he shouldn't have been accepted to Clemson outright.

I think that if students at Clemson and USC were actually enrolled at the school, they would have a better case for being allowed to go through recruitment and placing the onus of accepting them or not on the individual chapters. Since they don't take classes at these schools during their freshman year, it's much harder to justify letting them go through recruitment at schools they're technically not matriculated at. This is the big difference between the transitional programs for students in South Carolina and the transitional programs for students in Texas.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by clemsongirl

I think that some of the Bridge program students were absolutely academically ready for Clemson while others weren't. My boyfriend's younger brother got accepted to the Bridge program, and I was angry because IMO there's no reason (that I know of) that he shouldn't have been accepted to Clemson outright.

Did it maybe have to do with what he wanted to major in? I know that was a factor getting into branch campus vs. main campus at Penn State.

[clemsongirl]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Did it maybe have to do with what he wanted to major in? I know that was a factor getting into branch campus vs. main campus at Penn State.

Hmm...it might have, and that's a point I didn't consider. He wanted to do some kind of engineering, I don't know what specifically. He was fully accepted and given scholarship money to Auburn for engineering, which I consider similarly competitive to Clemson. Ultimately he's doing a similar transfer program that will have him spend two years at the University of North Georgia, and then if he's successful he gets automatically accepted to transfer to Georgia Tech.

It seems like more schools overall are doing these transfer programs that let them "gamble", so to speak, on students they thought were qualified but not quite enough so to fully accept. Obviously that's not the case for every school, especially those constrained by state laws that limit acceptances, but I'd call it a general trend among state schools with the resources to partner with a second school nearby.