Yeah it's going GREAT. Academic reputation as well as student population growth has steadily declined under Keenum.Glad to see we are sticking with what our purpose is, to educate Mississippians.
Yeah I wouldn't want to go to school with a bunch of kids from JerseyRead the graphic carefully… that’s not just out of state kids ..it’s out of region kids. We need both but maybe it’s not as dire as this looks
What is your basis for student population growth steadily declining ?Yeah it's going GREAT. Academic reputation as well as student population growth has steadily declined under Keenum.
Only one of those counties is significant Desoto. Maybe Lafayette.... yeah good luck. But Desoto is so heavily influenced by Rebs and the media here is all Memphis. Which only covers OM. So lots of OM influence in Desoto county.Our recruiting philosophy is bad, but not because of what this shows. We do a great job at recruiting Birmingham and Houston. We need to do a better job recruiting the best students from Madison, Ocean Springs and Southaven.
We have 6,760 from SREB (Southern) states. Ole Miss has 8,617.
Counties where Ole Miss out recruits us:
Alcorn
Calhoun
Coahoma
DeSoto
Lafayette
Marshall
Panola
Prentiss
Tallahatchee
Tate
Tippah
Tunica
Yalobusha
We win every other county, but Ole Miss is getting the better students. If we are going to play the "We are a Southern university for Southerners" game, we have to win it by getting the best students.
Clay has a Vandy law degree so he's very very smart, just read him long enough and he'll tell you so.Slaps up a chart with public universities.
Comments that an already elite private institution, with an already extremely low acceptance rate, and an already existing national footprint, will become the most difficult university to get into in 20 years.
Vandy seems totally unrelated to the trend the chart references, but OK then.
Ha, yeah I thought maybe he forced Vandy into the conversation because he went there.Clay has a Vandy law degree so he's very very smart, just read him long enough and he'll tell you so.

Same....he was okay in his early stages when he was trying to be an SEC version of Bill Simmons from the Page2 days, but has grown increasingly intolerable.Ha, yeah I thought maybe he forced Vandy into the conversation because he went there.
I will pass on the opportunity to read more from him though. It has to be more than a decade since I read stuff from him.
Ive spelled it out dozens of times.Only one of those counties is significant Desoto. Maybe Lafayette.... yeah good luck. But Desoto is so heavily influenced by Rebs and the media here is all Memphis. Which only covers OM. So lots of OM influence in Desoto county.
I'm not sure what state can do to over come that. More scholarships, more positive press. But in the Memphis area, there is a misconception that OM is an Ivy League school and State is... well not.
| ACT Range | MSU | UM | UM – MSU |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23–27 | 1,111 | 1,458 | +347 |
| 28–31 | 671 | 697 | +26 |
| 32+ | 398 | 440 | +42 |
The relationship OM has with Northwest plays apart in this as well with the Northwest Desoto Center.Only one of those counties is significant Desoto. Maybe Lafayette.... yeah good luck. But Desoto is so heavily influenced by Rebs and the media here is all Memphis. Which only covers OM. So lots of OM influence in Desoto county.
I'm not sure what state can do to over come that. More scholarships, more positive press. But in the Memphis area, there is a misconception that OM is an Ivy League school and State is... well not.
I don't think this is a viable plan for us, I mean we already on the bottom. May as well accept that and just try and get our student and alumni base as big as possible.We win every other county, but Ole Miss is getting the better students. If we are going to play the "We are a Southern university for Southerners" game, we have to win it by getting the best students.
Where are you getting this info? Not disputing it as I don't know, but I historically MSU pulled better students, at least by ACT. I think that was mainly driven by engineering though. Not sure we were really out competing them in general and that may have stopped being true ten years ago for all I know.Our recruiting philosophy is bad, but not because of what this shows. We do a great job at recruiting Birmingham and Houston. We need to do a better job recruiting the best students from Madison, Ocean Springs and Southaven.
We have 6,760 from SREB (Southern) states. Ole Miss has 8,617.
Counties where Ole Miss out recruits us:
Alcorn
Calhoun
Coahoma
DeSoto
Lafayette
Marshall
Panola
Prentiss
Tallahatchee
Tate
Tippah
Tunica
Yalobusha
We win every other county, but Ole Miss is getting the better students.
If we are going to play the "We are a Southern university for Southerners" game, we have to win it by getting the best students.
Ive spelled it out dozens of times.
We give almost a third of our merit aid to students with a 22 or below ACT. Ole Miss gives $0 until you get to a 23.
So what happens is Ole Miss is able to give a ton more to students making between a 23-31.
Fix that and we will get better Mississippi students.
Food for thought:
ACT Range MSU UM UM – MSU23–27 1,111 1,458 +34728–31 671 697 +2632+ 398 440 +42
A student from Mississippi with a 21-24 ACT and a 3.6+ GPA is guaranteed at least $3,500 at MSU.
It seems to be so obviously better that I would love to hear the argument for our structure. The only argument I can come up with is "we need warm bodies, and we get more warm bodies for cheaper by giving a small discount to the many, many students that make a 21-24 than by competing for the much smaller number of students that make a better ACT score. From a short term financial perspective, that probably does work out well, but not great for the medium and long term.A student from Mississippi with a 23 ACT and a 3.6+ GPA is guaranteed at least $3,000 at UM. A 24 adds $500 to even it out with MSU, but MSU is spending a ton more to scholarship those 21-22s.
At a 25 ACT, UM holds steady at $3,500, but MSU gives $5,000 to that 25 student.
At 26 ACT, UM $3,900, MSU $5,000
At 27 ACT, UM $4,250, MSU $5,000
At 28 ACT, UM $5,000, MSU $5,000
So MSU considers a 25 and a 29 the same, while UM gives a little bit more. for each point, saving them scholarship money so they can do this:
At 29 ACT, UM shoots up to $7,500, MSU stays at $5,000
At 30 ACT, UM $8,500, MSU $8,000
At 31 ACT, UM $9,500, MSU $8,000
At 32 ACT, UM $11,500, MSU $8,000
At 33-36 ACT, UM $14,278, MSU $10,500
Thats a significant difference for a high achieving student. I personally believe that if MSU matched Ole Miss' scholarship matrix, MSU would get way better students from in-state, which is what they should be striving for.
Lol, WTF is Bill Simmons?Same....he was okay in his early stages when he was trying to be an SEC version of Bill Simmons from the Page2 days, but has grown increasingly intolerable.
Numbers come directly from IHL.Where are you getting this info? Not disputing it as I don't know, but I historically MSU pulled better students, at least by ACT. I think that was mainly driven by engineering though. Not sure we were really out competing them in general and that may have stopped being true ten years ago for all I know.
I do think the university is somewhat in a no win situation. If we want the best for the university, it's probably not focusing on serving college ready Mississippi high school graduates in general. Although maybe it is. If we could get to a position where we could not admit people that aren't college ready, that would help us a ton I think, although it might hurt enrollment temporarily.
Wrong.Yeah it's going GREAT. Academic reputation as well as student population growth has steadily declined under Keenum.
That‘s not dire. It means we haven’t forgot what the main purpose of a Mississippimpublic university is.Read the graphic carefully… that’s not just out of state kids ..it’s out of region kids. We need both but maybe it’s not as dire as this looks
He doesn’t have one.What is your basis for student population growth steadily declining ?
I still have no idea where this info comes from but for the past 10 years we have known way more Memphis area kids go to State than Ole Miss. At least twice as many. That covers a variety of schools, public and private. Heck, I know of 4 kids just in my neighborhood this year going to State, 1 going to Ole Miss. The media does love Ole Miss for sure around here, but these kids could care less that talk radio or Channel 5 news glazes Ole Miss lol (they don't even know what talk radio is).Only one of those counties is significant Desoto. Maybe Lafayette.... yeah good luck. But Desoto is so heavily influenced by Rebs and the media here is all Memphis. Which only covers OM. So lots of OM influence in Desoto county.
I'm not sure what state can do to over come that. More scholarships, more positive press. But in the Memphis area, there is a misconception that OM is an Ivy League school and State is... well not.
Everything I see still shows MSU has a higher ACT average? Is it broken down by county somewhere that shows Ole Miss somehow getting better students from in state but ending up with a lower ACT average?Numbers come directly from IHL.
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