Student enrollment
- Thread starter DudyDog
- Start date
I'm in OBA for the week and always have something MSU on, hat , shirt or something. Sitting in The Tiki Bar yesterday and a lady came up and said she was the counselor or something at a small school in Arkansas. She said State was the only D1 school who would come in person to recruit academically. UA nor Arkansas State took the time to come in person. Last night was in the pool with a guy who turned out to be a football coach at a small school in Alabama. He said the same thing and I never mentioned the earlier encounter. He said State was the only major college that bothered to send academic recruiters to his school.
Back in the 90s, State emphasized on campus and off campus recruiting. Glad to hear that has not changed.
They told my orientation class that in 06 then 3 years later for my brother in 09. I believe it has grown every year since 06 at least.
Enrollment growth was a big push by Keemun when he was hired.
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Had a MSU recruiter come visit me in high school in 2008. That made a HUGE impressions and was one of the reasons why I decided to attend State.
We now have a full time MSU student recruiter living in the Washington DC area. Lots of kids up here want to go to school in the South. Schools like Alabama, South Carolina and to some extent Ole Miss have been actively recruiting the area for many years. I'm glad to see we are expanding our reach.
I enrolled in 2012 and they told my freshman class the same thing. I worked the New Maroon camp for incoming freshman later in college and the year after the 2014 football season the out of state applicants was up 35% from previous years
That's a good thing. Are entrance standards higher than for in-state students? I have no problem with it if that's the case ... would improve our standards. And there's nothing wrong with giving them academic scholarships either if they deserve it.
Dr. Jimmy Abraham always did an amazing job handling Orientation and Roadrunners recruiting, as well as the Alumni Delegates. I know many others were involved as well but Jimmy laid much of the groundwork for the growth today.
You'd probably have a lot of support for a statue of Dr Abraham somewhere on that campus.
You'd probably have a lot of support for a statue of Dr Abraham somewhere on that campus.
Not sure about the minimum requirements for entrance but I am pretty sure there was a minimum ACT score of 29 or something to get out of state tuition waived. I would assume most out of state people would not be too interested in paying that extra tuition so I would expect those people to be of that higher score range.
I had several folks from Alabama in my circle of peers but I don’t remember if there was a neighboring state waiver or if they all had the minimum ACT score, but I know none of them had to pay the out of state tuition.
My son went to MSU, and in general, there is no out of state waiver for Alabama. There might be for one or two adjacent counties ... seems I've heard that in the past. I think he would have gotten at least a partial waiver because I am an alumnus, but he had full academic scholarships based on SAT so it wasn't an issue.
I don't know if Abraham was there when we (my son and I) came to State for the visit, but the school went far and above other schools we visited to make the students welcome and show them around. The Roadrunners did a fantastic job. The friendliness of the campus along with the academic opportunities made his mind up for him.
We have to emphasize quality over quantity too. As far as I'm concerned, that cannot be overstressed.
If you guys are all alumni, your kids will be eligible to attend as in-state students, no matter where you live. There are some academic restrictions there, and the student must maintain a 3.0 (from memory). Also, I believe they waive the out-of-state fees for children of veterans as well.
ETA: I looked it up, here you go:
Veteran, Service-Member, Dependent, Spouse, Non-Resident Tuition Waiver
Award: The difference between resident and non-resident tuition is waived for veterans, active duty service members and their dependents.
Also...
Non-Resident Academic Alumni Scholarship - Graduate students who are sons or daughters of an alumnus or alumna who earned a minimum of 48 semester hours of credit or a degree from Mississippi State University and who have not received other tuition waivers are eligible for a $6,000 award applied to their non-resident ...
ETA: I looked it up, here you go:
Veteran, Service-Member, Dependent, Spouse, Non-Resident Tuition Waiver
Award: The difference between resident and non-resident tuition is waived for veterans, active duty service members and their dependents.
Also...
Non-Resident Academic Alumni Scholarship - Graduate students who are sons or daughters of an alumnus or alumna who earned a minimum of 48 semester hours of credit or a degree from Mississippi State University and who have not received other tuition waivers are eligible for a $6,000 award applied to their non-resident ...
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ACT score of entering freshmen continues to go up. The out of state students being recruited are high quality.
There are basically no standards for Mississippi students thanks to the Ayers settlement, which dictated entry requirements to all eight Mississippi public institutions shall be the same. Essentially, if you have a 15 ACT and 2.5 GPA, MSU will admit. But they do not recruit this student, as school officials will tell you that student would be better served in one of Mississippi's community colleges to transition to senior university.
This is why MSU and UM have bumped up their out of state recruiting........... A) to grow bodies, which equal revenue and b) to grow quality. The state of Mississippi does not produce enough students to fully populate the 8 public schools, the private schools, and the 15 CJCs, and that is before we even talk to quality of student.
This is why MSU and UM have bumped up their out of state recruiting........... A) to grow bodies, which equal revenue and b) to grow quality. The state of Mississippi does not produce enough students to fully populate the 8 public schools, the private schools, and the 15 CJCs, and that is before we even talk to quality of student.
How can we do this when we have that court ruling that essentially allows anyone to get in?
At this point I figure MSU needs to enroll as many as possible and try to keep growing. If you ask Dave Ramsey, where you receive your degree is meaningless. May as well get it as Mississippi State.
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I do not think that is true regarding out-of-state students. I thought you get half-off the out-of-state tuition. Still probably cheaper than most of the in-state schools in surrounding states.
Nothing says, “you don’t have to take ALL the dumb...
“...just OUR dumb” like the Ayers ruling.
One thing about the Dean of Students, Dr. Thomas Bourgeois...not sure if he shared this or not but he, like Keenum, is a home-grown product. He grew up down on the coast and graduated from State in the early 90's. I believe he was both a Roadrunner and an Orientation Leader, and is completely dialed in for Mississippi State.
He gives every parent and student his personal cell phone number and he will answer it at any hour. He goes above and beyond to make sure every student at State has the best chance possible to succeed as both a student and an alumnus.
If you've never met Dr. B you are missing out. Our students are very lucky to have him on board.
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You may be right on that, but I believe it can be stacked with other academic and leadership scholarships (starting with an ACT of 22-23) to cover the cost.
Any chance that stupid ruling will ever be overturned? Sounds like Mississippi is the only state having to carry that burden. It certainly dilutes the standing of the school.
Sounds like he definitely has the right approach.
With that name, I'd have sworn he'd be from Louisiana though.
Is he from somewhere near, like Picayune?
With that name, I'd have sworn he'd be from Louisiana though.
Is he from somewhere near, like Picayune?I don't think so. Pretty sure UAT and Auburn, and UAH and UAB, have tuitions similar to MSU's for in-staters. Living and other expenses might be more though ... I have no idea. Starkville is a fairly expensive place to live for a small town.
I'd be willing to bet that a person could just randomly guess at the answers and make a 15 on the ACT.
That's probably a good assumption in most cases, but the son of some friends of ours went to Ole Miss, and I can assure you that he didn't have scores good enough to get a waiver. I'm surprised he could even get admitted. I suppose he went for the partying reputation, and because he exercsed that privilege, it took him 6 years to graduate in a benign major ... Marketing, I think. They paid a ton of extra money for him to go there. It's quite possible that he couldn't get in an Alabama school too, since there's no Ayer's ruling here that I'm aware of.
MSU's in-state tuition is less than in-state tuition at Troy, North Alabama, West Alabama and Alabama A&M. For a student with good grades and ACT choosing between Bama/Auburn or MSU, it definitely becomes a wash more times than not or even better deal to go to MSU
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It has changed a bit for this year. https://www.admissions.msstate.edu/freshmen/money-matters/scholarships/academic-scholarships/The out-of-state Alumni scholarship is $4,000 automatic for a 32 ACT. There is also a combined Academic achievement/non-resident tuition scholarship on a sliding scale based on GPA and ACT. If your kid hits 22 on the ACT and has a high enough GPA, they qualify for enough total scholarship money that it covers out of state tuition plus a little bit of regular tuition. Last year, the program was a little different (my daughter is a Sophomore on this program). The result is she qualified for more money from MSU than I could get from the HOPE program in GA (she doesn't qualify for the HOPE Zell Miller full-tuition program). State's scholarship programs make it cheaper for me to send my kid to MSU than UGA.