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Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby CalallenStang » Wed May 02, 2012 9:59 pm

Junior wrote:
CalallenStang wrote:You don't get it. Not everyone that gets admitted chooses to go to SMU. The historical number is 34% of those admitted ultimately enroll. Thus, if they hope to enroll 1400, they will have to admit 4100.

I think the confusion might be in vocabulary:

Yield = Number that Enroll / Number that are admitted
Acceptance Rate = Number that are admitted / Number that apply

I'm with you now. I suck at milti-tasking at work sometimes.


I suck at multi-tasking at all locations at all times, so it's all good
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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby AusTxPony » Thu May 03, 2012 12:35 am

Why such an increase in applications? Could SMU's higher sports profile/conference affiliation have any influence or is it just that kids apply to more schools, hence all schools are seeing increased applications?
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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby Alasdair » Thu May 03, 2012 6:07 am

AusTxPony wrote:Why such an increase in applications? Could SMU's higher sports profile/conference affiliation have any influence or is it just that kids apply to more schools, hence all schools are seeing increased applications?


Connections to my home state are what made me a fan, oh, and the fact teams like UT gave us a player (Bobby Layne) who created a 50 year curse on the Lions.
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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby friarwolf » Thu May 03, 2012 12:17 pm

AusTxPony wrote:Why such an increase in applications? Could SMU's higher sports profile/conference affiliation have any influence or is it just that kids apply to more schools, hence all schools are seeing increased applications?


SMU's growing national reputation is part of the reason - especially in California. The biggest part of the reason is "one app" that can be sent to multiple schools. Athletics, meh....not so much. Maybe a little..............
Last edited by friarwolf on Thu May 03, 2012 12:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby friarwolf » Thu May 03, 2012 12:18 pm

We are admitting a larger class this year - around 1450ish...........
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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby MustangSTATS » Thu May 03, 2012 12:31 pm

Why so many?
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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby friarwolf » Thu May 03, 2012 12:34 pm

We do this every so often - kinda depends on the class ahead and how many drop after 1st year. Also, got a new school of education, new dorms going up so we need more heads to fill and also more heads means more revenue...........
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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby MustangSTATS » Thu May 03, 2012 12:42 pm

So is it a cyclical bump or is there a plan to grow the undergrad population to eventually 7 or 8k? They mentioned Vandy as a model for the commons and they are closer to 7k.
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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby ponyboy » Thu May 03, 2012 4:21 pm

Alasdair wrote:
AusTxPony wrote:Why such an increase in applications? Could SMU's higher sports profile/conference affiliation have any influence or is it just that kids apply to more schools, hence all schools are seeing increased applications?


Connections to my home state are what made me a fan, oh, and the fact teams like UT gave us a player (Bobby Layne) who created a 50 year curse on the Lions.


Bobby Layne went to high school (with Doak Walker!) just down the street from campus.

Anyway, I had awful high school grades. Just awful. High SAT, but I was bottom of my class at Lake Highlands High School, dead last. Here's how I got in to SMU (and excelled once I did). Not 100% certain this will still work, lol.

I took classes over the summer after my high school graduation at a community college. I then went to the SMU continuing adult education department -- since I was already a college student and therefore an "adult learner" -- and asked to take 18 hours for the Fall semester of what would have been my freshman year at SMU, had I gotten in the regular way. They let me take the classes without so much as an application, I did very well and then applied again for official admittance at the end of that semester. SMU denied me. Same routine Spring semester. Finally, after three apps, they let me in offically -- even though I was an SMU student in every other way and had something like 54 hours of SMU credit when I became a real student.

I believe that technique would have allowed me to go anywhere in the nation. Do not tell my four children.
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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby hoyas29 » Thu May 03, 2012 11:19 pm

AusTxPony wrote:Why such an increase in applications? Could SMU's higher sports profile/conference affiliation have any influence or is it just that kids apply to more schools, hence all schools are seeing increased applications?



http://www.smudailymustang.com/?p=26333

And I actually spent a bit of time looking for the website, but I couldn't find it, but I remember a few months ago I saw something where an entire website was devoted to June Jones' claim that applications had soared as a direct result of their recent bowl appearances, and all the numbers and data he provided actually pointed to him being right. There's a bunch of reasons why SMU has seen a rise in applications. Auburn saw a huge rise in apps the year after they won the NC, as did UConn for basketball when they won. You could say SMU is doing the same thing, just on a smaller scale. Come next year I'll be in the same boat as the kid who posted earlier in the thread, and let's just hope I can get in.
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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby Comet » Sat May 05, 2012 11:18 am

Alasdair, all I can recommend is that you try try try try. And it always helps to be brutally honest in your essays. It's okay, perhaps even beneficial, to talk about why your first two years in highschool were not strong. Follow that up with how you've righted the ship. The admissions people will see the uptrend in your grades and effort, and sometimes that is just as strong of an indicator of a good potential student as one who had 4 years of steady of getting A's and B's. If for whatever reason you don't get in, I'd suggest you get a hold of an SMU counselor and ask what you can do in terms of community college in hopes of transferring over one day.
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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby Mustangs_Maroons » Wed May 09, 2012 10:00 am

I think people need to realize that higher number of applicants doesn't necessarily translate to better quality of applicants. This is what we need to focus on. And quite frankly, studies have shown that sports while increasing the visibility of the program doesn't do much to attract the top-tier high school candidates. Take a school like tcu for instance, they have significantly higher number of applicants because of the success of their football program, but the stat of their students are still materially below those of our students. That doesn't mean they haven't improved because they definitely have, but sports visibility only leads to so much improvement in the quality of students.

Top students will go to school because of academics and consider athletics as a bonus, but not the primary reason. Holding all things constant in terms of school academic quality, some students will choose a school because of the camaraderie created by sports teams (ala Duke, etc). Our focus should be on increasing student quality, which I think we have been doing as the average sat scores and gpas have been increasing, although this is only part of the story. I hope that the increased # of applicants has also led to better overall candidates. I think it has, but we'll soon find out when we find out the stats of the new incoming class. At the end of the day, to compete against schools like Rice in Texas, we need to continue to focus to increase our academic offerings and research. I think our first goal is to break the top 50 in the USNews (which we're close to) and separate ourselves from UT. Then, we can start to increase our profile and selectivity among the top high school students.
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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby Pony^ » Wed May 09, 2012 4:50 pm

Mustangs_Maroons wrote:I hope that the increased # of applicants has also led to better overall candidates. I think it has, but we'll soon find out when we find out the stats of the new incoming class.


They are certainly working on improving student quality. When prospective students were visiting campus, the SMU website stated that this was the strongest applicant pool yet. In addition, an applicant on College Confidential posted last December:

did anyone get that email Friday night saying how they had more applications than they have ever received and how this year's applicant pool is highly competitive? The email also said that they started mailing decisions out that evening and will continue for the next couple weeks. . .
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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby jtoutloud » Thu May 10, 2012 10:21 am

ponyboy wrote:
Alasdair wrote:
AusTxPony wrote:Why such an increase in applications? Could SMU's higher sports profile/conference affiliation have any influence or is it just that kids apply to more schools, hence all schools are seeing increased applications?


Connections to my home state are what made me a fan, oh, and the fact teams like UT gave us a player (Bobby Layne) who created a 50 year curse on the Lions.


Bobby Layne went to high school (with Doak Walker!) just down the street from campus.

Anyway, I had awful high school grades. Just awful. High SAT, but I was bottom of my class at Lake Highlands High School, dead last. Here's how I got in to SMU (and excelled once I did). Not 100% certain this will still work, lol.

This
I transferred in from a lesser school. My high school grades weren't great but I did well my first year at another college so it was easier since they saw that I could be successful at the collegiate level. Just keep trying and talking to people in the admissions office. They will help you.

I took classes over the summer after my high school graduation at a community college. I then went to the SMU continuing adult education department -- since I was already a college student and therefore an "adult learner" -- and asked to take 18 hours for the Fall semester of what would have been my freshman year at SMU, had I gotten in the regular way. They let me take the classes without so much as an application, I did very well and then applied again for official admittance at the end of that semester. SMU denied me. Same routine Spring semester. Finally, after three apps, they let me in offically -- even though I was an SMU student in every other way and had something like 54 hours of SMU credit when I became a real student.

I believe that technique would have allowed me to go anywhere in the nation. Do not tell my four children.
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Re: Admittance to SMU is harder than ever

Postby CBpony » Thu May 10, 2012 8:41 pm

I just got in, so it can't be that hard :wink: . I guess being in the army probably helped though.
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