MSU and Marketing

[STATEgrad04]

My gripe for the day...

I live in Jacksonville Fl, and have been here for 7 years now (originally from Brandon). I was at the driving range the other day of the course that I joined last July. I was talking with a guy that I see up there pretty frequently and have gotten to know a little bit. We were discussing his swing and such, and he mentioned that he had not been able to play for the last two weeks...I asked what he had been doing, and he stated that he had been touring colleges with his daughter for next year. I proceeded to ask where all they visited, and the very first place that he said they went to was UMiss. He went on and on about how much she loved it there, the campus, the town, sports (baseball atmosphere in particular) etc. They then went to Alabama, then Auburn, and will hit SC and Clemson this week. I asked what interested her in UM and he said that she's always heard of the atmosphere there, and that she is going to go into Poly Sci program with the intent of getting into the CIA, FBI, etc. I did talk about how our baseball stadium and atmosphere is second to no-one, but could tell that it was falling on deaf ears.

My aggravation/question is what are they doing that we aren't to market themselves so positively nationally? This is not the first time this has happened either. He let me know that they didn't even go to Starkville. They would have had to drive by/through Starkville to get to Tuscaloosa from Oxford, and yet they did not even want to stop! I just don't get how they market themselves so well when they have roughly the same success as we do across all sports, which I would assume is a schools largest visual marketing tool. I have said it here before, but we are easily forgettable/dismissible when it comes to the college scene, and I wish we could figure out a way to get our name out there more frequently in a positive light.

I know that there is no easy answer or quick fix for this, but I can't stand it when I see or hear of situations like this, and it happens all too often. Rant over, flame away.

 

[aTotal360]

2 things...
1) it is a nice campus and atmosphere if you are a neutral party
2) they have a robust journalism department that spits out kids waxing poetic about them

I hate to say it, but our journalism dept is to their engineering dept.

 

[FQDawg]

Not to be overly pedantic but if you're going from Oxford to Tuscaloosa, you don't drive through Starkville.

But aTotal360 is on the right track - they've invested heavily in their journalism/communications program to the point where they've got grads in media outlets all around the country who will happily extol the virtues of OM and Oxford. State's communications department didn't even offer a graduate degree in communications until last year. We are way, way behind in this area.

It also helps that Oxford is a quaint town with most of its nightlife in one central location. I've said this before but Starkville having its entertainment options spread around a few different areas - and some of the better ones basically being in either strip malls or a shady motel parking lot - doesn't do much for the city's reputation.

 

[Ranchdawg]

My gripe for the day...

I live in Jacksonville Fl, and have been here for 7 years now (originally from Brandon). I was at the driving range the other day of the course that I joined last July. I was talking with a guy that I see up there pretty frequently and have gotten to know a little bit. We were discussing his swing and such, and he mentioned that he had not been able to play for the last two weeks...I asked what he had been doing, and he stated that he had been touring colleges with his daughter for next year. I proceeded to ask where all they visited, and the very first place that he said they went to was UMiss. He went on and on about how much she loved it there, the campus, the town, sports (baseball atmosphere in particular) etc. They then went to Alabama, then Auburn, and will hit SC and Clemson this week. I asked what interested her in UM and he said that she's always heard of the atmosphere there, and that she is going to go into Poly Sci program with the intent of getting into the CIA, FBI, etc. I did talk about how our baseball stadium and atmosphere is second to no-one, but could tell that it was falling on deaf ears.

My aggravation/question is what are they doing that we aren't to market themselves so positively nationally? This is not the first time this has happened either. He let me know that they didn't even go to Starkville. They would have had to drive by/through Starkville to get to Tuscaloosa from Oxford, and yet they did not even want to stop! I just don't get how they market themselves so well when they have roughly the same success as we do across all sports, which I would assume is a schools largest visual marketing tool. I have said it here before, but we are easily forgettable/dismissible when it comes to the college scene, and I wish we could figure out a way to get our name out there more frequently in a positive light.

I know that there is no easy answer or quick fix for this, but I can't stand it when I see or hear of situations like this, and it happens all too often. Rant over, flame away.

There is a simple answer to this. Look up party schools. His daughter said she was interested in the "atmosphere" which is a code word for "party time". Kids use code words with their parents. Show him that OM is ranked high on the party school list and he'll have second thoughts.

 

[Cantdoitsal]

Having lived here in Fort Worth the last 20 years, I've seen similar things about tsun that I've seen in other cities I lived in like Nawlins and Memphis which is parents talking about sending their children to tsun. Old Times There are still not forgotten across the country. Amazing marketing strategy they've done to be the last Confederate Holdout withhout attacks from liberals who are all about tearing down statues.. It's just a weird kinda lure that extends all across the country that STATE just doesn't have. Amazing how all those SJW's in Hollywood and ESPN love them some Grove and Square yet none care to know about or discuss one of if not THE most historical event in Mississippi Sports History which was when we snuck out to play in the NCAA Tourney.

 

[Ranchdawg]

I think Marketing is the biggest issue MSU has. We are one of the weakest schools in America at promoting ourselves (and I'm not talking about bill boards on highway 55 or 25). I took my students to the Raspet Center, CAVs and to ECE competition yesterday. I doubt any of you on here can tell me what they are doing at any of these centers and you are State fans/supporters. MSU is a World Class Research University and the only people that know it are the administrators of the different research centers. Our contributions to society are numerous but only a handful of people know about them.

 

[Turfdoc992]

How much different would the Mississippi State Game of change story be changed if they had won the game and gone on to win a National Championship?

MSU integrated without incident, Ole Miss and Bama had federal troops and Bobby Kennedy and mayhem. People still remember this.

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

My gripe for the day...

I live in Jacksonville Fl, and have been here for 7 years now (originally from Brandon). I was at the driving range the other day of the course that I joined last July. I was talking with a guy that I see up there pretty frequently and have gotten to know a little bit. We were discussing his swing and such, and he mentioned that he had not been able to play for the last two weeks...I asked what he had been doing, and he stated that he had been touring colleges with his daughter for next year. I proceeded to ask where all they visited, and the very first place that he said they went to was UMiss. He went on and on about how much she loved it there, the campus, the town, sports (baseball atmosphere in particular) etc. They then went to Alabama, then Auburn, and will hit SC and Clemson this week. I asked what interested her in UM and he said that she's always heard of the atmosphere there, and that she is going to go into Poly Sci program with the intent of getting into the CIA, FBI, etc. I did talk about how our baseball stadium and atmosphere is second to no-one, but could tell that it was falling on deaf ears.

My aggravation/question is what are they doing that we aren't to market themselves so positively nationally? This is not the first time this has happened either. He let me know that they didn't even go to Starkville. They would have had to drive by/through Starkville to get to Tuscaloosa from Oxford, and yet they did not even want to stop! I just don't get how they market themselves so well when they have roughly the same success as we do across all sports, which I would assume is a schools largest visual marketing tool. I have said it here before, but we are easily forgettable/dismissible when it comes to the college scene, and I wish we could figure out a way to get our name out there more frequently in a positive light.

I know that there is no easy answer or quick fix for this, but I can't stand it when I see or hear of situations like this, and it happens all too often. Rant over, flame away.

#1. I think you are just more sensitive to the idea that people think more highly of Ole Miss because you hate them. You also live in an urban area where kids/parents are going to be more interested in attending a liberal arts/soft sciences school than an engineering/hard sciences school.

This same perception would be true of Florida vs Florida State, Michigan vs Michigan State, Texas vs Texas A&M. I think Auburn and Clemson are a little unique in that in not having the "State" label.

From my experience, the smarter/higher scoring students either go to top 20 schools or get into whatever in state school they want. The lower achieving kids have to go out of state when it's competitive in their home state. There is no better example of this than in Texas.

A&M and Texas are really hard to get into for in state kids unless you graduate in the top 10% of your high school class. After those 2 you have Texas Tech, which is just a different world and if you are not into that place, you won't even consider it. Beyond those 3 you have a bunch of commuter and directional schools (UT Arlington, North Texas, Houston, San Houston, etc) and a bunch of mostly selective private schools that cost $50k a year (TCU, Rice, SMU, Baylor.)

So if your daughter graduates with a 3.0 from Plano West and made a 23 on the ACT, she's not getting into the prestigious schools in Texas. She's headed for Tech (which is considered the trashy school by the yuppie $40,000 millionaires in the Dallas suburbs) or out of state to keep up appearances. Most by far head to Oklahoma and Arkansas, but Ole Miss is a very popular destination for these types, because it's honestly a great fit for mediocre yuppie kids from DFW suburbs who can't afford private school and are going to college to get some kind of liberal arts degree and meet a spouse living their best Greek life.

#2. It's really not that big of a difference. Here are the enrollment numbers by state from a couple of years ago.





More Tennessee and Alabama kids going to State. And the big one for Ole Miss is Texas and I already explained that one. Ole Miss is the poor student's SMU (poor figuratively.)

Remember, in every state the smart rural kids are going to get science and engineering degrees in state. The super smart urban/suburban kids looking for eventual advanced degrees in medicine or law are trying to get into private schools first and settling for in state liberal arts schools. The other kids are just going to get scattered based on a variety of factors, but in states like TX, CA, FL with big populations, they send kids everywhere because they don't have the grades to get into the bigger state universities and want something more than UT Permian Basin. The engineering and science kids don't typically have this problem because they are top 10% with 30+ ACT scores, so it's the other kids that are going to want to go to a more liberal arts focused school that leave the state.

---

I know two guys with no connection to OM that sent their kids to Ole Miss from out of State. Both girls. One from Chicago and one from Dallas. The girl from Chicago got a degree in Hospitality Management and the one from Dallas dropped out after a few years and works at the front desk in a dentist's office.

Not that there's anything wrong with either of those fine professions, but out of state tuition is hard to justify for what they accomplished. These are the kids that are going to Ole Miss from out of state. I ain't jealous.

 

[Dawgg]

Having lived here in Fort Worth the last 20 years, I've seen similar things about tsun that I've seen in other cities I lived in like Nawlins and Memphis which is parents talking about sending their children to tsun. Old Times There are still not forgotten across the country. Amazing marketing strategy they've done to be the last Confederate Holdout withhout attacks from liberals who are all about tearing down statues.. It's just a weird kinda lure that extends all across the country that STATE just doesn't have. Amazing how all those SJW's in Hollywood and ESPN love them some Grove and Square yet none care to know about or discuss one of if not THE most historical event in Mississippi Sports History which was when we snuck out to play in the NIT.

It wasn't the NIT. It was the NCAA Tournament.

 

[STATEgrad04]

Really good explanation and breakdown, and I don't disagree with any of what you said.

I'm not necessarily jealous of who goes there individually, but I am definitely jealous of their national perception....Afterall, perception is reality, as the old saying goes.

 

[L4Dawg]

The major was political science? If so not a big thing at MSU.

 

[Cantdoitsal]

It wasn't the NIT. It was the NCAA Tournament.

Wasn't the NIT the main tourney back then?

 

[HRMSU]

#1. I think you are just more sensitive to the idea that people think more highly of Ole Miss because you hate them. You also live in an urban area where kids/parents are going to be more interested in attending a liberal arts/soft sciences school than an engineering/hard sciences school.

This same perception would be true of Florida vs Florida State, Michigan vs Michigan State, Texas vs Texas A&M. I think Auburn and Clemson are a little unique in that in not having the "State" label.

From my experience, the smarter/higher scoring students either go to top 20 schools or get into whatever in state school they want. The lower achieving kids have to go out of state when it's competitive in their home state. There is no better example of this than in Texas.

A&M and Texas are really hard to get into for in state kids unless you graduate in the top 10% of your high school class. After those 2 you have Texas Tech, which is just a different world and if you are not into that place, you won't even consider it. Beyond those 3 you have a bunch of commuter and directional schools (UT Arlington, North Texas, Houston, San Houston, etc) and a bunch of mostly selective private schools that cost $50k a year (TCU, Rice, SMU, Baylor.)

So if your daughter graduates with a 3.0 from Plano West and made a 23 on the ACT, she's not getting into the prestigious schools in Texas. She's headed for Tech (which is considered the trashy school by the yuppie $40,000 millionaires in the Dallas suburbs) or out of state to keep up appearances. Most by far head to Oklahoma and Arkansas, but Ole Miss is a very popular destination for these types, because it's honestly a great fit for mediocre yuppie kids from DFW suburbs who can't afford private school and are going to college to get some kind of liberal arts degree and meet a spouse living their best Greek life.

#2. It's really not that big of a difference. Here are the enrollment numbers by state from a couple of years ago.

View attachment 335655

View attachment 335657

More Tennessee and Alabama kids going to State. And the big one for Ole Miss is Texas and I already explained that one. Ole Miss is the poor student's SMU (poor figuratively.)

Remember, in every state the smart rural kids are going to get science and engineering degrees in state. The super smart urban/suburban kids looking for eventual advanced degrees in medicine or law are trying to get into private schools first and settling for in state liberal arts schools. The other kids are just going to get scattered based on a variety of factors, but in states like TX, CA, FL with big populations, they send kids everywhere because they don't have the grades to get into the bigger state universities and want something more than UT Permian Basin. The engineering and science kids don't typically have this problem because they are top 10% with 30+ ACT scores, so it's the other kids that are going to want to go to a more liberal arts focused school that leave the state.

---

I know two guys with no connection to OM that sent their kids to Ole Miss from out of State. Both girls. One from Chicago and one from Dallas. The girl from Chicago got a degree in Hospitality Management and the one from Dallas dropped out after a few years and works at the front desk in a dentist's office.

Not that there's anything wrong with either of those fine professions, but out of state tuition is hard to justify for what they accomplished. These are the kids that are going to Ole Miss from out of state. I ain't jealous.

You are 100% correct on #1 and I think UT and A&M now require you to be in the top 8%. My kids aren't sniffing that with their high school having over 3,000 kids.

Tons of kids go to Arkansas because out of state discount starts with a 3.2 gpa. Last year was largest FR class in AR history and they have talked about ending the discount or making it harder to earn. OU doesn't participate anymore but OSU does. Unless your kid is a really really good student you aren't going to UT or A&M. That leaves Tech, which I love Tech people, but it's located on the Dark side of the moon. OSU doesn't have the appeal and OU is full out of State. So, you see kids going to AR and Ole Miss. Honestly, AR is an amazing deal right now. My son walks out of his dorm and less than half a mile to Dickson St. He didn't even need a vehicle this year. He still follows those Bulldogs though!

If, State could afford it then offering out of state tuition discounts to larger populated states like TX, GA and FL along with focused Marketing would make an immediate impact.

 

[Dawgg]

From my experience, the smarter/higher scoring students either go to top 20 schools or get into whatever in state school they want. The lower achieving kids have to go out of state when it's competitive in their home state. There is no better example of this than in Texas.

A&M and Texas are really hard to get into for in state kids unless you graduate in the top 10% of your high school class. After those 2 you have Texas Tech, which is just a different world and if you are not into that place, you won't even consider it. Beyond those 3 you have a bunch of commuter and directional schools (UT Arlington, North Texas, Houston, San Houston, etc) and a bunch of mostly selective private schools that cost $50k a year (TCU, Rice, SMU, Baylor.)

So if your daughter graduates with a 3.0 from Plano West and made a 23 on the ACT, she's not getting into the prestigious schools in Texas. She's headed for Tech (which is considered the trashy school by the yuppie $40,000 millionaires in the Dallas suburbs) or out of state to keep up appearances. Most by far head to Oklahoma and Arkansas, but Ole Miss is a very popular destination for these types, because it's honestly a great fit for mediocre yuppie kids from DFW suburbs who can't afford private school and are going to college to get some kind of liberal arts degree and meet a spouse living their best Greek life.

Absolutely 100% correct. When I first moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area out of college 20 years ago, I worked at a Sprint store in Highland Park/University Park, which is kind of the "old money/pro athlete/celebrity" part of Dallas. When customers found out I was from Mississippi, their first inclination was to tell me that they/their sister/their brother/their daughter/their son/their nephew/their niece/etc. were possibly going to Ole Miss. After I noticed the pattern and asked why, one potential student bluntly told me that she didn't graduate high enough in her class to get into SMU or Texas and that was the case for a lot of Highland Park ISD kids. She said Ole Miss is a lot of Highland Park/Uptown Dallas kids' safety school because the culture is so similar to SMU's and a lot of the same 'type' of people go there. I heard some version of this same story many times. "Ole Miss" and its Old South culture was considered "acceptable" and a step up from UNT or UTA or Texas State (which was TSU-San Marcos at the time) even though it isn't by any real academic or functional measure outside being in the SEC.

Also... Texas as a state I feel like is kind of unique in that the two most prominent state schools, Texas and Texas A&M, are considered academically superior to a lot of the private schools in the state (outside of maybe Rice). A degree from Baylor, TCU, or SMU doesn't really give you a leg up the way, for example, a Vanderbilt degree would give you an advantage over a Tennessee grad.

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

Really good explanation and breakdown, and I don't disagree with any of what you said.

I'm not necessarily jealous of who goes there individually, but I am definitely jealous of their national perception....Afterall, perception is reality, as the old saying goes.

For sure.

I just think you would find this same perception in nearly every other similar dynamic. UT vs A&M, OU vs OSU, UNC vs NC State, and many more.

My logic is that for most of history, college was heavily focused on those liberal arts and soft sciences. So schools like Oxford (in England), Harvard, and Yale had all the global panache. And schools like Ole Miss were molded in the same model of liberal arts style education. Schools like ours were focused on agriculture and mechanical education while the doctors, lawyers, and newspaper writers were all at an OM type of school.

Well the worm is turning over the last several decades. Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and Cambridge are losing that grip on the top spots to Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, and Cal Tech as technology and engineering is the future of our society. Who needs a lawyer when AI can write you a perfect will? Who needs a primary care provider when you can upload your lab results to website and have a prescription for a potassium supplement and something to lower your cholesterol spit out.

The elite class is becoming more and more technology and engineering focused. That's good for Mississippi State in the long run. Now we just need to throw a **** load of money at becoming the number one school in the south in Ai and machine learning to accelerate the process.

 

[Dawgg]

Wasn't the NIT the main tourney back then?

I'm not sure when the NCAA 'officially' became more prestigious than the NIT, but the 1963 team snuck out of the state to play in the NCAA Tournament.

 

[HRMSU]

Absolutely 100% correct. When I first moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area out of college 20 years ago, I worked at a Sprint store in Highland Park/University Park, which is kind of the "old money/pro athlete/celebrity" part of Dallas. When customers found out I was from Mississippi, their first inclination was to tell me that they/their sister/their brother/their daughter/their son/their nephew/their niece/etc. were possibly going to Ole Miss. After I noticed the pattern and asked why, one potential student bluntly told me that she didn't graduate high enough in her class to get into SMU or Texas and that was the case for a lot of Highland Park ISD kids. She said Ole Miss is a lot of Highland Park/Uptown Dallas kids' safety school because the culture is so similar to SMU's and a lot of the same 'type' of people go there. I heard some version of this same story many times. "Ole Miss" and its Old South culture was considered "acceptable" and a step up from UNT or UTA or Texas State (which was TSU-San Marcos at the time) even though it isn't by any real academic or functional measure outside being in the SEC.

Also... Texas as a state I feel like is kind of unique in that the two most prominent state schools, Texas and Texas A&M, are considered academically superior to a lot of the private schools in the state (outside of maybe Rice). A degree from Baylor, TCU, or SMU doesn't really give you a leg up the way, for example, a Vanderbilt degree would give you an advantage over a Tennessee grad.

Spot on!

 

[Dawgg]

If, State could afford it then offering out of state tuition discounts to larger populated states like TX, GA and FL along with focused Marketing would make an immediate impact.

I like that idea. It would increase the likelihood that one of my kids actually ends up going there.

 

[Cantdoitsal]

I'm not sure when the NCAA 'officially' became more prestigious than the NIT, but the 1963 team snuck out of the state to play in the NCAA Tournament.

Is there a chance it was referred to at times as "The NCAA Tourney" but was still technically the NIT?

FANSIDED: Once considered the most prestigious postseason college basketball tournament, the National Invitational Tournament got eclipsed by the NCAA starting in the 1970s. As the NCAA Tournament grew in size and influence and started making more of its own rules, it attracted more viewers and caused the NIT to lose its prestige.
By the 1980s, the NIT catered only to regionalized communities and effectively turned into a secondary tournament for teams that didn’t make it to the NCAA.

What is the NIT? A Brief History

Before there was March Madness, there was the NIT. Here's a brief history of the lesser-known tournament. Did your college basketball team not make it...

fansided.com

 

[FrontRangeDawg]

I was in DC in March, and talked to a number of folks on the Hill. One positive that I heard from a few people is that State is doing a very good job getting interns to the Hill and helping them with housing, transportation, etc., that allows them to stick in that town. Comparatively, UM was not taking advantage of its historical advantage there. So, that's a positive for State.

 

[FQDawg]

I think Marketing is the biggest issue MSU has. We are one of the weakest schools in America at promoting ourselves (and I'm not talking about bill boards on highway 55 or 25). I took my students to the Raspet Center, CAVs and to ECE competition yesterday. I doubt any of you on here can tell me what they are doing at any of these centers and you are State fans/supporters. MSU is a World Class Research University and the only people that know it are the administrators of the different research centers. Our contributions to society are numerous but only a handful of people know about them.

I know enough to know that Raspet (aerial) and CAVS (ground-based) are leaders in driverless technology development. If you've seen anything about Car of the Future over the last 5-10 years, that's CAVS.

But I have an interest in those areas so I read those articles when the university puts them out. But, as you mention, those centers are also heavily research based and geared towards faculty, staff and maybe grad students. So, while I think they're cool areas and definitely positives for the university, I don't know that they move the needle for high school kids, especially someone who may not be sure of what they want to major in.

ETA - There is cool stuff out there about the university. But I agree that the university can do a better job of promoting things more widely. You mention ECE... I remember seeing these videos on a couple of the ECE programs a year or so ago.

 

[Dawgg]

Is there a chance it was referred to at times as "The NCAA Tourney" but was still technically the NIT?

FANSIDED: Once considered the most prestigious postseason college basketball tournament, the National Invitational Tournament got eclipsed by the NCAA starting in the 1970s. As the NCAA Tournament grew in size and influence and started making more of its own rules, it attracted more viewers and caused the NIT to lose its prestige.
By the 1980s, the NIT catered only to regionalized communities and effectively turned into a secondary tournament for teams that didn’t make it to the NCAA.

What is the NIT? A Brief History

Before there was March Madness, there was the NIT. Here's a brief history of the lesser-known tournament. Did your college basketball team not make it...

fansided.com

No, they’ve always been concurrent tournaments. The NIT is like a year older than the NCAA.

1963 NIT:

1963 National Invitation Tournament - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

1963 NCAA:

1963 NCAA University Division basketball tournament - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Lawdawg.sixpack]

...I asked what interested her in UM and he said that she's always heard of the atmosphere there, and that she is going to go into Poly Sci program with the intent of getting into the CIA, FBI, etc....

They do have something called the Center for Intelligence and Security Studies, which is designed to feed students to FBI, CIA, etc.

 

[Cantdoitsal]

No, they’ve always been concurrent tournaments. The NIT is like a year older than the NCAA.

1963 NIT:

1963 National Invitation Tournament - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

1963 NCAA:

1963 NCAA University Division basketball tournament - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Preshate Dat.

 

[NukeDogg]

If, State could afford it then offering out of state tuition discounts to larger populated states like TX, GA and FL along with focused Marketing would make an immediate impact.

I'm no economics major but wouldn't you think they have somebody that could accurately project what the additional enrollment could be if they did this? 100 out of state students each paying $100 = $10,000, but if you could get 150 students each paying $80 then it's $12,000 type of simple math. I know it's not quite that simple because you need extra lodging, extra staff, professors, parking, etc. etc. but surely someone smart enough to take it all into account must have already done this, no?

 

[L4Dawg]

Wasn't the NIT the main tourney back then?

no

 

[L4Dawg]

MSU's main mission always has been and always will be to educate Mississippi residents.

 

[Cantdoitsal]

MSU's main mission always has been and always will be to educate Mississippi residents.

Yep, we're "The People's University" and operate in Realville as opposed to the Illusion @ tsun.

 

[40mikemike]

Starkville is a place to go get an education. Oxford is a place to go party on daddy’s dime for four or five years. It’s not hard to figure out why kids choose Oxford if they are otherwise neutral.

 

[soccerdad]

I said this years ago and the offer still stands. I will pay for a MS State pennant, cowbell, sign or something to be mailed to 150 bars in a 200 mile radius so that they can display it as school advertisement. I was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming 5 years ago and went in a bar that had Alabama, Georgia, Miami, LSU etc. college stuff on the walls. Why don't we do the same?
Of course I also said that I would buy 50 knit Ole Miss stocking caps and pass them out to the begging bums here in Jackson along I-55 at the lights.

 

[mstateglfr]

It was just said, but deserves repeating - MSU exists primarily to educate students from the state of Mississippi.
That isn't a bad thing and it isn't something that is inherently in need of change.

Yes, recruiting outside the state can help increase enrollment and money- see Bama over the last 20 years for example.
But there is nothing wrong with a state school focusing on educating local students.

I came from out of state, and can confidently say that I decided to attend, in heavy part, because I was offered in state tuition and another tuition reduction. If not for that, there is 0 chance I would have chosen to pay tens of thousands more for 4 years of education.
It's tough to entice out of state students.

It'd be cool to see MSU focus on 5 metros outside of Mississippi and the immediate area for recruiting and see how it goes over the span of 8 years.
Chicago, KC, Indy, STL, and Cincy.

 

[Cantdoitsal]

It wasn't the NIT. It was the NCAA Tournament.

Thanks Again, I fixed my post and continue to ride a Skrong 2 Day Dubmass Streak.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

My gripe for the day...

I live in Jacksonville Fl, and have been here for 7 years now (originally from Brandon). I was at the driving range the other day of the course that I joined last July. I was talking with a guy that I see up there pretty frequently and have gotten to know a little bit. We were discussing his swing and such, and he mentioned that he had not been able to play for the last two weeks...I asked what he had been doing, and he stated that he had been touring colleges with his daughter for next year. I proceeded to ask where all they visited, and the very first place that he said they went to was UMiss. He went on and on about how much she loved it there, the campus, the town, sports (baseball atmosphere in particular) etc. They then went to Alabama, then Auburn, and will hit SC and Clemson this week. I asked what interested her in UM and he said that she's always heard of the atmosphere there, and that she is going to go into Poly Sci program with the intent of getting into the CIA, FBI, etc. I did talk about how our baseball stadium and atmosphere is second to no-one, but could tell that it was falling on deaf ears.

My aggravation/question is what are they doing that we aren't to market themselves so positively nationally? This is not the first time this has happened either. He let me know that they didn't even go to Starkville. They would have had to drive by/through Starkville to get to Tuscaloosa from Oxford, and yet they did not even want to stop! I just don't get how they market themselves so well when they have roughly the same success as we do across all sports, which I would assume is a schools largest visual marketing tool. I have said it here before, but we are easily forgettable/dismissible when it comes to the college scene, and I wish we could figure out a way to get our name out there more frequently in a positive light.

I know that there is no easy answer or quick fix for this, but I can't stand it when I see or hear of situations like this, and it happens all too often. Rant over, flame away.

We've come a long away, but have a long way to go. If I were Keenum, I'd hire a bunch of students to hammer out fluff stories about MSU/Starkville/etc., and send to every website on the plant. Many are looking for cheap content filler anyway. From time to time, on Outkick, I'll see a pro Ole Miss story, but rarely see an MSU article.

 

[Shane of Pisgah]

I travel to Oxford frequently for work and have 2 nephews in school there. If you spend any time there you can't help but notice the amount of out of state plates - Texas, Georgia, and Tennessee primarily. The reality is they draw a lot of kids from those states and I don't think it has anything to do with "marketing."

What type of marketing are we even talking about, and where would I find said marketing? Newspapers? Radio? Social media? When you were in high school, would you have been swayed by "marketing" telling you how cool some random school in Texas or Tennessee is? Of course not.

It's word of mouth, just like it's always been. Some kids from Nashville go to OM and their buddies who are still in high school come visit or hear that it's fun or whatever, and so they go visit, and next thing you know it becomes a "thing" to go there. Some schools in Dallas/Atlanta/Nashville areas send students there because kids follow their buddies. Same thing for MSU drawing kids from Meridian and Rankin County and parts of Alabama.

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

I like that idea. It would increase the likelihood that one of my kids actually ends up going there

If, State could afford it then offering out of state tuition discounts to larger populated states like TX, GA and FL along with focused Marketing would make an immediate impact.

Out west they do an awesome job of this. It's called the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) and Western Graduate Regional Program (WGRP.) Most of the schools in 15 western states waive our or significantly reduce out of state tuition for kids from other participating states.



The overcrowded/low acceptance schools don't participate (UCLA, Cal system, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado) because they are full to the the brim with in state kids. But many others do. I can send my kids to Oregon State, Montana, Washington State, Colorado State, Arizona, Wyoming, Hawaii, Utah, and 100+ other out of state schools for 1/2-1/3rd what it would cost to send them to Mississippi State, even with the alumni out of state tuition discount. Of $4,000 a year.

It's a really good system and allows a lot more affordable options so kids can really drill down on the best school for their chosen major. The SE schools could easily do something similar.

 

[WilCoDawg]

#1. I think you are just more sensitive to the idea that people think more highly of Ole Miss because you hate them. You also live in an urban area where kids/parents are going to be more interested in attending a liberal arts/soft sciences school than an engineering/hard sciences school.

This same perception would be true of Florida vs Florida State, Michigan vs Michigan State, Texas vs Texas A&M. I think Auburn and Clemson are a little unique in that in not having the "State" label.

From my experience, the smarter/higher scoring students either go to top 20 schools or get into whatever in state school they want. The lower achieving kids have to go out of state when it's competitive in their home state. There is no better example of this than in Texas.

A&M and Texas are really hard to get into for in state kids unless you graduate in the top 10% of your high school class. After those 2 you have Texas Tech, which is just a different world and if you are not into that place, you won't even consider it. Beyond those 3 you have a bunch of commuter and directional schools (UT Arlington, North Texas, Houston, San Houston, etc) and a bunch of mostly selective private schools that cost $50k a year (TCU, Rice, SMU, Baylor.)

So if your daughter graduates with a 3.0 from Plano West and made a 23 on the ACT, she's not getting into the prestigious schools in Texas. She's headed for Tech (which is considered the trashy school by the yuppie $40,000 millionaires in the Dallas suburbs) or out of state to keep up appearances. Most by far head to Oklahoma and Arkansas, but Ole Miss is a very popular destination for these types, because it's honestly a great fit for mediocre yuppie kids from DFW suburbs who can't afford private school and are going to college to get some kind of liberal arts degree and meet a spouse living their best Greek life.

#2. It's really not that big of a difference. Here are the enrollment numbers by state from a couple of years ago.

View attachment 335655

View attachment 335657

More Tennessee and Alabama kids going to State. And the big one for Ole Miss is Texas and I already explained that one. Ole Miss is the poor student's SMU (poor figuratively.)

Remember, in every state the smart rural kids are going to get science and engineering degrees in state. The super smart urban/suburban kids looking for eventual advanced degrees in medicine or law are trying to get into private schools first and settling for in state liberal arts schools. The other kids are just going to get scattered based on a variety of factors, but in states like TX, CA, FL with big populations, they send kids everywhere because they don't have the grades to get into the bigger state universities and want something more than UT Permian Basin. The engineering and science kids don't typically have this problem because they are top 10% with 30+ ACT scores, so it's the other kids that are going to want to go to a more liberal arts focused school that leave the state.

---

I know two guys with no connection to OM that sent their kids to Ole Miss from out of State. Both girls. One from Chicago and one from Dallas. The girl from Chicago got a degree in Hospitality Management and the one from Dallas dropped out after a few years and works at the front desk in a dentist's office.

Not that there's anything wrong with either of those fine professions, but out of state tuition is hard to justify for what they accomplished. These are the kids that are going to Ole Miss from out of state. I ain't jealous.

That’s the thing: they’re waiving OOS tuition for a ton of of students. I’m not sure how they get away with it, but they do. It attracts a lot of families that can’t get their kids into their respective state schools like here in TN. They throw out money left and right while MSU won’t budge on a dime. Period. It’s frankly embarrassing. I’ve got friends that didn’t like OM at all until their kids got to go for much cheaper than they could UT. It happens all the time up here. It’s pathetic.

 

[HammerOfTheDogs]

They do have something called the Center for Intelligence and Security Studies, which is designed to feed students to FBI, CIA, etc.

Proof

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Out west they do an awesome job of this. It's called the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) and Western Graduate Regional Program (WGRP.) Most of the schools in 15 western states waive our or significantly reduce out of state tuition for kids from other participating states.

MSU is in the Southern Regional Education Board which does something similar:

Southern Regional Education Board

The Southern Regional Education Board works with 16 member states to improve public education at every level, from pre-K through Ph.D.

home.sreb.org

 

[HRMSU]

MSU is in the Southern Regional Education Board which does something similar:

Southern Regional Education Board

The Southern Regional Education Board works with 16 member states to improve public education at every level, from pre-K through Ph.D.

home.sreb.org

Not quite the same.

Both the WUE and the Texas neighboring states waiver is for any degree a participating school offers. The SREB is only for degrees not offered in the out of state student's home state school....according to that link you dropped.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Not quite the same.

Both the WUE and the Texas neighboring states waiver is for any degree a participating school offers. The SREB is only for degrees not offered in the out of state student's home state school....according to that link you dropped.

Maybe the SREB should follow the WUE model then.