MSU and Marketing

[Trojanbulldog19]

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

Also not a big major for those agencies. Counselors needs to do better research and bring industry to these kids.

a lot of this is based on notoriety of people think of Mississippi. The school counselor knows of ole miss because of movies and literature.
Science nerds, engineering nerds, forestry, and ag is king At msu and those careers are not televised enough or promoted enough. To where counselors and kids around the states would even know about msu or those majors and careers that would stem from that. But fbi cia etc has a world of different jobs not many pertaining to poly science.

 

[Anon1664516582]

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.

Wrong. I helped CAVS Center form. We told Nissan the State of Mississippi would create CAVS during their recruitment & actually used some of their input to start the facility. Also used the Raspet Center especially the Honda name every time we flew into Starkville.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

On a more positive spin, one of my wife’s friends from high school lives in Covington, LA and has a daughter that’s going to be a senior next year and has been looking at colleges. She said Mississippi State has been recruiting her pretty hard. When she told them she was looking at going into engineering they sent all kinds of info and things about women in engineering. The mom was really impressed with her recruitment and she works PR for a big bank so she knows all about that. They went and visited campus a couple of months ago and said it was fantastic experience with everyone there. Right now State is her top choice.

 

[HeCannotGo]

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.

I've seen a similar pattern in the Atlanta metro area. Georgia and Georgia Tech have very high admission standards, and kids with very good grades and ACT/SAT scores often have to look elsewhere. State gets some of these kids, Ole Miss gets some.

What's encouraging to me is that, if it comes down to us verses Ole Miss, we get the kids we should get: the hard-working, down-to-earth types who will add value to our university and to their communities one day. Out of the 25 or so kids I know who have ended up in Oxford, I've never once thought, "Wow, he'd really fit in better at State," or "Man, I wish we'd been able to convince her to be a Bulldog."

I confess that this is biased and anecdotal evidence, but we're not missing anything by having a batch of North Atlanta folks head to UM to major in Leisure Studies every year.

 

[cindy_ev]

My husband and I are both MSU grads, but we've lived in TX for the last 23 years. We know all about CAVS, Raspet, HPCC (formerly known as the ERC), DIAL (which I think is no more) bc my husband worked at the ERC as an undergrad and as a graduate student. He's gone on to work for some major tech companies, and he is currently wrapping up a 2 yr stint in Zurich in the computer vision group of a big tech company. One thing that has always bothered me is that MSU never cares to highlight any of the cool tech stuff that the university is involved in or part of (or has grads involved in), outside of a couple of 2 second video ops in the yearly commercial that comes out for football season.

Our son (youngest of 3) is at MSU. All 3 of our kids have had to deal with the whole auto-admit mess with UT and TAMU, and we do have one TAMU grad to show for it. Our son is at MSU solely bc he could get accepted, AND (more importantly) he can freely choose his major (software engineering). At TAMU even if you can get accepted to start school there, engineering majors have to go through a process after you've got so many hours under your belt (usually end of freshman year) called "entrance to a major" (ETAM). This is where you submit several ranked choices for which branch of engineering you'd like to major in, and they look at your GPA and other stuff on your application and decide where you go. So you could start in engineering in TAMU and end up in your 3rd choice major. He said no thanks to that. Again, another thing that gives MSU an advantage in recruiting that they don't bother to take advantage of in any way.

 

[Ranchdawg]

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.

They are doing off road autonomous vehicle research with the military at the CAVs Center. Of course, they are starting their next Eco Car competition. Over the last 4 years they reworked a Chevrolet Trail Blazer. This year they will rework a Cadillac Lyric EV. We spent about 30 minutes talking with the Student team leader for the competition. Excellent experience for students with all backgrounds at State. They have 8 project leaders and 35 volunteers from the different departments at the Univerity.

Raspet is working with the FAA on the next generation UAVs. As you know, a UAV has to be in visual contact with the pilot or assistant at all times. This gives them a range of about 2 miles. They are working to install collision avoidance similar to what is in manned air planes. If the Amazon delivery and merchant market plans to use drones moves forward this is a must. Below is their latest drone. There are only 3 and MSU has 2. The other one was purchased by FPL. They have very accurate mapping capability which allows them to fly over rivers and sense the water level to mm accuracy. They are also capable of carrying cell tower equipment and have been used in areas wiped out by tornadoes or hurricanes so that first responders have cell capability. Maybe they could fly over Davis Wade so we could get cell service. *****

Forgot to add, they have as many students working at Raspet as they do staff and the students get paid. They can also train for their pilot license for free and get certified to fly or certified for UAVs for commercial use.

 

[FrontRangeDawg]

I hesitate to post this, because several are going to think it's some defense of Ole Miss. But, placing a value judgment on 18-year olds as if they have fully formed personalities from which they make informed college choices is pretty silly. It's true that Ole Miss has well-established connections into TX, GA and other states based on the fact that those home schools have universities that have higher admission standards and won't accept them. But, that doesn't mean the kids are somehow vapid or constitutionally different in any way. State gets those kids too (on a slightly smaller scale) and would murder to get more of them.

Branding out-of-state kids who go to Ole Miss as "of a certain personality that we don't like" is extremely limiting and not based in fact, IMO. If State could open up a channel in DFW to bring in 400 freshmen a year that happened to be female and wealthy, that would be seen as a feather in the cap.

Also, it's hard to argue that UM is so snobby when State has a very large Greek system that is by and large identical to UM in the type of person that it produces, as well as the "quality" of that person while they are in undergrad. Read that to mean people who plan to join the professional class and see Greek life as a means to that end, and will tolerate a lot of dumb bullsh*t from those people while they're in school. Those things are no different, but always seem to be a distinction made by some folks here. I have heard as many terrible State fans as Ole Miss fans living out of state.

We were at the State-South Carolina baseball series and I saw a number of silly, loud and ridiculous State kids. We went by our old fraternity and there were plenty of douche-y bros in the parking lot getting their BORG prepped for that night's blackout, and plenty of girls dressed up like tragic fashionista rejects a la Ole Miss. We also sat in front of two State fans at the Friday game who started openly heckling the USC parents when we were getting close to 10-running them, and it wasn't heckling in a good-natured way. It was "go back to Myrtle Beach on your diabetes scooter" type stuff, which to my ear sounded snobby. But, that could just be me.

Finally, and this bears repeating, people who don't live in or too near Mississippi don't really distinguish between the two schools unless they have a reason to. Most of the folks that I met in CO 20+ years ago from the Midwest or West didn't know or care if we were the Mississippi State Rebels or Ole Miss Bulldogs. Plenty of people have asked me what years Dak was the Ole Miss QB.

TL;DR- the energy we waste worrying about how we're different is energy we could be using to show off our particular strengths. That's why I mentioned the Washington DC connection in a previous post.

 

[HRMSU]

I hesitate to post this, because several are going to think it's some defense of Ole Miss. But, placing a value judgment on 18-year olds as if they have fully formed personalities from which they make informed college choices is pretty silly. It's true that Ole Miss has well-established connections into TX, GA and other states based on the fact that those home schools have universities that have higher admission standards and won't accept them. But, that doesn't mean the kids are somehow vapid or constitutionally different in any way. State gets those kids too (on a slightly smaller scale) and would murder to get more of them.

Branding out-of-state kids who go to Ole Miss as "of a certain personality that we don't like" is extremely limiting and not based in fact, IMO. If State could open up a channel in DFW to bring in 400 freshmen a year that happened to be female and wealthy, that would be seen as a feather in the cap.

Also, it's hard to argue that UM is so snobby when State has a very large Greek system that is by and large identical to UM in the type of person that it produces, as well as the "quality" of that person while they are in undergrad. Read that to mean people who plan to join the professional class and see Greek life as a means to that end, and will tolerate a lot of dumb bullsh*t from those people while they're in school. Those things are no different, but always seem to be a distinction made by some folks here. I have heard as many terrible State fans as Ole Miss fans living out of state.

We were at the State-South Carolina baseball series and I saw a number of silly, loud and ridiculous State kids. We went by our old fraternity and there were plenty of douche-y bros in the parking lot getting their BORG prepped for that night's blackout, and plenty of girls dressed up like tragic fashionista rejects a la Ole Miss. We also sat in front of two State fans at the Friday game who started openly heckling the USC parents when we were getting close to 10-running them, and it wasn't heckling in a good-natured way. It was "go back to Myrtle Beach on your diabetes scooter" type stuff, which to my ear sounded snobby. But, that could just be me.

Finally, and this bears repeating, people who don't live in or too near Mississippi don't really distinguish between the two schools unless they have a reason to. Most of the folks that I met in CO 20+ years ago from the Midwest or West didn't know or care if we were the Mississippi State Rebels or Ole Miss Bulldogs. Plenty of people have asked me what years Dak was the Ole Miss QB.

TL;DR- the energy we waste worrying about how we're different is energy we could be using to show off our particular strengths. That's why I mentioned the Washington DC connection in a previous post.

Agree on the value judgement on 18 yr olds part.

Disagree on the baseline student profile at least from what I see in TX. A kid that can't get into UT or A&M and then chooses Tech or AR is vastly more correlated to the baseline State student than one who chooses OU or Ole Miss....it's not even close.

 

[L4Dawg]

I think you are going to see some changes in the near future. I believe it's going to be focused on what we do well, and that's as it should be. Don't look for a lot of emphasis on liberal arts or social sciences. That's just not our focus. That recent gift we got is going to be a real game changer, more so than I initially realized. We also have been working with a high powered marketing firm recently. I've seen some of the stuff, it's good.

 

[L4Dawg]

I hesitate to post this, because several are going to think it's some defense of Ole Miss. But, placing a value judgment on 18-year olds as if they have fully formed personalities from which they make informed college choices is pretty silly. It's true that Ole Miss has well-established connections into TX, GA and other states based on the fact that those home schools have universities that have higher admission standards and won't accept them. But, that doesn't mean the kids are somehow vapid or constitutionally different in any way. State gets those kids too (on a slightly smaller scale) and would murder to get more of them.

Branding out-of-state kids who go to Ole Miss as "of a certain personality that we don't like" is extremely limiting and not based in fact, IMO. If State could open up a channel in DFW to bring in 400 freshmen a year that happened to be female and wealthy, that would be seen as a feather in the cap.

Also, it's hard to argue that UM is so snobby when State has a very large Greek system that is by and large identical to UM in the type of person that it produces, as well as the "quality" of that person while they are in undergrad. Read that to mean people who plan to join the professional class and see Greek life as a means to that end, and will tolerate a lot of dumb bullsh*t from those people while they're in school. Those things are no different, but always seem to be a distinction made by some folks here. I have heard as many terrible State fans as Ole Miss fans living out of state.

We were at the State-South Carolina baseball series and I saw a number of silly, loud and ridiculous State kids. We went by our old fraternity and there were plenty of douche-y bros in the parking lot getting their BORG prepped for that night's blackout, and plenty of girls dressed up like tragic fashionista rejects a la Ole Miss. We also sat in front of two State fans at the Friday game who started openly heckling the USC parents when we were getting close to 10-running them, and it wasn't heckling in a good-natured way. It was "go back to Myrtle Beach on your diabetes scooter" type stuff, which to my ear sounded snobby. But, that could just be me.

Finally, and this bears repeating, people who don't live in or too near Mississippi don't really distinguish between the two schools unless they have a reason to. Most of the folks that I met in CO 20+ years ago from the Midwest or West didn't know or care if we were the Mississippi State Rebels or Ole Miss Bulldogs. Plenty of people have asked me what years Dak was the Ole Miss QB.

TL;DR- the energy we waste worrying about how we're different is energy we could be using to show off our particular strengths. That's why I mentioned the Washington DC connection in a previous post.

By your handle I think you probably don't live in Mississippi. The difference is still there and it may be getting greater, not smaller.

 

[Ranchdawg]

Wrong. I helped CAVS Center form. We told Nissan the State of Mississippi would create CAVS during their recruitment & actually used some of their input to start the facility. Also used the Raspet Center especially the Honda name every time we flew into Starkville.

Are you saying I was wrong for saying I doubted anyone on here knew what they are doing at those two centers? Do you know what they are doing now?

 

[Anon1664516582]

Are you saying I was wrong for saying I doubted anyone on here knew what they are doing at those two centers? Do you know what they are doing now?

You said anyone… I am someone and I do know. Did you not read what I wrote?

 

[WilCoDawg]

Agree on the value judgement on 18 yr olds part.

Disagree on the baseline student profile at least from what I see in TX. A kid that can't get into UT or A&M and then chooses Tech or AR is vastly more correlated to the baseline State student than one who chooses OU or Ole Miss....it's not even close.

If it makes any difference, I know a ton of redneck kids that go to OM. That’s even here in TN. I know a ton of kids that are snobs that go there. I know a ton of good kids that go there. But the difference is the image that Oxford is far superior than Starkville. Sadly, the city is still the same town it was when I was there: it’s not interested in helping further the University.

 

[L4Dawg]

If it makes any difference, I know a ton of redneck kids that go to OM. That’s even here in TN. I know a ton of kids that are snobs that go there. I know a ton of good kids that go there. But the difference is the image that Oxford is far superior than Starkville. Sadly, the city is still the same town it was when I was there: it’s not interested in helping further the University.

Starkville has changed drastically, and for the better.

 

[Ranchdawg]

You said anyone… I am someone and I do know. Did you not read what I wrote?

Did you read what I said? I made the distinction between then and now. If you are up to date with what they are doing NOW then I agree that I was wrong saying I doubt anyone on here knows what they are doing. It good to see someone on here has participated in the programs.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

Starkville has changed drastically, and for the better.

Concur, and getting better, we just need to Cotton District to expand more toward campus. The new bar going into the dry cleaners is a good step. The problem is that many folks who are just passing through never drive through the district.

 

[L4Dawg]

Concur, and getting better, we just need to Cotton District to expand more toward campus. The new bar going into the dry cleaners is a good step. The problem is that many folks who are just passing through never drive through the district.

Yep.

 

[Anon1664516582]

Did you read what I said? I made the distinction between then and now. If you are up to date with what they are doing NOW then I agree that I was wrong saying I doubt anyone on here knows what they are doing. It good to see someone on here has participated in the programs.

I can appreciate your enthusiasm…

 

[BB30]

It's funny just a few years ago we had fans complaining that our AD was just a glorified marketing guy and wasn't good at hiring coaches(Stricklin). Then the complaint with Cohen was he was terrible at marketing.

yes, OM journalism ties help a lot. That being said it all goes back to money and how much you're willing to put into marketing especially from an athletics perspective.

As far as marketing the academic side of the school and getting more out of state students. It just is what it is, we are never going to be a huge place for out of state kids. May snag some engineering talent from out of state but that's about it.

Ole miss just does a better job of selling themselves than state does. Ole miss, whether we like it or not is just a flashier, trendy school.

from an academic perspective, I'm fine with it being mostly in state kids at state. I think it creates a local bond, some of which will last life times. I've got friends from Biloxi to boo ville from my time at state and it's a lot easier to reconnect with old college friends that still live in the state compared to a friend you met from Denver and spent two years of school with who then moves back to Denver when he/she leaves OM.

I don't know the statistical data, so this is purely an uneducated guess but I would be willing to bet state has more kids that stay in Mississippi after graduating than Ole miss. We need college educated kids staying in state, just as much as we need more Mississippi high schoolers going into the trade programs at jucos and taking advantage of the low tuition cost(most of the time close to free) and coming out with no debt and a job that pays well immediately off the bat.

the number of kids with a bachelors degree in business admin is absurd and unless you have connections getting a job using your degree that pays well is pretty difficult, the number of kids coming out of juco to work a trade (welding/plumbing/hvac/ mill work etc.) needs to be pushed harder at our high schools in mississippi.

hopefully the new mills coming to the GTR out by the airport that will bring I believe 11k jobs to the area will help all of the local high schools/jucos/state.
Interesting topic m, don't think there is alot that can be done to change the perception though. That perception has been around since both schools basically started.

 

[BB30]

Also, if you think about it most of the most popular schools in each state tend to be the medical/law schools vs the ag/engineering etc.

Alabama
UGA
Texas vs a and m
Ohio state
Usc
University of Michigan vs Michigan state

Only one I can think of that's a little flip flopped is Clemson and South Carolina and that's simply because Clemson is in an easier conference sports wise. But academically I don't know which of the two produces more out of state graduates.

Again, that's completely anecdotal, and off the top of my head but it seems the med/law schools tend to be more popular universities for out of state students than the ag/engineering schools and that would make sense in my mind, as it's generally your more naturally gifted, intelligent students are those going into those fields and those fields are a lot more competitive so not every kid in Texas can get into the UT law program, so they have to go somewhere, a lot go to ole miss. Same with alabama it's nearly impossible to get into their law program as an out of state student as it's so competitive and so many kids want to be there.

sports definitely tie into that equation, but I think it's just happenstance as far as out of state students and their interests.

 

[STATEgrad04]

Ok, so "marketing" may not have been the right term for this topic. "Word of mouth" is closer to what I am referring to in their popularity. Why are they the first ones to talk up any and everything red and blue, and we are the first ones to down play? I am guilty of this myself, because I have always considered myself to be a realist, but at some point it comes at a detriment to our school/town. They know how to promote/throw a party and we do not. It doesnt happen overnight, but if you promote yourself the way that om does, eventually people start to buy it. We have the done the opposite for so long

 

[Ranchdawg]

Another thing that gripes me. Every time ESPN folks mention our baseball NC they follow it up with "It is their first and only National Championship in their history." Nice backhanded complement.

 

[WilCoDawg]

Also, if you think about it most of the most popular schools in each state tend to be the medical/law schools vs the ag/engineering etc.

Alabama
UGA
Texas vs a and m
Ohio state
Usc
University of Michigan vs Michigan state

Only one I can think of that's a little flip flopped is Clemson and South Carolina and that's simply because Clemson is in an easier conference sports wise. But academically I don't know which of the two produces more out of state graduates.

Again, that's completely anecdotal, and off the top of my head but it seems the med/law schools tend to be more popular universities for out of state students than the ag/engineering schools and that would make sense in my mind, as it's generally your more naturally gifted, intelligent students are those going into those fields and those fields are a lot more competitive so not every kid in Texas can get into the UT law program, so they have to go somewhere, a lot go to ole miss. Same with alabama it's nearly impossible to get into their law program as an out of state student as it's so competitive and so many kids want to be there.

sports definitely tie into that equation, but I think it's just happenstance as far as out of state students and their interests.

In my experience, Clemson pulls a lot of NE kids. I know a ton from NJ and MD that flock there for some reason. Just my lifelong observation.

 

[Son_of_34]

We should use the Robbie Faulk idea of rebranding everything to just "State" so that way we will get way more views and interactions online**