Texas Top 15 Universities (Houston, Austin, Trinity: how much, top schools, law)

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by homeinatx

If the legislature continues underfunding higher education in the state of Texas, there will be one tier one university in the second largest state - Rice. A&M has already been censured by the American Association of Universities. UT has successfully pushed back against the idiot interference of Rick Perry, but the situation is delicate. There could be zero tier one public institutions in the state of Texas in less than a decade.

I think your post is a bit dramatic. A&M received a letter, critical of the so-called reforms proposed by Perry's panel. Although I don't agree with most of the ideas, it is an example of how inflexible and intolerant academia is to new ideas. It is not much different than recent data showing how unproductive UT professors are.

Higher education everywhere, not just Texas, deserves scrutiny because of costs that rise far faster than inflation and the questionable value derived from many degress.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by homeinatx

If the legislature continues underfunding higher education in the state of Texas, there will be one tier one university in the second largest state - Rice. A&M has already been censured by the American Association of Universities. UT has successfully pushed back against the idiot interference of Rick Perry, but the situation is delicate. There could be zero tier one public institutions in the state of Texas in less than a decade.

UT and A&m will survive. they have huge land grants.

They have been suffering a bit under Govn'r Good Hair but they will survive.

A&M just got Tier one ranking ten years ago, they need a little grace period

[SteelBubble]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

I am a parent of a TCU student. I respect the school. But the acceptance rate stat is misleading. TCU had a huge surge in applications last year - the most in its history. I think most know that was driven by national attention earned by continued football success and their Rose Bowl victory last year.

TCU is indeed moving up. The business school, especially at the undergraduate level, is strong. They just need to get the attention of employers.

There's no reason to believe the surge won't continue. Applications have steadily been increasing annually, and it shouldn't be declining.

We do need to establish more connections in the D/FW area. That's something that can certainly be improved upon.

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by SteelBubble

There's no reason to believe the surge won't continue. Applications have steadily been increasing annually, and it shouldn't be declining.

We do need to establish more connections in the D/FW area. That's something that can certainly be improved upon.

My comments about employers is really about a national reach. The next step for TCU is to become a go-to place for big companies to recruit their next finance/accounting/economics guys/gals. The article below is from last year - but that is the kind of recognition TCU should work for.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...989873060.html

Another list (which includes A&M and UT):

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/20...?ref=education

[SteelBubble]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

My comments about employers is really about a national reach. The next step for TCU is to become a go-to place for big companies to recruit their next finance/accounting/economics guys/gals. The article below is from last year - but that is the kind of recognition TCU should work for.

Best Colleges & Universities - Ranked by Job Recruiters - WSJ.com

Another list (which includes A&M and UT):

Education - Image - NYTimes.com

Yeah, one of the major problems is that there are so few of us. We're not a large university so we don't have a huge faithful alumni base like A&M or UT.

The only way we can establish stronger connections nationally is to separate ourselves through academic excellence.

[llmrkc07]

Come on guys give Tech some credit its a pretty good school and the campus has really nice architecture..it offers way more academic programs, it has a real athletic department (not as good as most on the list) and it not to expensive when you talk about TCU, Trinity or even most school that I ranked above it. Ill admit I was scratching my head when I was thinking about Trinity U (maybe it should be higher), like I said its a great school but not in the same category with others when you factor in OVERALL.

http://today.ttu.edu/2010/09/texas-t...ted-graduates/

[hsw]

Colleges are just a Luddite union card

And sports, whether K-12/college/pro, are merely modern versions of taxpayer-subsidized religions masquerading as entertainment or "athlete-scholar" nonsense

Only relevance of any college is starting pay of grads in employer-relevant majors like CS or o&g-relevant engineering...not sure what skills any other majors provide that are useful to profitable employers who need to survive in real world

At any college, no matter how elite, smartest rarely learn anything from courses (anyone literate/numerate can self-teach any subject via Kindle)...it's just competing vs other smart kids and developing practical skills useful for one's first employer for which one pays an "elite" branded college's tuition/extortion

Suspect Perry is shrewd to point out that no college (or K-12) education should be increasing in real cost in era of tech where nearly any tech-intensive computer or car, etc etc is ever-cheaper, smarter, more reliable, etc....if anything, cost of education should be plummeting much like cost of computing power...and notion of spending 4yrs to get a silly diploma, running up silly tuition and r&b bills in era of online/Kindle/khanacademy, etc is truly laughable....not sure who's dumber, parents or their kids who choose lame colleges/majors...or who's sleazier, the clowns who run the K-12/college scam or pedophiles or used car salesmen or community organizers...

[homeinatx]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

I think your post is a bit dramatic. A&M received a letter, critical of the so-called reforms proposed by Perry's panel. Although I don't agree with most of the ideas, it is an example of how inflexible and intolerant academia is to new ideas. It is not much different than recent data showing how unproductive UT professors are.

Higher education everywhere, not just Texas, deserves scrutiny because of costs that rise far faster than inflation and the questionable value derived from many degress.

The real elephant in the room is the cost question. Costs are being radically redistributed. For most of their history U.T and A&M were publicly funded institutions. Legislative appropriations accounted for the vast bulk of their operating budgets. Now they are increasingly private institutions in public locations. State public funds account for less than 15% (getting closer to 10) of U.T. Austin's annual operating budget. The remaining 85% comes from endowments, grants, and yes, much higher student fees. The costs are now being met by students and parents. For less and less money, the state wants more and more control - UT's budget shortfalls could easily be fixed by admitting more out of sate and international students, who pay more than residents, but that would make it even harder for Texans to gain admittance.

Access to affordable public higher education was a huge factor in the post World War II economic prosperity in this country and in the rise of the middle-class. What is happening in California to the greatest public university system the world has ever known is beyond tragic and, unless Texas is careful, what will happen is real education for a tiny elite who can pay for education at places like Rice and the Ivies and community college quality for everyone else. There are problems at Texas's big publics - administrative bloat, corruption, idiot interference by regents who have no clue how universities work etc, but the biggest problem is one of funding. Continuing to slash budgets will continue to have bad effects on quality. Making faculty teach hundreds more students a semester will indeed be cost-effective, but the quality of instruction will suffer and they won't have time to do anything else . . .

[hoffdano]

homeinatx - I think many of your points are valid. But Texas did create a plan (with funding) to raise the quality and profile of the "tier 2" universities in Texas. Part of that is to reduce the pressure on UT and A&M - who both (especially UT) quickly fill up their freshman classes with the top 10%.

It is still pretty darn easy for most to pay for a state school in Texas. UT/A&M cost about $25K per year. Not much different than the leading state schools in other states.

I think there is surely significant bloat and complacency all around. Academia likes to think they are free thinkers, but in reality much of it is arrogant and inflexible. For all his faults, Perry's $10K per year college idea is a good concept that SHOULD force universities to take a hard look at where they are spending their money.

[Exult.Q36]

School rankings in general are overrated. Trust me I go to one of these so call Tier 1 institutions.