Sitting on a huge endowment and educating fewer people is not something a non-profit tax exempt organization should be praised for. Why are they raising more money than they can possibly spend?
People sure have strong opinions about a school that has in-state tuition less than $24,000 and ranked engineering programs. We are very lucky that there are many great institutions in the United States but for a regular kid without a lot of money like I was, Texas A&M was a great school. This does not mean I am putting down other schools or that I think it is the only option. But, I do think that it is a good deal for the money and that attending this college opened doors for me. The alumni base is incredible when you are interviewing for your first job.
@gettingschooled That “fewer people” getting educated, is also directly tied to attrition of less than 1%, 4 year graduation rates near 98%, and one of the highest percentages of undergrads going on to graduate school within 5 years of graduation. This is not to mention, it beats, state university financial aid, in most instances. By way of specific example, for the school year 2015, tuition and room/board would be out of pocket at Yale, about $63,000. However, if your family income was about 80K (nationally that is in the mid 50s) you would pay nothing out of pocket–and that include RT tickets to and from home, a laptop, books, fees…etc No loans–all grants. This so called money that can’t be spent will result in Yale opening a new college in the very near future, increasing its undergraduate student body by about 10%. I
In short, you are talking apples and oranges…and I suggest you rely on facts in lieu of anecdotal platitudes.
@boolaHI You will be hard pressed to find where I have used an anecdote. Please keep posters straight. Rather you have referred to “a specific example” which is not looking at the big picture.
Graduation rates and matriculation to grad school need to be adjusted for how the schools you refer to screen their applicants. Choosing kids who would graduate from ANY school in four years ( or less) and go to grad school from ANY school is not really accomplishing anything notable.
Good for Yale for attempting to fulfill its mission by increasing its student body by 10 percent but as you point out in post #39, they have a lot more money than schools who are educating far more students.
@ gettingschooled Then you need to fully back-up your rather inflammatory statement that they “should not be praised for”…It seems they have a rather distinct mission and have more than held up their side of the bargain. And I highly doubt, that Yale graduates are going to just ANY school, as they occupy more than their share of Presidents spots in academia, heads of industry, and even more than a few that have occupied the White House.
@boolaHI You seem to have an odd take on inflammatory. You have criticized TAMU’s weather and diversity and UT’s endowment but recoil at my suggestion that an educational institution educate more people.
@gettingschooled Are you then saying that CS has a good weather and great diversity? Those are not critical statements, those are binary facts. See:–in fact, A&M ranks near the bottom for diversity nationally–http://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/texas-a-and-m-university-college-station/student-life/diversity/. As for the weather that speaks for itself…
What you don’t cite or understand is that elite education, and one that is predicated to the set of metrics already delineated, is that the actual cost instruction at all HYPSM is closer to 150,000, per student. Or in other words, the tuition is a mere fraction of what it actually takes if your objective is to have a “high touch-high productive” institution.
You can’t criticize the Bolshoi ballet for hiring thin, graceful women. You can criticize Starbucks if they only hired thin graceful women- the physical type that the Bolshoi hires is instrumental to its mission- producing world class classical ballet. Starbucks might say that customers prefer being waited on by willowy baristas, but that’s incidental- its core mission is making and selling coffee, and fat people make perfectly fine coffee.
Similarly, to criticize Yale for being small and only admitting students who can graduate within four years is crazy. That’s part of their mission. There are plenty of institutions- public and private- which exist to take kids who are late-bloomers, struggled in HS, etc. and turn them into college grads. But Yale’s not one of them.
boolahHI, these state universities don’t rely on endowments to run operations. They receive vast sums of money per student from a wealthy state, TX that is running surpluses. So, the endowments are in addition to what they get from the state.
@perazziman This is true…good fact to point out.
BoolaHi, sorry if my sarcasm didn’t convey 
I completely agree that LA is very diverse but I don’t think that necessarily makes it a better place to attend college. There are many excellent rural colleges such as Cornell, Dartmouth and Notre Dame, that lack the diversity of LA…
Well, if you are talking about Ivy plus type schools, then the complexion of the conversation changes profoundly…
I think a lot of people seem to think that because TAMU’s US News ranking is low because its average SAT score is low and its admit rate is high, so its an easy school to get into. In reality, only about 30% of the seats are available for review admits (excluding auto and academic admits) and the school rejects a lot more than 30% of total applicants. So the real admit rate is much lower than the stats suggest. In addition the SAT scores of the Vet school, engineering school, Honors College and Business school are quite high. So, just because the average SAT is low it doesn’t mean average in these competitive colleges are low.
If you are still having a hard time understanding, look at it this way, if tomorrow we started insisting that Harvard include SAT scores of all those who take online courses at Walden University and consider them as admits what would happen to its stats? After all, everyone who applies gets in and the SAT scores of a lot of them could be very low.
For exampl, the engineering department at Cornell is ranked 13, University of Notre Dame is 45 and Dartmouth is ranked 55 according to 2014 US News & World Report. In contrast, the colleges of engineering at UT and TAMU are ranked higher than all of them.
In addition, TAMU spends more on engineering research per faculty member and has a lower student to faculty member ratio than all of the above three schools.
In addition, TAMU has a bigger endowment than all three of the schools above (7th biggest in the country). in addition the state of TX which has a surplus, is paying for the cost of running the school on a per student basis.
In addition, TAMU has one of the highest number of NMFs enrolled in the country. These students clearly have SAT scores that are much higher than the “average” listed on the US News and WR.
In addition, there isn’t a school in the country that has produced more Fortune 500 CEOs than TAMU. LOL.
Whoop!
@truckertroy Sorry, first I don’t know any Harvard admits that take classes at Walden U, that’s like Tom Brady taking tips at a pop warner clinic- and a bizarre example. As to the endowment, still not even close. By way of specific and stark example, so A&M has an endowment that is twice the size of Dartmouth, but it also has 10 times the students…or close to 60,000. When you factor other pertinent stats like 4 year graduation rate, barely 50% to 90+%, not even close…so, whoop.
@blossom I am not criticizing Yale for only admitting smart kids. I am criticizing those who read their graduation statistics and grad school admission rates and conclude that Yale is responsible for graduation rates and grad school admission rates. Yale students would graduate in four years and go on to grad school even if they went to state schools- just like the Bolshoi ballerinas who would still be thin and graceful even if they were not in the Bolshoi.
That’s a rather simplistic posit. In truth there are many variable that contribute to the high productivity of such institutions. Many studies cite the advantages of smaller class size couple with high touch from both a faculty and staff level. By and large this is what the residential college system reinforces. The major drawback–it is very costly.
But, it is also predicated with having a stout academic class from top that to bottom. In short these are great examples of the “matthew effect” (Matthew effect (sociology)). Smart students get smarter because they attract more resources and attention. I
I wish my state U functioned more like Yale. Why is a kid allowed to become a “super senior”- 5 or 6 years enrolled and still without the necessary credits to graduate with an actual major? Why can’t a Dean sit down with kids at the end of sophomore year and make sure that not only are there enough actual credits on the academic plan… but that the credits fulfill the requirements?
I’ve never heard of a kid at Yale getting to the finish line only to discover that he or she is a few classes short. I’ve never heard of a kid at Yale thinking that s/he is getting credit for a 5 in AP Chem, only to discover that it was “placement only”, not credit. And that with “only” one extra semester of tuition, that elusive degree will be completed. And yet I hear of kids at our State U in this situation all the time.
Where are the grownups?
This is a rather strange thread comparing Texas A&M to Yale. Both great schools in their own right, but with different missions. The beauty of higher education in America is so many choices… As far as graduation rates, one driver is the amount of engineering students at A&M - all 10,000 of them. Most engineering students take longer than 4 years to graduate. Different missions…
boolaHI, TAMU has 60k students but the state pays to educate them not the endowment. Perhaps, that is why Yale’s 34th ranked piddly college of engineering spends $564k per faculty member on research per year and 11th ranked TAMU’s huge college of engineering spends $900k per faculty member. I don’t know, you tell me.