<p>Pizzagirl - Absolutely hilarious! Thanks for a great start to my day. 
And don’t forget to add the team jewelry worn by Southern women . . .</p>
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<p>Loved it, Pizzagirl! And there’s no exaggeration there - I wouldn’t say there’s “some truth” in it. I’d say it’s 100% true! :D</p>
<p>right on target, uh ohhh, I am a homecoming queen of a large southern high school and planning on majoring in Physics at an ivy…mmmmm…maybe I will be considered a minority!</p>
<p>Pizzagirl- that nails it. Here is my theory on why SEC sports have a different level of frenzy than even Big Ten, Big Twelve etc. The schools are closer and so many people have stayed in the region, but have moved states. In Nashville, we have Vanderbilt, but there are TONS more Tennessee fans here than Vandy fans and lots of Kentucky, Alabama and Auburn fans (as well as the other schools). You can drive to many of the other schools in 3 or 4 hours to go to a game. Your co-workers came from the full range of SEC schools and every week there are bets involving lunches, alcohol, or, recently here when my female law partner (such an Alabama football expert that she could coach the team- literally) bet another senior executive on the Mississippi game the loser had to wear the shirt of the other school to senior management meeting. In Dallas, there were lots of UT and OU fans, and you could get to some of the schools in 3 hours, but it just wasn’t the same concentration of schools. My husband wasn’t a basketball fan at all, but we have Vanderbilt season tickets (cheap and convenient) and he loves going to the games. It’s just so much fun.</p>
<p>bclintonk- Yep, those stats are not stellar. However, even my alma mater is (in my opinion) a lot better of a school than the stats would show. (Big Ten school) The bottom half can be fairly marginal. At Ole’ Miss maybe you need to get into the top 25% before you see some stats you like. But they are there. The good programs are there and the smart kids are there. The issue for an applicant is whether you think you can seek out your “tribe” from among that group.</p>
<p><<here is=“” my=“” theory=“” on=“” why=“” sec=“” sports=“” have=“” a=“” different=“” level=“” of=“” frenzy=“” than=“” even=“” big=“” ten,=“” twelve=“” etc.=“” the=“” schools=“” are=“” closer=“” and=“” so=“” many=“” people=“” stayed=“” in=“” region,=“” but=“” moved=“” states.=“”>></here></p>
<p>I think that’s a big factor. After dropping my younger son at school (after morning golf practice), I wandered my way home on back streets trying to avoid the traffic jam for elementary school drop off. </p>
<p>In the front yards of various homes, I easily spotted - 2 Ole Miss flags, 4 LSU flags, at least 2 Auburn flags, 1 Mississippi State flag, and 1 Alabama flag. There there were a couple of Arkansas, Oklahoma State, and Univ of Oklahoma flags…and of course, countless UT and A&M flags. </p>
<p>And that was in a 4 minutes time span covering 1 small neighborhood!!!</p>
<p>I think 2010emily summed it up nicely. SEC women are expected to understand Sylvia Plath AND pass interference.</p>
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<p>I really don’t see the above happening at schools that have 10,000 students or more. I could see that happening at smaller schools, smaller LACs, etc. It would be impossible to have such a “unified” outlook when you’ve got 10,000+ opinions running around. </p>
<p>I know that at Alabama, with 28,000 students, there is no way that a “like the same things and socialize in the same manner” could exist. LOL</p>
<p>I also aren’t aware of any large schools that are 80% Greek, but I could be wrong. I thought only smaller schools have those kinds of percentages. However, if there were such a campus (one that had 8,000 or more in the Greek system), then I would doubt that such a system would have a unified outlook either. </p>
<p>And if there were large schools (10,000+) with 80% going Greek, you’d surely have “distinct” cultures in the various houses - some studious, some “moneyed”, some partiers, some “middle classers”, some “gorgeous people,” some "more average in looks, some more conservative, some more liberal, etc. </p>
<p>No way could you have 8,000+ kids distributed among 50+ houses (if there is such a thing), with a common attitude about anything. But, again, I don’t think that there are large schools with 80% going Greek simply “due to the math.” Such a school would have to have about 50 houses, each having over 150 members.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, the whole homecoming queen process has changed dramatically, even at SEC schools. It’s not based on beauty any longer, but on community service, leadership, academics. A panel of judges chooses the court based on those criteria from detailed applications and then the students vote for the king and queen from the court. Ends up being smart, involved campus leaders (and no, they aren’t always Greek either).</p>
<p>UF is pretty hard to beat. The town is great.</p>
<p>Well, I’m sure that’s very useful to the OP who asked about Ole Miss :-)</p>
<p>I think we have firmly established that Florida, though it is an SEC school, is not a typically Southern school. Not to mention that it’s not Ole Miss.</p>
<p>Some excerpts from the University of Mississippi website: </p>
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<p>Folks, Ole Miss is a good school, but there’s no way to get away from the SEC love of football. It’s there, and you should know that going into the application process.</p>
<p>I have refrained from posting on this thread that seems to have taken on a life of its own. However, to specifically answer the OP’s question about Ole Miss as a possibility for his son, I will offer the following opinion based upon my experience both as a former student (professional degree) at Ole Miss, and the fact that a large number of my children’s peers attend the school.
It is true that the name Ole Miss originated from the term used by slaves to refer to the benevolent (hopefully) wife of the plantation owner. Until very recently, the school’s fight song was Dixie and the students waved Confederate flags at football games. There has been a huge effort by University leadership to do away with this image, particularly under the leadership of the former Chancellor Robert Khyatt. This is, however, an ongoing process, as evidenced by the current brouhaha over the current fight song (an amalgamation of Dixie and Battle Hymn of the Republic). A significant number of students have continued shouting “The South will rise again” at the conclusion of the song, leading to this week’s banning of the song. This, in turn, has prompted the KKK to announce they will arrive in Oxford to protest the violation of free speech. Clearly, this is not what Ole Miss had in mind, but traditions die hard here in the deep South.
I would personally be much more concerned about the heavy Greek influence at the University. The vast majority of students (don’t have exact %) are Greek, which in turn leads to a very heavy party scene. In most surveys Ole Miss ranks at or near the top of party schools.
I know many students who have gone to the Ole Miss Honors College and/or the Croft Inst. and done well. They were all instate and did so because of receiving a full ride. Every single one ended up going the fraternity/sorrority route because, as i said, it is such a dominant feature of life on the campus.<br>
As to applying from out of state, it is true that there are students from different parts of the country. I think you would find,however, that many, if not most of them have ties to the state. While I have not researched the matter, I also think that the great financial aid offers to the Honors College and the Croft Inst. generally go to instate students.<br>
As a fanatic SEC sports fan, I’m familiar with most of the southern schools and will not comment on them other than to say that Ole Miss is a different culture than any of them with the University of Alabama possibly being the next closest match. Whether that is a good or bad thing, I will leave each person to their own views.</p>
<p>msjhop, thank you for your thoughtful and informative post.</p>
<p>Mantori-
I’m an Ole Miss alum and have many good things to say about the school. That being said, it is a HUGE party school. I mean big time partying and the greek system really dominates. I was an out-of-state student and I remember wondering how kids could really drink that much and survive it! LOL Didn’t take me long to join right in, I must add.</p>
<p>I know that party atmosphere really hasn’t changed much, but the school has. The honors college has much to offer. Memphis is fairly close and the kids go there quite a bit. The campus is beautiful and the facilities are top notch. My classes were ridiculously easy, but that was good because I wasn’t much of a student.</p>
<p>That being said, I have not encouraged either of my DD’s to seriously consider going there nor will I. There is no real diversity to speak of unless you count the distinct line drawn between southerners and those above the mason dixon. When I visited last year to see old friends, I was so struck by how much had not changed about the school in terms of tradition, both good and bad. I will always have wonderful memories of my time there … at least those I can remember, but what will always stick with me is how I felt a bit like an outsider and never really fit in because I didn’t wear what everyone else wore and had pretty liberal beliefs and so on. It is very hard to put into words. I just knew it wasn’t where I really belonged but I had so much fun, I didn’t want to leave …
I know that doesn’t make much sense, but that’s how it felt.</p>
<p>The whole “South will rise again” and Confederate flagwaving would be pretty offputting, I’d think, to someone who was from North of the Mason-Dixon line. I had no idea it was like that there.</p>
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<p>Fact:</p>
<p>Top colleges in football home game attendance, 2008:
- Michigan 759,997
- Penn State 757,775
- LSU 739,064
- Ohio State 734,830
- Tennessee 710,136</p>
<p>All these teams had 7 home games except LSU which had 8, making its per-game average attendance lowest of the 5 top schools.</p>
<p>Michigan was the first school in the nation to average more than 100,000 per game, a level it first achieved in 1976. Michigan has led the nation in season home attendance 33 times since 1974.</p>
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<p>People should really have a better idea of the stats before they make the statement “vast majority”</p>
<p>Roughly 28% girls in sororities, and 25% of boys in frats…not “vast majority” by any imagination. LOL So…about 1 out of 4 are Greek.</p>
<p>Frankly, even simple math could’ve figure that out. A school that has about 12,000 undergrads wouldn’t have enough Greek houses to have 75% ( 9,000 student - a vast majority BTW) as members.</p>
<p>UM has 14 frats and 9 sororities…plus 8 that are historically black…hardly enough for the “vast majority” to be Greek.</p>
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<p>I don’t think you’ve got it right on how close the schools are to each other. Here are some representative distances (generally major rivals in the same or adjacent states).</p>
<p>SEC:</p>
<p>Ole Miss-LSU 346 miles
Ole Miss-Mississippi State 114
Ole Miss-Alabama 177
Ole Miss-Arkansas 401
Arkansas-LSU 547
LSU-Alabama 347
Alabama-Auburn 160
Alabama-Florida 463
Alabama-Georgia 274
Florida Georgia 350
Georgia-Tennessee 239
Tennesse-Vanderbilt 179
Tennessee-South Carolina 262
Georgia-South Carolina 171 </p>
<p>Big Ten:</p>
<p>Michigan-Ohio State 192 miles
Michigan-Michigan State 64
Michigan State-Ohio State 249
Indiana-Purdue 113
Indiana-Illinois 145
Indiana-Ohio State 244
Illinois-Northwestern 158
Northwestern-Wisconsin 149
Northwestern-Michigan 260
Illinois-Wisconsin 251
Wisconsin-Minnesota 271
Wisconsin-Iowa 177
Minnesota-Iowa 330
Ohio State-Penn State 321
Michigan-Penn State 405</p>
<p>As for people staying in the region but changing states, I’m not sure how you’d measure that across regions but it sure happens a lot here in the Midwest, too.</p>
<p>My own theory as to why college football may be somewhat bigger in the South than in some other regions is that despite a relatively large regional population, there’s relatively little in the way of professional sports in the South, and even where there are now pro teams they tend to be of recent vintage. So while in Wisconsin tribal loyalties run at least as deeply toward the Packers as toward the Badgers, if you grow up in Mississippi you’re either an Ole Miss or an MSU fan, in Alabama you’re for either Alabama or Auburn, and so on. Of course, that doesn’t stop Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State from packing 'em in at a rate most SEC schools would envy, despite the presence of pro teams in those states. (Though the Lions these days make a questionable claim to the “professional” label).</p>