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You SEC fans will enjoy this. I came down south to work an aerospace job after graduating from MIT and working a year in private consulting. I was a cocky SOB with (maybe) the typical CCer's bias toward northern elite universities. My first boss was a lowly 'Bama grad, and I figured I'd have his job within 6 months.</p>
<p>Didn't happen. I was humbled by his brilliance after the first week of working with him, and quickly realized he was <em>way</em> out of my league. Today, he remains my most esteemed mentor. And he wasn't an outlier...I found lots of extremely capable SEC grads around me...equaling if not exceeding the abilities of myself and those of my colleagues with "elite educations".
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<p>This applies not just to SEC schools, but for all the other unsexy schools deemed not up to snuff by this forum.</p>
<p>Sometimes the truth hurts; maybe that's why you resort to ad hominem attacks. By the way, your kids' educational history is neither interesting nor particularly relevant, but whatever.</p>
<p>Most of the schools in the SEC, if not all, can compete at a national level. The academics are there for students who want to take advantage of them, as well as opportunities for research. I know my dad worked with engineers at UT, and he said a 36 on the ACT was not uncommon. The SEC schools educate as many people as they can in an area where, in general, the income bracket is lower than the rest of the nation, which seems to me just as admirable a goal as cutting edge research.</p>
<p>^ That's true of SEC schools other than Vandy (students from all over the USA), UF (most student come from S. Florida), and UGA (most students come from the Atlanta area).</p>
<p>As an Ole Miss graduate and a name partner in a fairly significant law firm in one of our country's 4 largest metropolitan areas, I can report that in respect to Ole Miss, some of the most brilliant minds that I have encountered were other students at Ole Miss. A survey of my relationships while there found many of them later at Yale Law, W&L Law, and Harvard Med. I do not think it puts out, per se, top notch scientists or engineers but, rather, those who in fact might employ the scientists and engineers. I did not seek the brightest students with whom to form friendships per se. Therefore, I am not capturing the only few intellectually alive students with whom I attended. I also know several prominent partners in very large national law firms who attended Ole Miss for undergrad. I know several successful entrepreneurs who built fairly large companies from the ground up who received undergraduate degrees from Ole Miss. Now, I think that the bulk of the student body places a heavy priority on socializing. However, I think that many of you will find that you will become employed, and be succussful, as much because of your ability to build and use relationships as you will on your base talent and intelligence. I found Ole Miss to be perfect for me. I had exactly one class with more than 70 students. The bulk of them had 10 to 20 students. I got to know, very well, several of my professors. I ate dinner with them, drank with them, and now have taken my kids back to see them as they have ascended to chair their departments. I have also used the culture Ole Miss instills to great advantage. That is, to understand that your relationships, appearance, ways in which you present yourself, and other intangibles will give a decided edge to those of equal intellect, dedication, and motivation. Having surveyed the Big 10 and Top 25 LACs with my children, I found this notion decidedly lacking among the student body. As much as it may irk posters on CC, I am afraid that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Ivy League graduates working for graduates of SEC schools. I have several Penn undergrad and Harvard undergrad/law persons, of like age or older, working for me right now. Some of them are very capable. Some are less capable than a graduate of a directional school in Kentucky who works in a like position. In particular, at Ole Miss, I think that the Honors College, with a student population with mean 3.85 gpa and 31 ACT scores, Croft Institute and Lott Institute with like qualified students, and the National Language Flagship in Chinese, provide plenty of academic challenges for the motivated student.</p>
<p>If you want to have a great time, at underrated schools that aren’t excessively liberal, with beautiful women, with quality athletics, with the perfect weather, and a general friendly and hospitable people(so long as you leave your yankee b-s at the door)—You will enjoy any school in the SEC 1000 times more than any school in the Big-10. If you like snow, cold people, misguided overzealous liberals, sub-par college football and basketball, big women with disgusting morals, a people with horrible fashion sense that overuse hair gel and clubbing shirts/Abercrombie—go to a Big 10 school, you’ll fit right in.</p>
<p>We actually would prefer tools to believe we are a bunch of misguided rednecks in the south. It keeps the liberal types where they belong—freezing their asses off. You wouldn’t have fun down here anyway, our girls don’t like flat-brim hat wearing guidos.</p>
<p>^If you think Big10 schools are “excessively liberal”, I wonder how you’d react to the schools in the northeast and west coast. As for “big women”, I’ve read that the South is the fattest region.
<p>Here’s how I would rank the schools for their undergraduate education (personally all of the schools other than Vanderbilt are right with each other except for Mississippi State)</p>
<p>like I said, it’s hard to rank the SEC schools and most people would probably say that Florida and Georgia come after Vanderbilt and I would agree with that too. However, I think that Alabama, Ole Miss and Arkansas have also come into the picture of places to consider going to undergrad in the SEC. </p>
<p>The presidential debate last year was held at Ole Miss and Ole Miss has a great record of job placement in the state department (I read 2nd best somewhere) and for turning out numerous politicians. The study abroad program at Arkansas and it’s business program is great and classes are relatively small there. Alabama is a rising school in the SEC, getting better and better as the years go by.</p>
<p>In the absence of evidence, what is the reason to believe somehow the Big 10 schools are fatter than SEC schools when the rest of the population show otherwise?? After all, do the kids in SEC schools have totally different diet and go to “SEC students only restaurants” while the rest of the populations go to different ones?</p>
<p>Note how all of the fittest schools are in “fitter” states (matching the rest of the population). As far as the fattest schools go, Portland State is an outlier since Oregon is supposed to be relatively fit but nonetheless, 3 of the 5 schools are in the South.</p>
<p>Sam- just go take a look at the girls! Nothing wrong with Big Ten girls, either (I was one), but the SEC has some gorgeous kids. The fatties are usually older than college age- true all over the country. Also, frequently not as educated on the whole. Tennessee is a fat state, but you sure wouldn’t know it from walking around the Vandy campus or UT-Knoxville.</p>
<p>^last I checked, Mississippi State University is in SEC (see the post above yours). You can stereotype all you want but the hard data show no indiciation that SEC schools are somehow fitter; if anything, the data may suggest otherwise. That’s not to say fat people aren’t “gorgeous”; there are “chubby chasers”.</p>