I recommend asking these questions of the university as they are the only ones who would know.
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There’s only 1 first tier SEC school, thats Vanderbilt. No other SEC school is even in the top 200 of world universities. Georgia and UF are no better than Auburn or Tennessee. Alabama, Mississippi, et al would be 3rd tier
That is a funny post.
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It feels like they wanted a lot of high stat kids to apply, to improve their numbers. I suspect they want to hold on to the money to offer it to other 33+ ACT kids in later rounds, rather than rewarding high stat kids below 33 in EA 1. It will backfire. They will find that most of these UBER high stat kids will end up going elsewhere and they will lose all the Heritage level kids in the interim.
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World rankings are not relevant for most undergrads as they rely heavily on graduate research. QS world ranking shows U Florida ranked much higher than Vanderbilt. In any event, FL and GA are among the top publics for undergrad in the US and the rest are fine too.
Given how easy it is to apply I am surprised there is so much thought on this. Apply and see what happens.
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Vanderbilt is around $62,000 per year; UF is in state about $6,300. You are talking about a ten fold difference. Vanderbilt is not Duke, Georgetown, Northwestern or University of Chicago yet it is the around same price. Waste of money in my opinion.
You do know Vandy outranks Georgetown?
They are all fine schools, as is UF. Each family determines the best fit for them.
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Outranks according to who? Here is the bottom line, if I am hiring and a person applies with a Georgetown vs. a Vanderbilt degree, the Georgetown person will be hired if all else is equal. It has always been considered the tier below Ivy.
That says a great deal more about your perspective than any US News ranking.
Do you actually follow that US News stuff? If so, pretty funny.
Amen. And this seems to be lost on so many. We approached the admissions process under the assumption that we will play our cards and do what works for us in the long run.
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Colleges are now forced to hedge their bets just like we are allowed to. It sucks, but it’s reality.
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Oh, good grief. Can we get back to the topic at hand and not split hairs about rankings? The question is about Auburn, not Vandy or Georgetown.
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Bingo. It will be a transitional year or two for Auburn. They are hedging their bets, as any business (unfortunately for the kids) will do. My daughter is doing the same. Sucks, but it’s the game.
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I hear you, but someone mentioned Vanderbilt like it was Yale and appeared to use it downplay other SEC schools.
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I feel like this is one of the reasons that Auburn has exploded with applicants. They don’t hide the fact that “meet the GPA and SAT/ACT requirements and you’re in”. Not suggesting those metrics are easy to make but there’s no hassle of LOR’s, “Why Auburn” essays, making sure you have that great EC resume, etc. Meet the metrics and you’re in.
I agree that it’s unfortunate that they may be reducing their merit scholarships but until the school says so I would not suggest they are cutting them entirely. Maybe they will, maybe they’ll fund them at 100%. They haven’t said. It’s still very early in the general admissions cycle. They’re going to get ~50K applications and accept maybe 30K of them for what is ultimately 6K seats. How many of the “high stat” kids decide to go elsewhere if the Merit is reduced at Auburn - does that open up money for the kids that do attend?
At the end of the day does Auburn even care since in reality they’re trying to fill those 6k seats balancing the highest qualified with the kids that will pay the most.
Agree with what someone further up said that it wouldn’t surprise me if they stopped publishing the merit table.
Love the school that loves you back.
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There’s a big increase of kids applying to college in general. With the rise of interest rates comes an economic slowdown.
Doesn’t give specific data for this application cycle but certainly your statement proved true as relates to last cycle.
Curious of your feeling of the relevance of interest rates as it applies to the conversation? Although interest rates have really only been on the rise for 18 months I’m not sure we’ve seen much of an economic slowdown (yet!).
The slowdown is definitely here. The problem is that the government has a tendency to lie. Who knew? I was a banker during the the 2008 crash, and the only difference between then and now is that we’re at a historically low labor participation rate 62%. In 2008 it was 67%. This means the “layoffs” already happened and we’re stuck at the bottom with rising prices. These are classic symptoms of an unproductive workforce that rivals 1970s stagflation.
But we are also about to hit a demographic cliff and every college knows this. So they are attempting to “front load” students now and create greater awareness and interest beyond their traditional geographic areas to ensure stable enrollment. Looming Enrollment Cliff Poses Serious Threat to Colleges | BestColleges.
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