I live in a suburb in Central Ohio which has a very good school system. This time of year, banners sprout in the front of the homes of graduating seniors, congratulating them and telling where they will attend college.

Usually the colleges are Ohio State or Miami. I have seen about a dozen such banners this year, and two of the students are TCU bound. I have never seen TCU mentioned in past years, and I find it interesting that within a mile of my house two seniors from the local high school will attend TCU, a school which is generally little known here. Maybe more will do so.

I was curious. Any ideas why TCU is dredging up such interest.

Lots of new money from fracking...

and the Big12 Invite

slutty co-eds, lax on campus drug enforcement

(06-09-2013 02:50 PM)THRILL Wrote:  slutty co-eds, lax on campus drug enforcement

+1 plus BCS school, in Texas.

Plus they've accomplished from lesser leagues what a number of BCS schools never have: made it to BCS bowls.

I knew two grad students at Rice that went to TCU for undergrad. Let's just say that they didn't measure up to the undergrads at Rice, and that is putting it nicely.

TCU has gotten remarkably adept at marketing, which is what it seems to be all about these days; indeed, they're not going to try to get better through cultivating actual quality in the classroom, because that takes real integrity and time.

However, amongst those who can't be sold a bill of goods, it will always be ol' middle-of-the-road TCU.

Maybe they got Midwest-minority scholarships. My kids got (and declined) all kinds of scholarship offers from 3rd/4th tier schools in other parts of the country that, I presume, were trying to manufacture a more geographically diverse student body.

(06-09-2013 02:49 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Lots of new money from fracking...

and the Big12 Invite

Bingo!
You can't imagine how much money is coming out of these W. Texas oilfields and into TCU alums' bank accounts. And they're very generous towards their alma mater. At least two or three big new buildings from these guys PLUS multi-million dollar commitments to athletics. Especially football.

Maybe the two you saw are BFFs.

Lots of worse schools to go to. Maybe they just want the distance, poke Daddy in the eye with his own money, enjoy square dancing, who knows?

Yes, they are definitely the Frackin' Frogs. And I understand that Patterson has been tucked into a bunch of nice overrides that expire if he leaves TCU. Wouldn't be much of a stretch for him to be getting somewhere between late 6 and early 7 figures a year that anyone who wants to hire him away would have to meet.

Much as I will never like UH, I've got to say that I admire and appreciate their efforts to move the school to Tier I status. TCU raised $100MM for their FB stadium, but as far as I know, they haven't a clue what Tier I is. So, I second the original question.

From this thread, I gather that all TCU has going for it is plenty of money, successful marketing, and successful sports, and so far all it has to show for all that is increased interest around the country. Which sort of reminds of Buddy Ryan's criticism of Cris Carter: "All he does is catch touchdowns."

(06-09-2013 11:21 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  From this thread, I gather that all TCU has going for it is plenty of money, successful marketing, and successful sports, and so far all it has to show for all that is increased interest around the country. Which sort of reminds of Buddy Ryan's criticism of Cris Carter: "All he does is catch touchdowns."

So, George, surely you don't think TCU is the model we should pursue.....they may be doing a good marketing job.......for a Tier 3pr 4 uni!

(06-09-2013 11:32 PM)RiceDad Wrote:  

(06-09-2013 11:21 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  From this thread, I gather that all TCU has going for it is plenty of money, successful marketing, and successful sports, and so far all it has to show for all that is increased interest around the country. Which sort of reminds of Buddy Ryan's criticism of Cris Carter: "All he does is catch touchdowns."

So, George, surely you don't think TCU is the model we should pursue.....they may be doing a good marketing job.......for a Tier 3pr 4 uni!

I think the combination of plenty of money, successful marketing, and successful sports is an excellent model for a university to pursue. The fact that in a particular case those attributes are on top of a thinner academic foundation does not make them attributes we should look down on. (And even in that particular case, we may find before long that those attributes have led to a strengthening of the foundation as well.)

(06-09-2013 11:40 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(06-09-2013 11:32 PM)RiceDad Wrote:  

(06-09-2013 11:21 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  From this thread, I gather that all TCU has going for it is plenty of money, successful marketing, and successful sports, and so far all it has to show for all that is increased interest around the country. Which sort of reminds of Buddy Ryan's criticism of Cris Carter: "All he does is catch touchdowns."

So, George, surely you don't think TCU is the model we should pursue.....they may be doing a good marketing job.......for a Tier 3pr 4 uni!

I think the combination of plenty of money, successful marketing, and successful sports is an excellent model for a university to pursue. The fact that in a particular case those attributes are on top of a thinner academic foundation does not make them attributes we should look down on. (And even in that particular case, we may find before long that those attributes have led to a strengthening of the foundation as well.)

Really? Don't think anything about TCU offers a role model for Rice.

(06-10-2013 12:44 AM)RiceDad Wrote:  

(06-09-2013 11:40 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(06-09-2013 11:32 PM)RiceDad Wrote:  

(06-09-2013 11:21 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  From this thread, I gather that all TCU has going for it is plenty of money, successful marketing, and successful sports, and so far all it has to show for all that is increased interest around the country. Which sort of reminds of Buddy Ryan's criticism of Cris Carter: "All he does is catch touchdowns."

So, George, surely you don't think TCU is the model we should pursue.....they may be doing a good marketing job.......for a Tier 3pr 4 uni!

I think the combination of plenty of money, successful marketing, and successful sports is an excellent model for a university to pursue. The fact that in a particular case those attributes are on top of a thinner academic foundation does not make them attributes we should look down on. (And even in that particular case, we may find before long that those attributes have led to a strengthening of the foundation as well.)

Really? Don't think anything about TCU offers a role model for Rice.

Picking an AD?

(06-10-2013 12:44 AM)RiceDad Wrote:  

(06-09-2013 11:40 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(06-09-2013 11:32 PM)RiceDad Wrote:  

(06-09-2013 11:21 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  From this thread, I gather that all TCU has going for it is plenty of money, successful marketing, and successful sports, and so far all it has to show for all that is increased interest around the country. Which sort of reminds of Buddy Ryan's criticism of Cris Carter: "All he does is catch touchdowns."

So, George, surely you don't think TCU is the model we should pursue.....they may be doing a good marketing job.......for a Tier 3pr 4 uni!

I think the combination of plenty of money, successful marketing, and successful sports is an excellent model for a university to pursue. The fact that in a particular case those attributes are on top of a thinner academic foundation does not make them attributes we should look down on. (And even in that particular case, we may find before long that those attributes have led to a strengthening of the foundation as well.)

Really? Don't think anything about TCU offers a role model for Rice.

Why such animosity toward TCU?

I certainly don't think we can--or should--do everything the way they have, but that certainly doesn't mean there aren't plenty of things we could learn from them. They had a vision, lined up support, and made it happen. It helped a bunch the the Barnett shale came in and a bunch of it was under land belonging to their alumni, but without the vision and commitment to get it done that would not have mattered.

I think there's a hell of a lot that we could learn from TCU, and that we're idiots if we don't learn from them as well as Boise and South Florida and Cincinnati, and earlier Florida State, and even UH and SMU. You take any program that's been worse off than we were at any time in the last 50 years and is better off than we are today, and there are lessons there that we can and should learn. That's what it means to adopt "best practices."

The original question was what is the attraction of TCU that would cause kids in a small town in Ohio to chose to go there. My response was that from an academic perspective, I thought there was no attraction. I had no animosity in my feelings, only indifference. I was trying to say that spending $100MM on a football stadium, but remaining a third or fourth tier university academically seemed like messed up priorities to me. If the question is,"What is the attraction of the TCU's athletic program", then that is a different question, IMO.

My educated guess..after knowing a lot of TCU alums out here and taking a serious look at TCU when my daughter was applying to college..is that they don't consider themselves a third or fourth tier academic school. Granted, it's not as rigorous as Rice , especially in science and math, but they feel they do a good job academically and have some leading departments, like journalism, etc.

Wow, massive lack of charity here (which is not surprising).

What's the case for TCU? I readily admit that it is not "top 20" academics, and there's not room in all the entering classes of such schools for all the capable students who might thrive in strong, private university environment. TCU does offer a private university experience in a unique city with incredibly updated living and learning facilities, the major college sports scene, and a wide range of academic programs that are plenty strong (even if not "elite"). If you wanted to study Business, Music, or Journalism, TCU could be a destination school. If you want the liberal arts, solid science/Pre-med prep, education, nursing, then TCU will provide a very solid experience with faculty who will go to bat for you, even if it is not "best" at these things.

Are there some vapid, shallow, and mediocre students attending TCU? Sure. But, there are lots of serious students too. The folks I knew best have gone on to great success in academic life, graduated from professional schools, and have great careers. This was the intellectual crowd at TCU, and it is accessible and vibrant for those who are motivated to extract the most from the academic environment. BTW, one of my roommates and best friends (groomsman at my wedding) was a Goldwater Scholar and earned his Ph.D in Mathematics from Rice. There was another TCU grad in the Math department at the same time that my friend would readily admit was more brilliant than he was. If Rice's Math department is admitting so many TCU grads, then either they are not so bad, or this forum needs to scrutinize the Rice math department in a big way.