(09-20-2018 04:31 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  

(09-20-2018 04:07 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I don't think Rice has ever done as good a job as it should of keeping alumni involved, not just in athletics but across the board.

I've said this before, but the opposite end of the spectrum was really brought home to me a few years back at the "Kick 6" Iron Bowl between Auburn and Alabama. My brother is an Auburn alum and scholarship donor, with seats equivalent to our Stadium Club. We came down in separate elevators, and when we met at the bottom, he told me that he had ridden down with the president and that in the elevator he had heard the president get commitments for two new buildings. That was very much a target rich environment--heavy hitters among the donor group, well liquored up, and at the height of euphoria. But that's how the big boys do it, and that's how they get money. We do not appear to have ever learned that lesson.

If you’ve been to campus lately we get plenty of $ for new buildings, just on the academic side of campus. You realize compared to Auburn we are probably “the big boys” in terms of donations. They are funded by the state so they don’t need to match us. In 2017 Auburn just completed their first billion dollar campaign (first ever in Alabama). They received gifts from 106,976 people, or more than double the number of living owl alums. The endowment is $738M for 24,000 undergrads.

The big public schools probably raise more than us UT/A&M/Michigan/Cal/UVA. And of course we raise less than Princeton/Harvard/Stanford/Yale. But I wouldn’t call any SEC other schools the “big boys” when it comes to donations. We’re in a pretty elite club with our new financial aid initiative and it’s due to donations from alums.

And our next $1B - $2B fundraising campaign (V2C2) is already ongoing (with all 2018 donations, including the Kraft Building gifts, counting toward it), though it likely won't be announced until early next year.

(09-20-2018 01:11 PM)RiceFootball2K5 Wrote:  

(09-20-2018 12:42 PM)nightowl24 Wrote:  again to be very clear, i'm not saying let's recruit "rice legacies" OVER any other athlete. again (and honestly i'm not seeing the confusion here) i'm simply saying why are we not even targeting these kids? people i played in college, i coached here in texas on the varsity level, and i played professional ball. I am very well aware of choosing players that "fit". I'm not saying just because they are a rice legacy they are an automatic "in". I'm saying there are kids that SHOULD be on their radar and from my knowledge aren't. This is just dumb to me. we have a resource and we are flat out not using it, and it's FREE. we are talking about recruiting and seeing kids decommit and others choosing other schools. i'm saying there are kids in the houston area that are children of rice athletes that are from the houston area and we aren't even looking at these kids, we aren't using resources to help us get better.

like i said this isn't about plugging every rice players kid to be an owl. it's a legit question to why are we not KNOWING who are great athletes of our lettermen. i'm sorry, not sorry, this is just common sense to me. i get very well that not all kids are going to want to follow in their parents footsteps. rice is on my both my sons' lists, 3rd for both. regardless if they go there or not why would rice not legitimately TRY to get these type kids(not saying my kid is that kid or not). there is a much better chance of that kid saying "you know i got a better offer over here, but i want to help my parents' school be a contender. i commit." But we are spinning our wheels constantly going after kids with no rice ties TRYING to win them over when you have kids that don't need as much to win over because of the ties(of course this a general statement as some may have had a bad experience so they as letterwinners don't want their kids going here). People have listed the rice legacies here, for the amount of players that have gone through rice that's a really short list. and maybe this is the norm across all college teams....again it was an initial question.

I think part of the problem is that we need the lettermen to come around more often and establish relationships with the coaches doing the recruiting. I realize everyone is busy (especially those with kids in high school) so it's not always possible. But I don't see many other ways for the coaches to know that so and so is a Rice letterman's son. Somebody earlier in the thread mentioned the turnover in the department and that ties in here as well.

I'm wondering if there are some "best practices" out there for identifying recruiting targets (and maybe utilizing past lettermen in that regard) that other schools follow that we don't?

For instance, I think this has been posted on here before, but Northwestern's entrepreneurship incubator produced a company (Zcruit) that applies analytics to football recruiting to better predict which targets are most likely to commit/sign at the end of the process, enabling schools to better focus their resources and not waste time on longshots, etc. Here's a map of the schools using Zcruit (spoiler alert: we're not one of them). (Zcruit was recently acquired by Reigning Champs, a big recruiting service.)

I'm just a fan (didn't play FB) and don't even follow recruiting that closely but I gather that schools develop their target lists mostly through services nowadays? How important are the old-school "beating the bushes" methods still, like networking with coaches, looking at unsolicited highlight videos that kids/parents/coaches send in directly, and yeah, following up on tips from past lettermen and other friends of the program? And what is the ROI on these methods?

(09-19-2018 09:02 AM)tanqtonic Wrote:  And, I have three ex-roommates who have sons/daughters in college, excellent grades and outside activities, who applied and were not accepted. (i.e. as an example, one who was high school FB, drama, 4th in a class of 400, 4.1 GPA).

My daughter graduated high school last year. She was admitted to Rice but ultimately went to a state school here in Texas because she was a National Merit Scholar and they gave her a full ride scholarship. Rice is just too expensive. I would have loved for her to be an Owl, but IMO she made the best decision because there was such a huge difference in 4 year cost.

I wonder what difference the new scholarship program would have had on her decision. (What a great program!)

(09-19-2018 10:35 AM)mrbig Wrote:  I don't think Rice should ever lower its standards for legacies. But I do think legacies who are otherwise qualified should be admitted in most cases. As for athletes, it seems like the Rice athletic department should, at the very least, have a database of Rice Athletics alums to help keep tabs on possible athlete legacies.

I agree with all of this.

(09-22-2018 03:53 PM)TFW Wrote:  

(09-19-2018 09:02 AM)tanqtonic Wrote:  And, I have three ex-roommates who have sons/daughters in college, excellent grades and outside activities, who applied and were not accepted. (i.e. as an example, one who was high school FB, drama, 4th in a class of 400, 4.1 GPA).

My daughter graduated high school last year. She was admitted to Rice but ultimately went to a state school here in Texas because she was a National Merit Scholar and they gave her a full ride scholarship. Rice is just too expensive. I would have loved for her to be an Owl, but IMO she made the best decision because there was such a huge difference in 4 year cost.

I wonder what difference the new scholarship program would have had on her decision. (What a great program!)

Rice used to give National Merit Scholars full rides. I don't know when that changed.

(09-22-2018 04:48 PM)owl95 Wrote:  

(09-22-2018 03:53 PM)TFW Wrote:  

(09-19-2018 09:02 AM)tanqtonic Wrote:  And, I have three ex-roommates who have sons/daughters in college, excellent grades and outside activities, who applied and were not accepted. (i.e. as an example, one who was high school FB, drama, 4th in a class of 400, 4.1 GPA).

My daughter graduated high school last year. She was admitted to Rice but ultimately went to a state school here in Texas because she was a National Merit Scholar and they gave her a full ride scholarship. Rice is just too expensive. I would have loved for her to be an Owl, but IMO she made the best decision because there was such a huge difference in 4 year cost.

I wonder what difference the new scholarship program would have had on her decision. (What a great program!)

Rice used to give National Merit Scholars full rides. I don't know when that changed.

When half the class would receive a full ride. Rice gives like $1,000 or $1500 per year now I think. Don’t remember too well.

(09-22-2018 05:28 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  

(09-22-2018 04:48 PM)owl95 Wrote:  

(09-22-2018 03:53 PM)TFW Wrote:  

(09-19-2018 09:02 AM)tanqtonic Wrote:  And, I have three ex-roommates who have sons/daughters in college, excellent grades and outside activities, who applied and were not accepted. (i.e. as an example, one who was high school FB, drama, 4th in a class of 400, 4.1 GPA).

My daughter graduated high school last year. She was admitted to Rice but ultimately went to a state school here in Texas because she was a National Merit Scholar and they gave her a full ride scholarship. Rice is just too expensive. I would have loved for her to be an Owl, but IMO she made the best decision because there was such a huge difference in 4 year cost.

I wonder what difference the new scholarship program would have had on her decision. (What a great program!)

Rice used to give National Merit Scholars full rides. I don't know when that changed.

When half the class would receive a full ride. Rice gives like $1,000 or $1500 per year now I think. Don’t remember too well.

It’s essentially zero. Not to say that $1000 is insignificant, but in light of the cost of attendance it’s a drop in the bucket.

(09-22-2018 06:48 PM)TFW Wrote:  

(09-22-2018 05:28 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  

(09-22-2018 04:48 PM)owl95 Wrote:  

(09-22-2018 03:53 PM)TFW Wrote:  

(09-19-2018 09:02 AM)tanqtonic Wrote:  And, I have three ex-roommates who have sons/daughters in college, excellent grades and outside activities, who applied and were not accepted. (i.e. as an example, one who was high school FB, drama, 4th in a class of 400, 4.1 GPA).

My daughter graduated high school last year. She was admitted to Rice but ultimately went to a state school here in Texas because she was a National Merit Scholar and they gave her a full ride scholarship. Rice is just too expensive. I would have loved for her to be an Owl, but IMO she made the best decision because there was such a huge difference in 4 year cost.

I wonder what difference the new scholarship program would have had on her decision. (What a great program!)

Rice used to give National Merit Scholars full rides. I don't know when that changed.

When half the class would receive a full ride. Rice gives like $1,000 or $1500 per year now I think. Don’t remember too well.

It’s essentially zero. Not to say that $1000 is insignificant, but in light of the cost of attendance it’s a drop in the bucket.

Agreed. At least Rice gives out merit scholarships more often than our peers.

(09-22-2018 04:48 PM)owl95 Wrote:  

(09-22-2018 03:53 PM)TFW Wrote:  

(09-19-2018 09:02 AM)tanqtonic Wrote:  And, I have three ex-roommates who have sons/daughters in college, excellent grades and outside activities, who applied and were not accepted. (i.e. as an example, one who was high school FB, drama, 4th in a class of 400, 4.1 GPA).

My daughter graduated high school last year. She was admitted to Rice but ultimately went to a state school here in Texas because she was a National Merit Scholar and they gave her a full ride scholarship. Rice is just too expensive. I would have loved for her to be an Owl, but IMO she made the best decision because there was such a huge difference in 4 year cost.
I wonder what difference the new scholarship program would have had on her decision. (What a great program!)

Rice used to give National Merit Scholars full rides. I don't know when that changed.

Not entirely true. I think there is a hierarchy in national merit scholarships... parents employer first, ??? second, institution third. I think I lost something like $12,000 (against an $8000 award) - which would have covered tution and then some for four years - when I won the scholarship from my Dad's employer (and they had only bought the paper where he worked maybe two years earlier, and he left the paper because of the new ownership). I think the rule is/was that you can't say no to an award. Yes, if Rice gives the national merit award, I think it covered tuition, but that didn't apply to every national merit scholar.