(09-10-2020 09:43 AM)bullet Wrote: (09-10-2020 09:33 AM)Pony94 Wrote: (09-10-2020 09:26 AM)bullet Wrote: (09-09-2020 10:03 PM)johnintx Wrote: (09-09-2020 09:39 PM)DFW HOYA Wrote: Baylor is a better school that people realize. #79 nationally, $1.3 billion endowment. Behind Rice (#17), but right between SMU (#64) and TCU (#97).
The Division I schools of Texas are perceived (academically, that is) roughly in this order:
1. Rice
2. Texas
2. Texas A&M
4. SMU
5. Baylor
6. TCU
7. Texas Tech
8. North Texas
9. Houston
10. Texas State
11. UT-San Antonio
12. Incarnate Word
13. UT-Arlington
14. UT-El Paso
15. Stephen F Austin St.
16. Sam Houston St.
17. Houston Baptist
18. Lamar
19. Prairie View A&M
20. Texas Southern
21. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
22. UT-Rio Grande Valley
That's pretty close to on target. Rice is at the top. UT and A&M are right behind them. SMU, Baylor and TCU are right there together. I'd switch Baylor with SMU, but there's not a whole lot of space between those three.
I'm not sure about Incarnate Word, but that's just my lack of knowledge. They'd be no lower than HBU. I'd move A&M-CC to around where Lamar is. By the time we're down this far on the list, we're grasping at straws. Good list.
Texas is clearly ahead of A&M. TCU is generally perceived as being better than SMU and Baylor. Houston should be #7 ahead of the rest of the publics. UT-Arlington would be between Texas Tech and North Texas. They are on target to qualify for the National Research University Fund in Texas next year. Houston, Texas Tech and UT-Dallas have already qualified. The other eligible schools, UTEP, UTSA, Texas St. and UNT aren't close. Haven't paid attention recently, but Lamar was the best of the Southland Conference schools. They got a lot of good students from the Beaumont area who couldn't afford to go out of town for school while the rest of the SLC schools tended to get people who couldn't get into the better schools or just wanted a party school.
You don't spend much time in the outside world do you? He has the private schools ranked correctly.
It surprises me that SMU people are almost always as stereotyped. Arrogant, preppy and not serious. SMU is viewed as Vanderbilt lite. Vanderbilt without being elite academically. Good, but not elite. TCU is generally viewed as a more serious school.
Baylor has historically been a good, solid school targeted at the middle class (compared to TCU and SMU). However, it has been improving in spite of its athletic scandals.
Since we have several private school reps, I’ll go ahead and weigh in as well. I am Baylor Alum, with immediate family alums from SMU, Texas, TAMU, Houston, Tech, and Rice.
In terms of academic and professional performance, I think Baylor alums punch way above their weight. Their presence in political offices, corporate leadership, and community leadership is well in excess of their proportionate share of the college educated in Texas. Part of it is historical, but Baylor has deep, deep ties in the state going back to Sam Houston.
I think Baylor is underrated as academically in terms of its perception (though I do believe the school’s academic reputation is positive one). The school needs to do more in terms of research to elevate its status. Rejoining with Baylor medical has always been an on again, off again discussion. Baylor U was in the mix when the school was thinking of combing with Rice. Baylor has done a good job developing its STEM profiles and advanced degrees over the last decade and continues to move in a positive direction. Baylor alums seem to have visible presence in every major area in Texas and then some. (Likely because very few plan on living in Waco forever.)
SMU is perceived academically as very high. I think the school gets has a more positive outside perception than its reality justifies. I think SMU is right alongside Baylor and TCU and there isn’t really much separation between them. SMU receives much benefit from its Dallas connections and as a result places very well in that market. For example, receiving the Bush presidential library is a tremendous feather in their hat, but a feather they wouldn’t have received if they didn’t exist in Dallas. Fortunately for SMU, they do exist in Dallas and that is a benefit to them. Kudos. SMU is smaller, but they don’t have as large or deep a presence in the rest of the state. It is a very good school but I haven’t seen anything from them that would elevate them significantly above the others in terms of performance.
TCU is harder to judge, they were climbing very quickly and then stumbled back down. They are a good school with a good reputation. I don’t see much placement of TCU fans outside of Fort Worth.
Ultimately, I have no issues with the SMU, Baylor, TCU order, but simply think they are closer together than they are apart.