A Comprehensive Look at what MSU is doing in student recruitment

[615dawg]

Several interested posters asking questions, so I thought I would put some information out.

One of the major issues that is plaguing the non-athletic issues at MSU is how we distribute scholarships. Here are the issues that I believe are hurting us.

Ayers Admission Requirement
Nothing we can do about it, but you need to understand it. The Ayers decision states that all MS public universities have to have the same admission requirements. Obviously, this brings us down rather than brings others up. The big one to me is the 3.2 GPA on CPC courses and no ACT is needed. "Well, that's a B average," you say. When this was established, only about 25% of high school students in MIssissippi graduated with a 3.2 GPA. Now with rampant grade inflation, floor grades, etc., nearly 64% of students in MS are graduating with a 3.2 GPA or better.

No one would argue that a 3.2 GPA at high school A is different than a 3.2 GPA at high school B, but this universal requirement is allowing more students that aren't ready for college to go to college. MSU has several sections of remedial math and remedial English every semester. These are classes that do not count toward a degree. So we get these students that aren't ready for college, and they flunk out, which hurts our graduation rate.

But Ole Miss gets these students as well, you say?

Scholarship Matrix
We start giving scholarships to students who have a 21 ACT. Ole Miss doesn't give anything until a 23 ACT. There are a ton of students between a 21-23 ACT that end up at State because they get something. A 21 ACT with a 3.6 GPA at Mississippi State receives $14,000 in scholarships and they would receive $0 at Ole Miss. So if we have 500 freshmen in this zone, we commit $7 million of scholarship money to students. That's not even counting $4000 and $6000 offers for a 21 ACT with lower GPAs.

Mississippi State Promise
This sounds good on the surface, but it is attracting a less quality student. The Mississippi State Promise is a program that pays the balance after grants to Pell eligible students. This is regardless of academic excellence, so you have several students that get in without college ready ACT scores. If we have 500 freshmen in this program, we are committing $6 million to these students.

That's $13 million of scholarship money going to students that Ole Miss is giving $0 to. I would suspect that the graduation rate is significantly lower amongst these students as well. The 4 year graduation rate at MSU is 41% and the 6 year is 63%. OIe Miss is 68% and Auburn's graduation rate is 82%. Both Ole Miss and Auburn are giving out significantly more scholarship money and we are giving millions to students that hurt our academic ranking, and are a strain on our resources because they are having to take 6-12 hours of remedial classes.

Outside Competition
Not only is Ole Miss attracting the best and brightest in Mississippi, there are four schools that are really doing well getting students that MSU would have normally attracted.

Mississippi College - Has a program that guarantees free tuition for Mississippi residents
Louisiana Tech - waives out of state tuition for 24+ ACT, has a good engineering program + very generous with scholarships
South Alabama - waives out of state tuition for MS residents, has become a top three choice for Coast students and is now advertising heavily in Rankin and Madison Counties
Arkansas - SEC school that waives 90% of out of state for MS residents and has a good scholarship program for 25+ ACT

What Can We Do?

Here are some things I think that would help.

1. Match our scholarship matrix closer to what Ole Miss does. A 4.0 ACT/29 ACT student has a balance at Mississippi State, and they get a refund at Ole Miss. Many students and their parents are surprised about this. The reason we give less to higher achievers is that we are giving more to marginal students.

2. Put some sort of academic requirement on the Mississippi State Promise. Even if its a 21 ACT. Many students in this program are below 18 ACT and are not college ready. Our community colleges can help get them ready.

3. Waive out of state tuition for children of alumni. LSU does this and it keeps generations going to LSU.

4. Consider waiving out of state tuition for Memphis area students, and having a program that waives it for high achievers in border states.

 

[Beretta.sixpack]

Ole Miss does give scholarships on ACT brackets for 21-24, 25-29, and 30 and above. My daughter starts there in the fall. Made 24 the first time and 27 the second time....it was worth more money on the scholarship timeline to get the tutoring.

Arkansas waives 90% OOS tuition with a 3.8GPA, and it brackets down from there....that was my kids second choice.

 

[patdog]

Mississippi State Promise
This sounds good on the surface, but it is attracting a less quality student. The Mississippi State Promise is a program that pays the balance after grants to Pell eligible students. This is regardless of academic excellence, so you have several students that get in without college ready ACT scores. If we have 500 freshmen in this program, we are committing $6 million to these students.

This is an absolute disaster for our university. Nothing about this sounds good at all. $6,000,000 wasted.

 

[615dawg]

Ole Miss does give scholarships on ACT brackets for 21-24, 25-29, and 30 and above. My daughter starts there in the fall. Made 24 the first time and 27 the second time....it was worth more money on the scholarship timeline to get the tutoring.

Arkansas waives 90% OOS tuition with a 3.8GPA, and it brackets down from there....that was my kids second choice.

Its actually 23 instead of 24. Here is their full matrix for all to see.

 

[615dawg]

This is an absolute disaster for our university. Nothing about this sounds good at all. $6,000,000 wasted.

Well, we're getting $35 million from the federal and state government for them. That's why we do it. From what I have been told, the graduation rate amongst these students is in line with our state HBCUs.

JSU: 39&
Alcorn: 41%
MVSU: 33%

 

[patdog]

Well, we're getting $35 million from the federal and state government for them. That's why we do it. From what I have been told, the graduation rate amongst these students is in line with our state HBCUs.

JSU: 39&
Alcorn: 41%
MVSU: 33%

That's awful. Sometimes taking the easy money is the wrong decision in the long term.

 

[Dawg1976]

“Waive out of state tuition for children of alumni. LSU does this and it keeps generations going to LSU.”

Back in my day(70’s) I thought MSU did this. Maybe not….

 

[civildawg88]

I'm seeing a lot of posters saying their kids are starting at Ole miss in the fall for the past couple of years. First, I don't see how you write that check and second, msu is obviously doing something wrong since I keep seeing it posted

 

[mstateglfr]

Yeah, it was kinda funny to see the stark difference in recruiting info and offers from MSU compared to others when my oldest was going thru the process these last 6 months.

Spoiler- MSU was pretty underwhelming.
The financial offer was straight off the gpa/act matrix and while that is a pretty decent deal, it was not comparatively enticing.

Large out of state schools offered better overall cost packages- Mizzou, Truman State, and Nebraska specifically.

Large in state schools offered better overall cost packages. Not surprising, but at the same time, if you want out of state students then cost is one way to snag em.
ISU and UIowa offered $ under stated tuition for gpa/act results.

Some medium and small private schools offered better cost packages. This was a surprise for sure.
Simpson College offered $0 tuition as long as housing and dining were purchased.
St Ambrose University got its total cost down to within $500 of MSU and the cost of travel made it a better cost overall.



It was interesting to see how little MSU cared, relative to others, in terms of recruiting mail. We all hated the mail, but at the same time it was easy to see the difference.

Child of a graduate with great HS numbers, but there was almost 0 care compared to all sorts of other colleges and universities.

 

[615dawg]

“Waive out of state tuition for children of alumni. LSU does this and it keeps generations going to LSU.”

Back in my day(70’s) I thought MSU did this. Maybe not….

We give some but not all. It needs to be a 100% waiver.

 

[615dawg]

I'm seeing a lot of posters saying their kids are starting at Ole miss in the fall for the past couple of years. First, I don't see how you write that check and second, msu is obviously doing something wrong since I keep seeing it posted

If the kids are decent students, they aren't writing a check. That's part of the problem.

mstateglfr above nails it. Repeat it x thousands of students every year.

 

[TXDawg.sixpack]

What Can We Do?


3. Waive out of state tuition for children of alumni. LSU does this and it keeps generations going to LSU.

State already does this. Both of my kids are students at State and neither of them are paying OOS tuition.

 

[Dawghouse]

Remedial courses are not just an MSU thing. US education has lowered tremendously, the COVID years didn't help.



Also, offering 14,000 to lower students doesn't cost MSU 14,000 if they don't make it. It's paid out per semester over 4 years. If they make it, it was worth it, if not, they probably only got 2 semesters worth.

ACT scores are being gamed as much as GPAs. A person with financial resources can take multiple prep classes while others can't. Who needs the scholarship more? The family that can pay 1000s for ACT prep or the ones who can't afford to?

 

[Wesson Bulldog]

Yeah, it was kinda funny to see the stark difference in recruiting info and offers from MSU compared to others when my oldest was going thru the process these last 6 months.

Spoiler- MSU was pretty underwhelming.

The financial offer was straight off the gpa/act matrix and while that is a pretty decent deal, it was not comparatively enticing.

Large out of state schools offered better overall cost packages- Mizzou, Truman State, and Nebraska specifically.

Large in state schools offered better overall cost packages. Not surprising, but at the same time, if you want out of state students then cost is one way to snag em.
ISU and UIowa offered $ under stated tuition for gpa/act results.

Some medium and small private schools offered better cost packages. This was a surprise for sure.
Simpson College offered $0 tuition as long as housing and dining were purchased.
St Ambrose University got its total cost down to within $500 of MSU and the cost of travel made it a better cost overall.



It was interesting to see how little MSU cared, relative to others, in terms of recruiting mail. We all hated the mail, but at the same time it was easy to see the difference.

Child of a graduate with great HS numbers, but there was almost 0 care compared to all sorts of other colleges and universities.

We didn't have as thorough a search as you've done, but I said all along that all they wanted was our money. My son was 32 AcT and 4.o+ 2 years ago and did NOT get a full ride. They're attitude was like they just did not care about the success of the recruit.

 

[615dawg]

Remedial courses are not just an MSU thing. US education has lowered tremendously, the COVID years didn't help.

View attachment 776376

Also, offering 14,000 to lower students doesn't cost MSU 14,000 if they don't make it. It's paid out per semester over 4 years. If they make it, it was worth it, if not, they probably only got 2 semesters worth.

ACT scores are being gamed as much as GPAs. A person with financial resources can take multiple prep classes while others can't. Who needs the scholarship more? The family that can pay 1000s for ACT prep or the ones who can't afford to?

I saw that article about Harvard last week and meant to mention it. Its definitely a problem across the nation.

My point is that when a 3.2 GPA was established as automatic entry without ACT/SAT scores, it was a better indicator than it is now. There is a student in Tennessee that graduated with a 3.4 high school GPA that is suing his high school because he can't read. I guarantee the same thing is happening in half of Mississippi's school districts.

 

[615dawg]

We didn't have as thorough a search as you've done, but I said all along that all they wanted was our money. My son was 32 AcT and 4.o+ 2 years ago and did NOT get a full ride. They're attitude was like they just did not care about the success of the recruit.

My niece had similar numbers and did not get a full ride. She was at MSU orientation (which she thought was cringy) and decided to take a full ride at Alabama, despite growing up a State fan in a State family.

 

[mstateglfr]

State already does this. Both of my kids are students at State and neither of them are paying OOS tuition.

Odd. We were not offered this.
I did see the following info online, but it was not part of her official offer because she received the larger tuition waiver MSU has set up for gpa/act.

Alumni Nonresident Exemption Graduate students who are sons or daughters of an MSU alumnus or alumna, and who have not received other tuition waivers, may be eligible to receive up to $4,000 per year ($2,000 per semester) to apply towards the non-resident tuition fee. To qualify as an alum for this scholarship, the parent must have completed a minimum of 48 undergraduate credit hours, 30 graduate credit hours, or have received a degree from Mississippi State University. A minimum 3.00 cumulative GPA is required for renewal of the exemption. Grades are reviewed at the end of each fall semester. For more information, contact the Office of Admissions and Scholarships at [email protected].

 

[DawgInThe256]

State already does this. Both of my kids are students at State and neither of them are paying OOS tuition.

The only scholarship offered just for being a child af an alum is 50% of OOS tuition. I believe there are additional ways to get OOS tuition waived by ACT score, being a band member, etc.

 

[ETK99]

All but one kid we've sent to State (4) have gotten scholarship money. I agree on the recruiting and needing change, but if all you're looking at is money, there's always going to be a better money offer regardless. We just need to get out of the dark ages with how we do things. I don't know if "modern" is in the vocabulary of our leadership.

 

[Dawghouse]

I saw that article about Harvard last week and meant to mention it. Its definitely a problem across the nation.

My point is that when a 3.2 GPA was established as automatic entry without ACT/SAT scores, it was a better indicator than it is now. There is a student in Tennessee that graduated with a 3.4 high school GPA that is suing his high school because he can't read. I guarantee the same thing is happening in half of Mississippi's school districts.

I agree with that part. GPAs are ridiculous nowadays. Kids with 5.0? It's going to become more of a problem as homeschooling increases. I'm not saying parents just make up grades, but they do.

On the other hand, I expect colleges will be struggling to hit enrollment numbers over the next decade so they may all be fighting for those lower end kids just to make numbers.

Too many people go to college who shouldn't.

 

[Dawghouse]

Also, big shout out to George Bishop for his 100 million dollar donation. My son received one of their scholarships and it made my life easier.

‘Overlooked’ students to benefit from historic $100M donation to MSU

After a $100 million donation, Mississippi State University just received the largest-ever donation to a higher education institution in the state.

cdispatch.com

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Too many people go to college universities who shouldn't.

I mostly agree but there are students who’d be better off going the JUCO route and get accustomed to college classes and then transfer rather than going straight to any of the IHLs (yeah, I might be quibbling a little).

 

[RocketDawg]

My granddaughter is graduating high school in May, and after a lot of searching she decided to go to the University of Georgia since it's a really good school and isn't very far from home (she's just 17). She has a full ride there except for housing. Has a GPA of 4.5 and SAT 1490. She had full ride offers from several other schools (FSU, Alabama, UNC).

I don't see how State can offer scholarships for an ACT of just 21. That's about average for a high school student, but not very good at all for a college student.

 

[L4Dawg]

My kid's experience at MSU bears no resemblance to these stories. 32/4.0+. He did not get an official full ride, but when all was said and done, it WAS a full ride and then some. Now we had to do most of the work ourselves because the high school counselor was a non-entity. It sounds like a lot of your problems have more to do with the HS than MSU. We would have had a similar or worse story if we had relied on her.

 

[ckDOG]

Several interested posters asking questions, so I thought I would put some information out.

One of the major issues that is plaguing the non-athletic issues at MSU is how we distribute scholarships. Here are the issues that I believe are hurting us.

Ayers Admission Requirement
Nothing we can do about it, but you need to understand it. The Ayers decision states that all MS public universities have to have the same admission requirements. Obviously, this brings us down rather than brings others up. The big one to me is the 3.2 GPA on CPC courses and no ACT is needed. "Well, that's a B average," you say. When this was established, only about 25% of high school students in MIssissippi graduated with a 3.2 GPA. Now with rampant grade inflation, floor grades, etc., nearly 64% of students in MS are graduating with a 3.2 GPA or better.

No one would argue that a 3.2 GPA at high school A is different than a 3.2 GPA at high school B, but this universal requirement is allowing more students that aren't ready for college to go to college. MSU has several sections of remedial math and remedial English every semester. These are classes that do not count toward a degree. So we get these students that aren't ready for college, and they flunk out, which hurts our graduation rate.

But Ole Miss gets these students as well, you say?

Scholarship Matrix
We start giving scholarships to students who have a 21 ACT. Ole Miss doesn't give anything until a 23 ACT. There are a ton of students between a 21-23 ACT that end up at State because they get something. A 21 ACT with a 3.6 GPA at Mississippi State receives $14,000 in scholarships and they would receive $0 at Ole Miss. So if we have 500 freshmen in this zone, we commit $7 million of scholarship money to students. That's not even counting $4000 and $6000 offers for a 21 ACT with lower GPAs.

Mississippi State Promise
This sounds good on the surface, but it is attracting a less quality student. The Mississippi State Promise is a program that pays the balance after grants to Pell eligible students. This is regardless of academic excellence, so you have several students that get in without college ready ACT scores. If we have 500 freshmen in this program, we are committing $6 million to these students.

That's $13 million of scholarship money going to students that Ole Miss is giving $0 to. I would suspect that the graduation rate is significantly lower amongst these students as well. The 4 year graduation rate at MSU is 41% and the 6 year is 63%. OIe Miss is 68% and Auburn's graduation rate is 82%. Both Ole Miss and Auburn are giving out significantly more scholarship money and we are giving millions to students that hurt our academic ranking, and are a strain on our resources because they are having to take 6-12 hours of remedial classes.

Outside Competition
Not only is Ole Miss attracting the best and brightest in Mississippi, there are four schools that are really doing well getting students that MSU would have normally attracted.

Mississippi College - Has a program that guarantees free tuition for Mississippi residents
Louisiana Tech - waives out of state tuition for 24+ ACT, has a good engineering program + very generous with scholarships
South Alabama - waives out of state tuition for MS residents, has become a top three choice for Coast students and is now advertising heavily in Rankin and Madison Counties
Arkansas - SEC school that waives 90% of out of state for MS residents and has a good scholarship program for 25+ ACT

What Can We Do?

Here are some things I think that would help.

1. Match our scholarship matrix closer to what Ole Miss does. A 4.0 ACT/29 ACT student has a balance at Mississippi State, and they get a refund at Ole Miss. Many students and their parents are surprised about this. The reason we give less to higher achievers is that we are giving more to marginal students.

2. Put some sort of academic requirement on the Mississippi State Promise. Even if its a 21 ACT. Many students in this program are below 18 ACT and are not college ready. Our community colleges can help get them ready.

3. Waive out of state tuition for children of alumni. LSU does this and it keeps generations going to LSU.

4. Consider waiving out of state tuition for Memphis area students, and having a program that waives it for high achievers in border states.

Probably dumb questions - out of my wheelhouse here.

1) if we were to shift the focus of aid to higher quality students similar to OM, could we attract the enrollment numbers we need to to support that business model? I know OM has out of state students that are interested in them bc of the Greek life. I would assume that student isn't top tier (they'd stay in their home state otherwise) but likely a better profile than our lower. They probably have a product that decent out of state kids want more than ours outside of engineering.

2) Could we be better off with raising standards AND lowering enrollment totals or is our infrastructure investment based on enrollment/growth that simply forces us to recruit lesser students? Ie "we need the dues!"

 

[mstateglfr]

We didn't have as thorough a search as you've done, but I said all along that all they wanted was our money. My son was 32 AcT and 4.o+ 2 years ago and did NOT get a full ride. They're attitude was like they just did not care about the success of the recruit.

Yep, 32act and 4.2gpa. Some 3 AP scores, some 4 APs scores, and a couple 5 AP scores.
She had no idea what all that would end up getting or not getting at in state, out of state, and privates. It was definitely interesting to see who offered what and how quickly.
I nerded out on a spreadsheet for sure!

Admittedly, MSU's gpa/act discount matrix is very good. Its a strongass offer on its own, and she would have been at $5637 per year for tuition.
But the total lack of reaching out to talk or follow up to the offer or anything was noticeable. Multiple public and private schools set Teams meetings with her to talk about the offer and also further answer college process questions. A couple came into town to meet at a coffee shop with any available interested students. MSU?...crickets. Not even a stock follow up email from an admissions counselor.

 

[615dawg]

Probably dumb questions - out of my wheelhouse here.

1) if we were to shift the focus of aid to higher quality students similar to OM, could we attract the enrollment numbers we need to to support that business model? I know OM has out of state students that are interested in them bc of the Greek life. I would assume that student isn't top tier (they'd stay in their home state otherwise) but likely a better profile than our lower. They probably have a product that decent out of state kids want more than ours outside of engineering.

2) Could we be better off with raising standards AND lowering enrollment totals or is our infrastructure investment based on enrollment/growth that simply forces us to recruit lesser students? Ie "we need the dues!"

Those are both excellent questions. I will attempt to answer.

1. If we did this, our enrollment would suffer. That's why we need to consider waiving OOS tution for alumni kids, Memphis area and high achieving out of state. Texas and Georgia have unique issues where it iis extremely difficult to get into UTexas and UGA, even as a in-state student. A Dallas or Atlanta area kid with a 4.0+ GPA and a 28 ACT might not get into their state's flagships if they are not in the top 10% of their graduating class. Those kids have to drop to Texas Tech/Texas State level or go private to TCU/SMU/Baylor. Ole Miss becomes a very attractive option to get a big school experience. So don't assume that all of those out of state kids are dumbasses, although they get a share of wealthy out of state kids interested in Greek Life.

2. We've got a lot of debt in the infrastructure, which is probably why we can't do anything drastic to better the student quality. We built a lot of campus on Pell Grants.

 

[AttalaDawg72]

In addition to scholarships and poor athletics, can we all agree that Starkville is just not a place that many want to go to college? Starkville is making great strides, sure. However, everything on campus and in town feels stagnant and ran by people who love mediocrity.

 

[MississippiTexan]

Odd. We were not offered this.
I did see the following info online, but it was not part of her official offer because she received the larger tuition waiver MSU has set up for gpa/act.

I had twin boys who graduated last year. One of them got scholarship offers based on GPA and didn't get the $4k offer and the other one just got the $4,000 alumni non-resident waiver offer. Just for reference in-state tuition is $10k a year while OOS is just under $19k. So the $4k waiver doesn't quite equal half of the OOS portion and each year it covers less since tuition goes up every year. There is no full waiver off OOS tuition and the $4k probably used to be 50% but it's not anymore.

 

[Dawghouse]

I don't see how State can offer scholarships for an ACT of just 21. That's about average for a high school student, but not very good at all for a college student.

Average ACT in MS is 17.5.

I'm not actually disagreeing with the premise that 21 is too low for a scholarship, just pointing out a 21 isn't average for MS. If your goal is to educate Mississippians, you're going to have to make it accessible to "average" students who need financial assistance.

The national average is 19.5.

Just an FYI, total cost of attendance is ~ 23k per year in state.

Federal Pell grant ~7k
Federal loans 5500

That puts students 10k short per year. Without offering some extra scholarships MSU is inaccessible to a large swath of the state.

 

[TXDawg.sixpack]

Odd. We were not offered this.
I did see the following info online, but it was not part of her official offer because she received the larger tuition waiver MSU has set up for gpa/act.

I could be wrong, but I think we had to indicate on their applications or scholarship forms that they were children of an alum. The "children of alum" portion supplements the GPA/ACT scholarship award and covers the remaining OOS tuition that was not covered by the GPA/ACT scholarship.

 

[mstateglfr]

I could be wrong, but I think we had to indicate on their applications or scholarship forms that they were children of an alum. The "children of alum" portion supplements the GPA/ACT scholarship award and covers the remaining OOS tuition that was not covered by the GPA/ACT scholarship.

I think this goes to a frustration I and many others have voiced when it comes to college selection and costs- its confusing as 17 and seems largely inconsistent and arbitrary, even when it is done in a transparent way.
Its like car shopping.

I am not sure about the alumni offer and why it wasnt applied, or if it was applied and not noticed by us(dont think so). The snippet I quoted earlier states the alumni offer cant be combined with other tuition waivers, and the tuition waiver that was listed was for $22,000 per year, so that was obviously the one we would have wanted.


She made her decision so now its all a moo point- cow's opinion- just doesn't matter.

 

[AADAWG]

Scholarship offers are part of recruiting, but that’s not all. I’ve had 3 kids attend State since 2018. All did well academically in HS and on standardized tests, and all went to State on the same level of scholarships. But, there was a significant decrease in the level of effort put forth recruiting the one who started in 2018 vs the one who started in 2024. In my opinion, State’s recruiters are lazy. They aren’t interested in “selling” State to prospective students because enrollment numbers aren’t going to significantly change whether they do their jobs or not. I also think it’s a perspective problem of leadership that contributes to the issue. UM and MSU both currently have housing capacity issues. UM seems to be of the opinion of “get them here, and we will figure out where to put them.” MSU seems to be of the opinion of “we can’t take them if we don’t have a bed for them.” As a parent of a student, I like MSU’s approach. As an alumnus of MSU who wants to see our university grow, prosper, and attract the best and brightest, I believe you have to be more forward thinking. You have to be innovative and that takes risks that I don’t believe our current leadership is willing to take.
If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. I think our leadership across the university has forgotten that.

 

[Wesson Bulldog]

My niece had similar numbers and did not get a full ride. She was at MSU orientation (which she thought was cringy) and decided to take a full ride at Alabama, despite growing up a State fan in a State family.

Funny story, at the honors college recruitment luncheon, they served tofu lasagne and green beans! Why not serve fried catfish, greens and cornbread????

 

[landscpdog]

My son is a freshman at State now. 31 ACT 4.3 GPA out of Huntsville High. Full ride. Auburn offered him 3000.00 INSTATE. He was always going to chose state over Auburn because their Landscape Architecture is no longer accredited.
My daughter is a JR at HHS. So many of her friends are looking at Ole Miss. when asked, their reasoning is that the online social presence is WAY better than ours.

 

[mstateglfr]

My kid's experience at MSU bears no resemblance to these stories. 32/4.0+. He did not get an official full ride, but when all was said and done, it WAS a full ride and then some. Now we had to do most of the work ourselves because the high school counselor was a non-entity. It sounds like a lot of your problems have more to do with the HS than MSU. We would have had a similar or worse story if we had relied on her.

My son is a freshman at State now. 31 ACT 4.3 GPA out of Huntsville High. Full ride. Auburn offered him 3000.00 INSTATE. He was always going to chose state over Auburn because their Landscape Architecture is no longer accredited.
My daughter is a JR at HHS. So many of her friends are looking at Ole Miss. when asked, their reasoning is that the online social presence is WAY better than ours.

Curious if everyone is using 'full ride' in the same manner.
That means the total cost of attending college is paid for. Tuition, room, board, fees, and usually books.

MSU is offering up full rides to kids who get a 31 or 32 on their ACT and have a a 4.0+ GPA?

Thats wild.

 

[RocketDawg]

My granddaughter is graduating high school in May, and after a lot of searching she decided to go to the University of Georgia since it's a really good school and isn't very far from home (she's just 17). She has a full ride there except for housing. Has a GPA of 4.5 and SAT 1490. She had full ride offers from several other schools (FSU, Alabama, UNC).

I don't see how State can offer scholarships for an ACT of just 21. That's barely literate isn't it?

Its actually 23 instead of 24. Here is their full matrix for all to see.

Note that "ACT: writing section not included". Why not? Isn't the ability to write well something that's expected of a college student?

 

[aTotal360]

In summary, MSU academics have the same standard as athletics.

 

[WilCoDawg]

State already does this. Both of my kids are students at State and neither of them are paying OOS tuition.

I’ve heard conflicting stories about this from families here in Nashville.

 

[L4Dawg]

Curious if everyone is using 'full ride' in the same manner.
That means the total cost of attending college is paid for. Tuition, room, board, fees, and usually books.

MSU is offering up full rides to kids who get a 31 or 32 on their ACT and have a a 4.0+ GPA?

Thats wild.

It wasn't all through MSU. There are other scholarships available through the state and other places. Like I said, it might take a little work. Your high school guidance counsellor is supposed to know about this stuff. Ours didn't have the first clue. We picked the brains of a lot of people from different schools who had been down that road before us. I was using the same definition you do.