I am from the St Louis Mo area and my kid is a freshman at MSU in engineering. Long story that I won't put here but a family member who went to Alabama heard of my kid's interest in Ole Miss and said "If you're going to study engineering and thinking of Mississippi, you have to go look at MSU. It is a great engineering school and the place where the non-snobs of Mississippi go to school" (he's an opinionated guy). We went and looked, met both recruitment folks and some professors as well, and they sold the school to us. It has been a great first year and I know that none of us would change the experience, as parents or certainly the student. The point of this post is to say that there had never been an MSU recruiter at the high school my kids attended, and my kid was the first ever to go to MSU from this high school. This year, an MSU recruiter sought out the high school, set up at the college recruitment night and has gotten at least a couple of visits and one serious student who is just about to "sign on the dotted line" and head to Starkville. MSU has a great story to tell and sell. Just wanted to say they took the opportunity to follow up at a high school where they've never gotten a student or recruited at because one kid took a look and liked what they saw. Shows me they are paying attention to where kids are coming from and where they can get good students into one of the best kept engineering secrets in the country.
OT: MSU Student Recruitment...........
- Thread starter Fletch F. Fletch.sixpack
- Start date
I don't have any experience with the out-of-state recruiters, but the folks they have working central mississippi do a good job. And Whit Waide is a fantastic ambassador for the school as well. I've been to a few functions where Whit held forth. The kids love him.
Good post. Happy to have you guys. I'm sure if you make it down for football or baseball, someone on here would be more be more than willing to extend some hospitality.
That has already happened with State fans at both the Auburn and Tennessee games. Great people, great times. As parents we couldn't be happier with how it has gone.
Glad you like MSU so much. I too wish the University would recruit out-of-state students a lot more heavily. They could really come up with some outstanding kids that way because they can be very selective on who they take. For those in-state, they have to take kids that probably are not even college material.
Is your son in the honors college? They have some great courses there.
Is your son in the honors college? They have some great courses there.
2 National Merit Finalists from Bob Jones are freshmen at State this year.
At least 16 from BJ are freshmen this year.
I think one of the Distinguished Scholarship winners last year was a home schooler from Huntsville.
Jaye Johnson does a good job of recruiting this area.
At least 16 from BJ are freshmen this year.
I think one of the Distinguished Scholarship winners last year was a home schooler from Huntsville.
Jaye Johnson does a good job of recruiting this area.
Speaking as someone close to someone who works in that department, thank you for that story. I'm sure efforts will in increase when it comes to out of state student recruitment.
I will add to this as well. (Kind of long)
I graduated from Pelham High School in Bham metro in 2006. About 1,200 kids in school at the time and now up to around 1,900. I was dead set on doing meteorology and band and needed to find a school. I had a 3.0 GPA and a 27 ACT which could have gotten me into Bama and Auburn, but I really didn't want to go to either school. Knew I didn't want to go to South Alabama because they didn't have a football team and wasn't big on going to Tallahassee even though FSU is a good school for both band and meteorology. MSU was really the only option and since I grew up an Auburn fan and loved the SEC, I thought it would be an easy transition for me. Unfortunately, my high school counselors knew absolutely nothing about MSU. Didn't even know what city it was in. Had a booklet with some old info on MSU, but they told me they had never looked at it.
I ended up having to do all of the research on MSU myself. Came for an honor band, went on a visit with a few friends from my high school, and just had a really great time. So that year me and three other friends in our band ended up enrolling at MSU and loved every minute of it. There were about 7 of us from the Bham metro in my freshman class in band, which was way more than they had ever had. We always came back home and talked about how much we loved it at MSU and it got my former high school band director really interested and a few others in our area really curious. So the MSU band directors and MSU in general really started to recruit the Bham metro hard. Schools had up to date information, new books, and a lot more information than they previously had on MSU.
So in the past 7 years since I graduated from high school, 12 kids after me came to MSU from my high school and more continue to get interested. We had never had anyone from my high school in band at Pelham so in 7 years we put 16 in. The MSU band directors came on multiple recruiting visits to my former high school after that and I even went back to speak a few times with the students. They went all out to brand themselves to people who really hadn't thought about MSU and it's paid off big time. Bham has a lot of MSU alumni, but I think a good portion of them didn't grow up or go to school there. That is starting to change and it's because MSU saw an area for opportunity and really ran with it. They branded well and they've gotten a lot more Bham metro kids in school than ever before.
I graduated from Pelham High School in Bham metro in 2006. About 1,200 kids in school at the time and now up to around 1,900. I was dead set on doing meteorology and band and needed to find a school. I had a 3.0 GPA and a 27 ACT which could have gotten me into Bama and Auburn, but I really didn't want to go to either school. Knew I didn't want to go to South Alabama because they didn't have a football team and wasn't big on going to Tallahassee even though FSU is a good school for both band and meteorology. MSU was really the only option and since I grew up an Auburn fan and loved the SEC, I thought it would be an easy transition for me. Unfortunately, my high school counselors knew absolutely nothing about MSU. Didn't even know what city it was in. Had a booklet with some old info on MSU, but they told me they had never looked at it.
I ended up having to do all of the research on MSU myself. Came for an honor band, went on a visit with a few friends from my high school, and just had a really great time. So that year me and three other friends in our band ended up enrolling at MSU and loved every minute of it. There were about 7 of us from the Bham metro in my freshman class in band, which was way more than they had ever had. We always came back home and talked about how much we loved it at MSU and it got my former high school band director really interested and a few others in our area really curious. So the MSU band directors and MSU in general really started to recruit the Bham metro hard. Schools had up to date information, new books, and a lot more information than they previously had on MSU.
So in the past 7 years since I graduated from high school, 12 kids after me came to MSU from my high school and more continue to get interested. We had never had anyone from my high school in band at Pelham so in 7 years we put 16 in. The MSU band directors came on multiple recruiting visits to my former high school after that and I even went back to speak a few times with the students. They went all out to brand themselves to people who really hadn't thought about MSU and it's paid off big time. Bham has a lot of MSU alumni, but I think a good portion of them didn't grow up or go to school there. That is starting to change and it's because MSU saw an area for opportunity and really ran with it. They branded well and they've gotten a lot more Bham metro kids in school than ever before.
A few years ago, the "official" Hsv recruiter wasn't doing shat. It was all done by Rhonda Stutts. She's had a rough time since then (breast cancer), but she is a wonderful ambassador for our school.
