OT - Applications to MSU down over 8%
Presumably a byproduct of the Nassar scandal and all the other messes going on there.
This article has a box showing applications to all Big Ten schools. I didn't realize Michigan received more applications than any other school in the conference - and that number jumped almost 10% in the past year. 65,684 high school seniors hope to become Wolverines this year.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:22 PM ^
I like ripping on MSU as much as the next guy but this seems like a bit of a non story.
December 4th, 2018 at 9:57 PM ^
This is very much a story. Applications for most colleges increase annually just due to increase in population size. MSU's applications being down 8% is a lot
December 4th, 2018 at 10:52 PM ^
True but in the future I expect that to decrease as the cost of tuition continues to rise each year coupled with the institutions not doing much to improve their product.
Also the value of a college degree isn't as important as students are made to believe in high school. Obviously there are many professions that require it but there are many more that don't. On top of that I know many people who went to college for one thing, got their degree in said subject, but now work in a field that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with what they studied.
December 5th, 2018 at 1:38 AM ^
I really wish that whoever negged me would explain why they did so. This is a topic that I've been thinking about a lot lately and I've come to this conclusion. If I'm wrong I'd like to know what I'm missing. Help me to understand your point of view.
December 5th, 2018 at 8:42 AM ^
I didn't...would if I could. You clearly do not understand the marketplace nor the value of a good education. As we/I was instructed, soon after entering college by one of our profs, "Our most important task as instructors is to teach you how to think"...that was almost 50 years ago...and is most apropos today. Sure, there are young people without a college education who have good jobs...but they are significant outliers...most are flipping burgers for minimum wage and no benefits.
December 6th, 2018 at 9:25 AM ^
See I disagree with the statement "most are flipping burgers for minimum wage and no benefits". That simply isn't true. I work in a car dealership where more than three quarters of the people I work with didn't go to college and they make anywhere from 40k/yr to 120k/yr (most of them at the middle and upper end of that spectrum) and this isn't the first place I've worked where that is the case. My cousin works as a manager in an Outback Steakhouse and makes over 100k/yr. She went to college but admits her degree was not necessary for her job, also that she didn't have to go at all to be where she is today. Also, none of her assistant managers went to college.
There are plenty of jobs out there that do not require a higher education. Good-paying jobs. Jobs with benefits. "Flipping burgers" is not the only thing someone without a college education can aspire to.
You don't need a college degree to be financially successful, you just need to be cognitively capable, possess a good work ethic, and have a decent head on your shoulders.
December 4th, 2018 at 11:19 PM ^
Plus, they are accepting a higher percentage of kids they wouldn’t normally accept. That has and will impact the directional schools and smaller colleges around the state. I work at one and it hit us hard last year.
December 5th, 2018 at 7:48 AM ^
Not only the directional schools, but matriculation at Lansing Community College will also be down significantly, as MSU dips into the shallow end of the gene pool. Hard to believe MSU has fewer applicants than any B1G school other than Nebraska. I expect to see John Engler cut-outs filling the seats in MSU class rooms.
If you can't get into college, go to State. (Clap, clap)
If you can't get into college, go to State (Clap, clap)
I you can't get into college and you know you REALLY SUCK,
If you can't get into college go to State.
(Yes, I've been to Yost a time or two.)
December 4th, 2018 at 8:23 PM ^
Funny bit of spin from the article:
MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant attributed the application declines to demographic shifts in Michigan and the Midwest: a lower number of high school graduating seniors, low birth rates and migration during the last recession, as well as a decline in applications by international students due to changes in federal visa and immigration processes.
Over the same time period, other Big Ten schools on average saw a 4.7 percent increase in applicants, with rival Michigan seeing 9.7 percent more applications.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:28 PM ^
3 rules of staee administration:
- Deny,
- Obfuscate, and when all else fails
- LIE!!!
December 4th, 2018 at 11:13 PM ^
Also the 3 rules of Urban Leyer.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:32 PM ^
Are they afraid to admit it's because of Nassar for liability purposes, or are they just being obtuse for no reason?
December 4th, 2018 at 8:36 PM ^
That's both hilarious and utterly predictable. MSU also saw it coming. That's why they accepted so many students in the current freshman class.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:52 PM ^
Great time to accept mediocrity at MSU
December 4th, 2018 at 8:58 PM ^
Yeah, it actually was. They got some decent PR from the size of the class in the midst of scandals. Makes it easier for them to deal with a disappointing class following it.
If only their administration was as good as mediocre, they wouldn't have to make these decisions.
December 4th, 2018 at 9:06 PM ^
As much as I hate MSU athletics, I feel for those poor schmucks who choose to attend academically, will pay historically high tuition fees and earn a degree whose value is severely depreciated because so many other mediocre classmates will have the same junk piece of paper. Employers will get a bargain in 4+ years.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:24 PM ^
Would your business have many applicants if you had a sign on the door that said “we encourage sexual assaults of women and children”? I think not.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:24 PM ^
As every school gets on the common app and applying anywhere becomes easier and easier, is it strange that any school would see a decrease in applications?
That's just my assumption, not really coming from a place of any knowledge, but I just figured that between technology and population growth, a university has to be really screwing the pooch to see applications go down.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:26 PM ^
"a university has to be really screwing the pooch to see applications go down."
I think it was a basset hound.
December 4th, 2018 at 9:04 PM ^
MSU was not on the Common App for the class entering Fall 2018. The current application period for class entering 2019 is the first year for MSU on the Common App. They have been on the Coalition App, however.
December 4th, 2018 at 9:20 PM ^
Interesting!
December 4th, 2018 at 8:24 PM ^
Michigan is just the best school in the BIG...
December 5th, 2018 at 5:43 AM ^
I'm as blue as they come (literally, smurf for Halloween), but academically Northwestern is a very fine institution.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:31 PM ^
The real issue for MSU is that applications are down AND they are taking more students IOT get more revenue for, reasons..
Obvious what happens in that scenario.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:33 PM ^
Great to make it official that the giant freshman class MSU has been touting was just admissions letting everyone in.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:34 PM ^
The university admitted a larger percentage of the students who applied to reach the record number, however; for the fall of 2018, the admission percentage was 77.7 percent, up from 65.7 percent in 2016, and is MSU's highest accepted-student percentage in a decade.
That is a big, big change. They basically decided not to be a selective institution this year.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:38 PM ^
Lol was the previous 2/3 admission rate "selective"?
December 4th, 2018 at 8:49 PM ^
Touché.
I guess OSU isn't all that tough to get into either, considering that it has more students than U-M while receiving 13,000 fewer applications, if the numbers in the article are correct.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:54 PM ^
In fairness, I think that our "admission" rate is about 50%, but that our enrollment rate is under 20% (at least, these are the numbers I remember from when I was a student), and we have to have this inflated admission rate because we're a plan b for a lot of ivy league/Stanford-type applicants. So, admission rate doesn't necessarily tell the whole story.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:58 PM ^
Our admission rate has plummeted since we switched to the Common Application - it's like 30% now.
December 4th, 2018 at 9:26 PM ^
oh wow
December 5th, 2018 at 12:18 AM ^
Interesting to look at the map. One student admitted from Wyoming.
December 5th, 2018 at 8:35 AM ^
And apparently zero from Indiana?
December 5th, 2018 at 12:33 AM ^
Bartender! Make it a double!
December 5th, 2018 at 2:25 PM ^
Always heard OSU was a place that tries to weed out its huge number of freshmen, send them to Miami-Lima if they can't hack it.
December 4th, 2018 at 11:09 PM ^
Still a huge drop in selectivity, though. Over 3/4 is fucking ludicrous for a school of MSU's size. That's higher than Eastern and Central, and only slightly lower than Western.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:45 PM ^
msu entrance exam:
congratulations, you're a spartan!!
December 4th, 2018 at 8:51 PM ^
But not a vampire.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:48 PM ^
Holy shit, that's awful. I knew MSU was a mediocre regional school (in a pretty, but still population depleted flyover state), but that's crazy.
on edit: People are touchy about their flyover status. It's so funny. Just embrace it.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:54 PM ^
Population depleted? Michigan will probably have 10 million residents at the 2020 census, for the first time.
December 4th, 2018 at 9:16 PM ^
Surely, you can't be talking about absolute numbers rather than the change in percentages of the nationwide population - that's MSU level math.
Michigan census 1970 to 2010
8,875,083
9,262,078
9,295,297
9,938,444
9,883,640
Virginia
4,648,494
5,346,818
6,187,358
7,078,515
8,001,024
Population growth is definitely booming in Michigan!
December 4th, 2018 at 9:56 PM ^
Virginia's population growth is due solely to the expansion of the federal government.
December 4th, 2018 at 10:40 PM ^
Only an idiot thinks more people = better quality of life.
December 4th, 2018 at 10:50 PM ^
I dunno, it holds true for orgies.
December 5th, 2018 at 7:29 AM ^
I know lol I'm wondering whether this guy is a NYC Michigan alum or a California alum.
"Everything is better in NYC/CA because of all the people we have, Michigan, you silly rubes. I paid $560,000 for this straw hut I share with a heroin-addicted barista, but it's better here."
December 5th, 2018 at 6:37 AM ^
Michigan is growing at a slow pace, yes, but it is not "population depleted." Puerto Rico would be an actual example of that.
December 4th, 2018 at 8:55 PM ^
Population-depleted flyover state?? Fuck you.
December 4th, 2018 at 9:09 PM ^
Sorry, if the truth hurts. I loved my time in Michigan, but the only reason I ever considered moving there was for UM. That's true for a lot of students. The state realizes it, which is why they try so hard to get people to stay.
The football talent didn't just magically dry up in Michigan. People moved out and took their football playing kids with them.
December 4th, 2018 at 9:13 PM ^
You're about 10 years out of date if you think Michigan's population is dropping. And the state has never really been a hotbed of football talent.