SDSU again attracts State's top academic students

[Rabbit74]

The Board of Regents announced today where the students who qualified for South Dakota's Opportunity Scholarship are going to college. These are the state's top academic students. Once again SDSU attracted more than twice as many of these as any other institution in the state. In the two years the scholarhship has been in place SDSU has attracted more of the Oppotunities Students than the other five BOR schools combined. Go to the site below and click on the news artilce entitiled "849 Opportunity Scholarships Awarded" for the complete story.


http://www.ris.sdbor.edu/publication...ssReleases.htm

[jackmd]

Re: SDSU again attracts State's top academic stude

Having attended medical school at USD after completing my BS at SDSU I have no doubt that the quality of students at SDSU is equivalent to USD and it is obvious that the numbers are greater at State. This fact and the latest numbers regarding the opportunity scholars should remove the stigma that State attracts only the "average" students. Not that I mind that stigma. The "we think we're better than you" attitude at USD is what prevents them from recognizing their short-comings and doing something to improve.

Oh yeah, some of the underhanded techniques of the admin and bumbling by the (previous) A.D. don't help.

[Alumguy]

Re: SDSU again attracts State's top academic stude

It's unfortunate, but the media has not picked up on this revealing statistic that SDSU attracts so many of South Dakota's brightest students. Even though our little sister in Vermillion spins itself as the elite public university in South Dakota, the fact is SDSU continues to attract twice as many students who have ACT scores of 24 and higher.

In the end, high school students know the best place to go for a quality education. Spin all you want, the final results are glowing evidence of SDSU's storied history of providing great academics in a growing, dynamic university environment.

That fact is hard for our detractors to accept.

[OK_Jackrabbit]

Re: SDSU again attracts State's top academic stude

It's unfortunate, but the media has not picked up on this revealing statistic that SDSU attracts so many of South Dakota's brightest students.

To be fair, the media did mention it, in passing:
From Saturday's Argus Leader
"The South Dakota Board of Regents said 849 incoming freshmen qualified for the state-funded scholarship, which is worth up to $5,000 over four years. More than 40 percent of those students - 354 - are freshmen at South Dakota State University."

The two-year numbers in opportunity scholarships are even more revealing: SDSU: 618
All other S.D. public universities: 596

There is a bigger story here that I think Alumguy is referring to: Enrollment (FTE a better measure than headcount), credit hours taught (total dominance for SDSU), opportunity scholarships, Jackrabbit guarantee, D1 sports, all adding up to one clear "flagship" university... and it's not in Vermillion.

In my opinion, we at SDSU could do a better job of weaving those threads together and telling our story to the media to counter the USD 'flagship' metanarrative.