There is a certain social cache of leaving the city and going out on your own. I believe there is also parent and student peer pressure to be accepted, primarily to UT and A&M, as the name brand universities in Texas that check all the boxes: huge student populations and alumni bases, vast alumni network, successful athletic programs in power conferences, excellent academic reputations and alumni proud to call themselves alumni, or in the case of A&M, former students, of those universities.
1 Like
Had a lot of friends in high school who would not consider UH because they would have to live at home, my wife was looking at OU and Tech (she did not get into UT or ATM, she went to a really strong school) until her parents told her she could live on campus. There are a plethora of reason to attend different universities. Lets face it though UH has a lot of things going for it but its biggest downfall from a senior in high schools point of view is the ācollege experienceā is not one of them. My dad went to UH because he could work and cash flow it, I went to UH because I liked the Arch college, it was a straight 5 instead of a 4+2, my parents demanded that I stay on campus, and got a lot of Alumni Scholarship money. My kids can go to any university they want to, I will hope the vast quantity of UH gear they wear and games they attend will help but I also hope they look objectively at their options.
2 Likes
I think it depends on the environment and social economic situation we grew up in as a teen.
My high school was a minority heavy school and most of my peers were on the low income level like I was.
UH was seen as a top destination like UT and A&M but none of us went out of state, even the smart kids stayed local to Rice.
I only saw football coaches and scouts from UH, Rice, A&M, UT, TCU, Tech, Baylor, OU, and Oklahoma State come by to recruit some of my fellow team members and many of them left brochures for us to look at to consider going to the football camps but the only ones we kept were the schools from Texas.
Many will go away to college spend their parents money or go into debt for āthe college experienceā only to return and live with their parents because now they have school loans and canāt make it on their own.
I know Iām an old cremudgen.
6 Likes
Wow, your standards must be high. We won or tied for the SWC championship and went to the Cotton bowl in the 1976, 78, 79, and 84 seasons while finishing #4, #5, and #10 the 1976, 78, and 79 seasons.
We only had one losing season in those years - 1983.
1 Like
At this point, UH needs to close the generational and legacy gap between us and A&M/UT.
The next 20 years are crucial to increasing our core fanbase as we are in a P5 conference with the opportunity to keep future students, recruits, and fan support at home.
Iām not here to dictate where our kids go to college but we have to be aware of the effects of our future fanbase by allowing them to go to other schools.
2 Likes
Amazing how many students go elsewhere, come to UH and actually get their degree, and call themselves alumni of the other school. I really despise that.
13 Likes
Aggies are always known to do that lol
1 Like
In that case it all depends on UH academics. The demand to get into UT is due to academics and a legacy doesnāt have a leg up to get admitted.
Yesā¦but what about high school kids not from Houston?
They could still leave their city to branch out on their own.
After all, UT-Austin is in the heart of a big city so its not a city thingā¦its a school experience issue
Typically, high school kids from the Austin area who donāt get into UT initially go to UTSA for a few years and then transfer to UT.
What?
Which goes back to the PUF Fund argument.
What about the other cities in the state or across the US.
Are we even putting ourselves on their radar?
Texas kids go to out of state schools all the time.
Are marketing UH as an option, as a destination school.
This is another reason why Dinosaur politicians like Whitmire need to evolve or go away.
Perhaps he means the student experience at games.
It is part of being an Aggie. Alumni is not in their vocabulary. You are a āformer studentā. Ever wonder why A&M does not have a āTexas A&M Alumni Associationā? It is because they have an āAssociation of Former Studentsā. You see the bumper stickers. No, I am not making this up.
3 Likes
Did you have family that went there or somethingā¦?
My brother is Aggie. He took me to the LSU game last year.
I aināt going to lieā¦ it was loud and it was impressive. I canāt remember who won but what really surprised me was the mass of people indoctrinated into that Aggie culture.
I mean, you always have die hards at any school but they got A LOT of die hards.
2 Likes
i thought it was widely known but apparently not. But to answer your question, yes.
We donāt need to beat out UT and ATM we need to keep improving. I went to UH 20 years ago when no more then a couple hundred students attended the football games and beside a few off campus apartments the campus housing was dumps, the school shut down on the weekends, my fraternity had to work to maintain the minimum chapter size allowed by nationals. I became a diehard cougar but it is easy to see why me and you are outliers. With Renu and Tilman at the helm every year we improve in all those areas. There are now multiple privately owned off campus complexes as well as several bars and restaurants (R.I.P. China Star). If there are alumni out there that donāt want their kids to come here because of their experience screw them they probably would not get in anyways. We donāt need to be ATM or UT we need to be UH.
6 Likes