It could be a problem, once UT has UTSA and UTD as elite AAU schools under the elite UT brand, they can say, we need UT Houston to complete the UT system, if legislature agrees, we are screwed. They can approach the legislature as UT is making Texas the Harvard of the south, and leave out other schools.
It seems if it comes to that, the earlier suggestion of merging with UT would be a better play for them and … distasteful for us…
I don’t care if UTSA becomes AAU or if UTD becomes AAU.
Never in my life would I ever support UT buying the UH system.
If the only way UTSA can thrive as a university is by being on UT-Austin’s hip, then so be it.
UH will make its own legacy.
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I believe the average household income of UH students is around $60K. Maybe $70k now with inflation.
If it comes down to joining the UT system and being promoted to an AAU-tier school or being relegated to a school on the tier of Texas State/UNT – and it very well might – I know which one I’m choosing.
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UT would not buy the UH system, they have the land for UT-Houston.
But building from scratch, even though they could build it exactly in the configuration that would work for them, wouldn’t be as efficient as simply absorbing the UH system.
Even though it happened as I was about to start at UH, I never understood why the takeover by the A&M system didn’t happen.
It seems like you throw every excuse against the wall to see what sticks! Houston sprawls too much…now I’ve heard everything. 
C’mon. Not being AAU does not equate to being TxState or whatever. 
No, it doesn’t. But if there are four public AAU schools in the state and we’re not one of them, that’s going to take a hefty bite out of our research awards, and probably out of our state allocations. There’s not an option to stay “pretty good” at that point.
What other excuse have I thrown out
This.
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Texas Tribune on the law
UT and A&M tightening admissions also helps out-of-state schools poach good Texas students. You should see the merit aid schools like Okie State, LSU, Miss St, Bama, and Arkansas are throwing at Texas kids who don’t auto-qualify in-state. Up to 22k a year at MSU just for having an unweighted 4.0 and a 1400 SAT.
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UH obviously has been a commuter school for decades but many of the current students on campus don’t see it the same way we did. UH Campus now has nine residential communities that can house about 8,000 students with a new residence hall being built, which will increase the total number of students living on campus to 10,000. When the residential hall is complete in 3 years, the Carnegie Foundation will classify UH as a “primarily residential” campus. There are also many students today that live near the campus in apartments that only go to school. They just opened the new RAD center and I checked it out. It’s really nice to dine and hang out. It’s a different campus than what I went to many years ago.
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In 2024, there were about 73,000 UT undergraduate applications for the fall 2024 semester. UT can only accept so many students. UH had about 33k applicants and more than 6,200 new freshmen are enrolled for the fall 2024 semester — a class 10% larger than any previously enrolled freshman class at UH. I think the population has increased everywhere and we do have some students that initially chose UT that are here. I have a friend who’s child didn’t like UT that transferred to UH in engineering.
True. UH has a great out of state or town respect.
So I know we have 8000 dorms or spaces on campus now and the new one to be built near the stadium by 2027 or so. So is that new one 2,000 spaces ? Or are they building 2?
So is 10k on campus the magic number to not be a commuter school?
If all true that’s great
I don’t know the exact details. I just know that the “primarily residential” status will be in a few years. UH might be including apartment students that are technically off campus ground.
One thing is for sure, when I went, I had only a couple friends that lived at the moody towers. It’s changed so much for the better
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