Traditional Universities in Power Conferences

We also have to fight and get rid of social stigmas for both local parents and high school kids to come here.

Parents don’t see sending their kids to UH as an accomplishment to brag to other parents at work, church, on the golf course, book club, etc,

The suburban high school kids these days don’t see UH having the “lifestyle” or “student body” that will give them the experience they want.

I have so many cousins and I only got 4 of them to go to UH and that was only because they gave the most scholarship money.

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BINGO!

Quite the opposite, they are embarrassed that their child HAD TO SETTLE for the University of Houston.

Even proud alums HERE feel that way.

We MUST change that Stigma!

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Yeah, there has to be something that can be done to overcome the weird campus pride gap between UH and LSU, for example. The latter of those two is a school that sucks in a place that sucks, and yet for some reason their alums are obsessed with it.

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LSU has a built in advantage of being the only P5 school in Louisiana and Tulane never really threatened them outside of academics.

Plus LSU has a lifestyle/swag that compliments their cajun/creole culture.

I went to the UH v LSU game in Baton Rouge in 1996.

Their tailgating and game day atmosphere is truly UNmatched.

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I don’t interact at all with anyone with this mindset. With personal experience can you say that has happened? Maybe I’m blinded by my own experience with my friends and my own kids but there’s no embarrassment at all, the kids simply wanted to either get out of Houston, or were accepted at better schools.

Goodness knows I’d have been happier, and wealthier, if my kids went to UH.

Example A:
Tilman Fertitta sending his kids to other schools.

Hang out in places with rich or old money people and you will see.

I mean UH is considered a new money type of university since we are less than 100 years old compared to the flagships.

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I can’t help but wonder if there’s not a way to make substantial inroads in Louisiana and Mississippi with the kids who don’t have good enough grades to go somewhere actually-elite but still want to go to school in a major city? We’d be the best school available to kids in those states who wanted to go to a large public school in a major city and didn’t get into UT-Austin or Georgia Tech. I suspect that the the City of Houston is considered much more desirable there, too.

I think UH tried that with the Hurricane Katrina kids from New Orleans but that was only for a few years.

I did have classes at UH with a number of people from New Orleans who permanently settled in Houston.

Yeah, I don’t think like that at all and have mentioned as much on this board.

For example, I’ve talked about my nephew getting into the UH theater program to complete strangers recently.

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Lol “new money”

Rich kids send their kids to Ivy Leagues. And if it isn’t Ivy Leagues, its a small, private, liberal arts college where they can assimilate with other kids of the same socioeconomic status

The “old money” public universities are schools like Ole Miss where the greek life kids all come from money

If UH put effort into Greek life culture the past 40 years maybe it would be a different outcome but who knows.

I was not in Greek life either since my main focus was academics and being active in my student organizations.

My experience with UH football was volunteering to be the head tailgate organizer for football games.

I agree, but there’s not enough alumni support for a robust greek life, and the most important aspect of greek life, housing, exists in a mediocre apartment complex

Removing fraternity houses out of S. McGregor was one of the biggest mistakes in UH history

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I once took a walk around TCU’s campus and their Greek life was all over the campus and really supportive.

Must have been support from the former Greek members who still donate for the next generation.

Which goes back to UH not having a generational pipeline the past 40 years.

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The houses in south macgregor were private residences leased to fraternities so it was difficult to cultivate a true Greek row because it depended entirely on the individual landlords.

UH could have easily leased land and houses to fraternities on the north side of the bayou and did to us tekes until the property flooded and the new townhomes were built.

It’s a travesty that the easiest method to garner school spirit by promoting the Greek system was squandered.

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Has a lot to do with football mainly bc sec. If lsu was in Cusa they’d be like u La La.

Some don’t agree but Bama for ex isn’t great but they are sec and do well in football.

Tcu applications went up with the big12 invite and so did ours.

Schools like Lsu, us and Bama need strong football where as tulane and rice can be popular with academics alone.

See article on brand name and how athletics does that

Would ND be ND without football at a high level or Ohio st?

LSU has no in-state competition as they are the only P5 school in Louisiana.

Tulane grinded their own way to success and created their own identity.

Rice tried too hard to be like Stanford by hiring their AD and head football coach away from Stanford but that got them no where.

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The rice tried the duke method also - only thing left is the vandy and northwestern method lol

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I don’t think a guy like Fritz would save Rice either.

They should have stuck with Bailiff.
Hopefully they get better in the AAC but they just fail upwards.