Sick and tired of our delusional academic administration!

#51
#51
My first year was 06, and that was around the time that they really started to pick up the requirements.

I will say that Fort parties and the bar scene circa 04 (when I would visit) through 06 were far better than the scene when I graduated. I'd say that every year it got exponentially worse than the year before.

The height of all of this was 2008 when there were alerts for robberies and violent crime nearly every other night, yet the police were more absorbed with arresting party-goers than effectively patrolling.

Another thing that I noticed was that the student section for both football and basketball became less and less raucous. Many will point to winning,
but the students that made up those sections was way different in 2005-2006 than it was in 2010-2011. Even now when I go to games it seems tame.

I was in the student section for the 2006 Florida and LSU games, and I felt that environment was far wilder than this year's Florida game.

I hope I don't rub people the wrong way, because I don't necessarily agree with threadstarter, just posting my observations from my time there. Which is to say that the wild party environment of Knoxville as a college town has died down a bit.

I can't be that upset though because I feel that I received a great education from UT, and I enjoyed my time on The Hill.

Did you see Gameday at Knoxville earlier this year? When fans think we are good and have a shot at competing, the atmosphere is second to none. Winning brings all the enthusiasm we need. Has nothing to do with smarter students. I was an engineering student a decade ago. Those kids were some of the weirdest and smartest kids around, but they LOVED cheering their heads off for a top 20 football team.
 
#52
#52
Did you see Gameday at Knoxville earlier this year? When fans think we are good and have a shot at competing, the atmosphere is second to none. Winning brings all the enthusiasm we need. Has nothing to do with smarter students. I was an engineering student a decade ago. Those kids were some of the weirdest and smartest kids around, but they LOVED cheering their heads off for a top 20 football team.

Of course they did. Like I said, people enjoy cheering on a winning football program.
 
#53
#53
My first year was 06, and that was around the time that they really started to pick up the requirements.

I will say that Fort parties and the bar scene circa 04 (when I would visit) through 06 were far better than the scene when I graduated. I'd say that every year it got exponentially worse than the year before.

The height of all of this was 2008 when there were alerts for robberies and violent crime nearly every other night, yet the police were more absorbed with arresting party-goers than effectively patrolling.

Another thing that I noticed was that the student section for both football and basketball became less and less raucous. Many will point to winning, but the students that made up those sections was way different in 2005-2006 than it was in 2010-2011. Even now when I go to games it seems tame.

I was in the student section for the 2006 Cal, Florida, and LSU games, and I felt that environment was far wilder than this year's Florida game.

That's not to say that the student section isn't just as wild or fun as any other student section in the SEC or nation for that matter. I remember far more whiskey and insanity than I see now though.

I hope I don't rub people the wrong way, because I don't necessarily agree with threadstarter, just posting my observations from my time there. Which is to say that the wild party environment of Knoxville as a college town has died down a bit.

I can't be that upset though because I feel that I received a great education from UT, and I enjoyed my time on The Hill.

I don't know man. UF this year was intense. Maybe that's because I don't know any difference since 08 was my first year. But if you're winning and the fans/students feel we have a shot to beat a good team at home, it will be crazy. Problem is, in general, we haven't felt like we can win at home vs these teams in years.
 
#54
#54
USC, Michigan, UF, Texas, and Notre Dame are both elite academic and athletic schools. There is no reason why Tennessee can't be both either.

I agree but should that be our mission? Educate the masses of Tennesseans (which really need it based on longtime rankings), top research University, or have the perception of an elite academic institution?
 
#55
#55
And this relates to football how?

Because, if we cannot land a top recruit due to Mr. Cheeks stance on Academics we will never be able to compete. In fact, there are now grumblings that Gruden has about a 5% interest in the UT job because of it. He is concerned about the academics and how this will affect getting top notch recruits into this program. Get use to it, because unless they change the academic stance at the University we are now the new Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Mr. Cheek could care less about football. All he wants is for UT to be academically in the top.
 
#57
#57
Did you see Gameday at Knoxville earlier this year? When fans think we are good and have a shot at competing, the atmosphere is second to none. Winning brings all the enthusiasm we need. Has nothing to do with smarter students. I was an engineering student a decade ago. Those kids were some of the weirdest and smartest kids around, but they LOVED cheering their heads off for a top 20 football team.

It was better but I was not impressed. Nothing like the 90's or early 2000's. I know, I know...were not winning but let's keep it in perspective.
 
#61
#61
I agree but should that be our mission? Educate the masses of Tennesseans (which really need it based on longtime rankings), top research University, or have the perception of an elite academic institution?

There are many many many institutions of higher learning in the state of Tennessee. If the state's flagship university seeks to elevate it's standings in order to keep more of the top in-state academic talent home, it is not at the expense of others. Those willing to work hard have their opportunities to get a good education.

I went to UT. I then did a ridiculous amount of graduate and medical education at the University of Virginia. UVA is one of the top 3 public institutions in the country and is as hard to get into as an undergraduate as many of the elite private institutions. This only helps the state. Plenty of other students go to Old Dominion, JMU, George Mason, Radford, etc. No one in the state would say "If only UVA would lower their standards to help the masses, everyone would be better off for it." (Now their football program is a different story)
 
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#62
#62
My gf went to hillsboro and graduated with Eric Gordon. His act was a 10. He's on the field every week.

I got in with a 26 and 3.5 GPA. My gf got in with a 22 and 3.0. That's more than reasonable to me. The reality is your not going to get in many big name universities with a 17 and 2.9. Word of advice to high schoolers is to do a lot of extra curriculars, community service and right a heck of an essay
 
#63
#63
USC, Michigan, UF, Texas, and Notre Dame are both elite academic and athletic schools. There is no reason why Tennessee can't be both either.

We are in a completely different situation than any of those schools. Those schools, with the exception of Notre Dame, have high school talent beating their doors down to come there. We don't. We don't have an abundance of in state talent. Even during the last several years of CPF's tenure we weren't considered a sexy school.

I'm sorry, 18 year old boys are shallow. Your average 4 and 5 star player tends to be a pampered prima donna who hasn't had to cut it in the classroom. We can choose to be Vanderbilt or we can choose to be Bama. I don't think it's possible for us to be both.
 
#64
#64
He's wrong.

Florida and Georgia are the 2nd and 3rd ranked academic schools in the conference. Bama is about 5th, we are around 8th.

What is your source, or is it just your opinion? And do they apply that to their football recruits?
 
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#65
#65
Fire Jimmy Cheek!

Or recruit non-retarded football players. Our defense right now is playing up to the retarded level for sure. Are we saying we want to lower that level more? My God, we will have students here that can't tie their own sneakers.
 
#67
#67
I wish someone could pull where we've ranked in Playboy's party schools for the past 20-25 years to counter the numbers I just pulled.
 
#68
#68
There are many many many institutions of higher learning in the state of Tennessee. If the state's flagship university seeks to elevate it's standings in order to keep more of the top in-state academic talent home, it is not at the expense of others. Those willing to work hard have their opportunities to get a good education.

I went to UT. I then did a ridiculous amount of graduate and medical education at the University of Virginia. UVA is one of the top 3 public institutions in the country and is as hard to get into as an undergraduate as many of the elite private institutions. This only helps the state. Plenty of other students go to Old Dominion, JMU, George Mason, Radford, etc. No one in the state would say "If only UVA would lower their standards to help the masses, everyone would be better off for it." (Now their football program is a different story)

I realize that and you make some good points. I don't believe UT is or should be UVA. I don't believe that is or should be our mission.
 
#70
#70
School rankings based on US News Criteria.

Why don't you post your own sources to counter that one then?

I'm at work so I don't have much access to academic databases in which I can write a report about it.

Anyone can sit on their butt and scream "SOURCES" all day.
 
#71
#71
Why don't you post your own sources to counter that one then?

I'm at work so I don't have much access to academic databases in which I can write a report about it.

Anyone can sit on their butt and scream "SOURCES" all day.

The point being, not more sources, but each source has its own criteria, which leads to different rankings. And, BTW, I made no assertion about rankings.
 
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#72
#72
I realize that and you make some good points. I don't believe UT is or should be UVA. I don't believe that is or should be our mission.

why should UT not strive to be on the same academic level with a school like UVA?
 
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#73
#73
We are a state, land grant university for crying out loud! Our administration act like they are running a private or Ivy League college. Wake up people, we are not that!

This administration is so self-absorbed that that they aren't satisfied unless they can continue to report each year that the ACT score of each freshman class is higher than the previous year.

It's pathetic really, they are turning in-state kids away from admission because they want to hand pick those applicants with the highest ACT scores. Are you kidding me?

Give me a break, the administration has delusions of being something they are not. Go back to first and foremost admitting those in-state kids without the elite ACT scores. Go back to allowing this university to co-exist in a healthy relationship with the athletic department. Let's be real, the university needs the athletic department to be successful.

Quit trying to be some sort of elite academic institution and focus on being a state university that excels equally on and off the field.

Sorry you didn't get in to UT
 
#74
#74
why should UT not strive to be on the same academic level with a school like UVA?

Depends on what you mean by "academic level". UVA Charlottesville is very selective in admissions. And their history and mission is different than UT. Virginia Tech and UTK more closely align. But, I will tell you, my daughter went to UG school at a private school not too far from Charlottesville, and many of the students at her school would go to UVA to take some of the more difficult courses because they were easier there than at her school.:birgits_giggle:
 
#75
#75
You really need to get your facts straight... our admissions people are denying in-state kids with GPAs in the 3.0-3.5 range with ACT scores between 25 - 30. Why, because they want to hand pick those from out of state that are slightly higher to fit their needs.

That does not mean that the denied student is neglected or incapable of succeeding. The students that do not get accepted, despite 3.4 GPAs and 28 ACT scores, may have nothing else that would indicate that they are good students. Beside they can probably go to another public university in the state (Memphis, MTSU, UTC, UTM, Austin Peay, etc.) even if the flagship does not accept them. And yes, they probably would prefer a 3.7/32 student from NC or VA or even IL rather than a 3.4/28 from TN, especially if the out of state kid had a better extra-curricular profile.

Point is, GPA and ACT scores don't make for a good student, and going to UT is not a state birthright.
 
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