Interesting comments heard this evening

[cbjhack]

I was at a golf outing today to benefit the local school where I grew up - Olentangy Local Schools in Delaware County. Bill Davidge, Color Analyst for the Columbus Blue Jackets served as MC. He was a guest of Chris Perry, who is a resident of the district and a member of the PGA Tour (although he has been injured the last few years). Anyway, I asked Bill his thoughts on the upcoming college hockey season. Even though Bill is a radio guy on NHL hockey, he has a deep background in college hockey having played at Ohio State and coached at Miami.

He commented that with Miami's new facility (which I saw this past Friday and will say is AWESOME), they should be 1 or 2 in the CCHA. Ohio State with the talent they are returning should be anywhere from 2 to 4. As for BG, he didn't go into great detail, in part because of some bad memories playing against BG while at OSU (two major injuries), but when another person in the audience asked his thoughts on what BG needed to do to return to prominance in the CCHA he pointed out three things. One is academics, two is facilities, and three is the size of the school. A recent article in the Dispatch mentioned how OSU has a "smarter" Freshmen class than Miami. In part because OSU has strenghthened its academic requirements with selective admissions. This is a factor in attracting many student athletes, in particular those from Minnesota, Detroit, and Canada. As for facilities, Miami wins that argument hands down. From the players perspective, The Schott is second, followed by BG. The third factor is the size of the school and the town that it is in. Miami and BG win that hands down. They can attract the kid from Canada that grew up in a town of 1500 with the nearest big city two hours away.

That being said, he felt that by increasing academic requirements, improving facilities, along with the small town atmosphere is the key to BG getting stronger. He added that the key to the success that York had was his ability to focus on getting smart kids, and kids to buy into the small town feel.

I hear people criticize the coaches, but I don't hear anyone speak about the other tangibles. What are your thoughts?

[transfer2BGSU]

We have ratcheted up our admissions standards over the past eight-to-ten years. In the seven years I have been at BGSU, there have been more denied blocks added to our admissions grid.

Here's a look at the average GPA and ACT scores -

Fall 2001 - 3.14 / 21.6
Fall 2002 - 3.17 / 21.5
Fall 2003 - 3.17 / 21.6
Fall 2004 - 3.22 / 21.9
Fall 2005 - 3.25 / 21.9
Fall 2006 - 3.23 / 22.0

http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/ir/factbook ... ssions.htm

Yes, OSU has raised there academic profile in that they no longer have automatic admission to the main campus, but tlhey also direct a large number of students to the branches.

Miami University has fallen back some on their admissions requirements. For the Fall '06, they admitted over 2,000 more students on 1,000 fewer applications. Evidently OU was feeling the bite of the change in admissions philosophy at Miami. In Fall '05, Miami went about one-fourth of the way into their wait list before deciding they did not want to compromise their academic integrity.

[MacGuy]

Since BG's ACT scores have remained essentially the same, do you think that the increase in GPA's is just "grade creep"?

[transfer2BGSU]

Since BG's ACT scores have remained essentially the same, do you think that the increase in GPA's is just "grade creep"?

No. We have made a push for more students that qualify for our top academic scholarship. I do not have the numbers with me at home right now, but I would say the increase in the GPA is due to that outreach as those numbers have risen over the past three years or so. The number of students that we have been admitting at the lower end of the admissions grid has been going down in recent years. However, the overall idea of a student having a 2.500 accumulative GPA with a 20 ACT composite/920 (Critical Reasoning/Mathematics) composite has been the same for a number of years (pre-1999).

[Tech83]

Miami University has fallen back some on their admissions requirements. For the Fall '06, they admitted over 2,000 more students on 1,000 fewer applications.

Transfer - Do you think this drop is due to Miami's new tuition break-down where they essentially eliminated in-state tuition and then give in-state students "discounts". Are they scaring off students with the fear that they could have to pay the full out-of-state fee?

[transfer2BGSU]

Are they scaring off students with the fear that they could have to pay the full out-of-state fee?

Most definitely. There is a large segment of students that look at only one thing - $$$. I've seen people on this board say the only reason they came to BGSU was because of the scholarship they were offered, not because of some academic program we offered.