Re: Future AE membership? -- America East Forum

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4], 5 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 11:05:51 04/29/03 Tue
Author: UNH_Alum_In_CT
Subject: Re: Future AE membership?
In reply to: NU Hoop Fan 's message, "Re: Future AE membership?" on 10:16:38 04/29/03 Tue

>Central's Academic Standards (if you want to call them
>that) don't even belong in the same category at
>Binghamton or Albany. I'm not that familiar with
>Stony Brook, but I know that Binghamton's business
>school is very well regarded even in marketplaces like
>Boston. Albany's programs are equally as respected.
>
>Central's academics are a joke. I'm from CT, and I've
>got to think that I'd put it at a level below
>Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart, and even Hartford.
>
>In this day and age everyone's focusing on academics
>and athletics, and I don't think Central has a good
>combo. Also, I'm not sure how good their commitment
>to women's athletics is. Traditionally it hasn't been
>strong.

I also grew up in CT and way back in the Dark Ages when I went off to UNH, it was much more difficult to get into UNH than CCSU. Yes, the standards for out of state were more stringent, but MANY of my HS classmates were accepted at Central and not by UConn. I believe most, if not all, of the public institutions in the AE are viewed as academic equals to UConn and most have multiple programs that are nationally recognized. (Not slamming the private institutions, just trying to compare public to public.) For example, UNH's Business and Engineering programs are nationally recognized. There is also the AE school's recognition as research universities.

Probably the most important criteria though is the standards for admitting athletes into school. To my knowledge UNH's minimum standards have always been significantly higher than NCAA regulations and I think that is the case at the other public instituitions. Doesn't the AE have a league policy (or unwritten rule) about not admitting non-predictors? I believe most of the AE schools don't admit athletes who only meet the NCAA standards because the odds are against them maintaining academic eligibility.

I hope I'm not all wet on this as it has been a while since I had first hand knowledge of admission standards at UNH. Never the less, I continue to see a stream of business and engineering majors (as well as other impressive majors) on the basketball team and a number of Dean's list students. The past two years have seen kids in grad school while they use their 4th year of eligibility within 5 years. I'm sure that my fellow posters from the other AE schools can tell similar stories.

It was posted a few months ago when all the UMBC rumors surfaced, that UMBC really made a VERY favorable impression on the AE University Presidents and in the process blew away the Quinnipiac proposal. It was all based on academics. So, the academic stuff isn't BS, it is extremely important to the AE members.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> [> [> [> [> [> Re: Future AE membership? -- NU Hoop Fan, 12:29:56 04/29/03 Tue

Hey, I admire your loyalties to Central, but we need to start facing reality in New Britian...

So let me get this straight... Central belongs in the AE because...

- No one outside of New England and the Tri State area knows Binghamton and Albany. Those schools are significantly better than Central. And people confuse Central Connecticut with Yale all the time, I'm sure. Give me a break, Central is a step or two ahead of Southern when it comes to academics. I'm not claiming NU is Harvard, but come on, Central's academics aren't their strength, and in this league, that's what they're looking for.

- You claim Stony Brook is a commuter school, what's Central then?

- Funny, I worked in Fairfield County and in the Greater Hartford Area for an international firm for almost 5 years and neither my firm nor our competitors ever considered Central when it came to a strong business school. Western has the best business school of the "State Universities" in Connecticut, not Central.

- Central's got a good education program, it better be since it used to be called "New Britain Teacher's College."

Central's academic standards aren't up to those of the rest of the league, and as long as that's what the League Presidents are looking for, I think they'll be on the outside looking in.

They key for UMBC is that it was an excellent research institution. I don't see how CCSU (or QU, or SHU) fits in that scheme. I know this is the one area NU is focusing on in its goal to be a Top 100 National Institution because that's where the prestige is.

I agree with UNH, there's going to be a lot of conference movement in the next 3-5 years. Perhaps if NU and BU aren't in the AE, there's room for Central, but I know that the NU President didn't want to associate with Quinnipiac, so why he'd want to associate with CCSU, it's beyond me. I can't see BU going for it either.

[ Post a Reply to This Message ]
[ Edit | View ]