<p><a href=“Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze is very proud of team’s 2.57 GPA | For The Win”>http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/12/hugh-freeze-ole-miss</a></p>
<p>This was from a tweet by the coach of the team.</p>
<p>Always knew Ole Miss was a terrible school</p>
<p>@lbad96, judging an entire school by how well its football does academically is pretty silly. Ole Miss has a number of excellent programs, including those in creative writing, Mandarin Chinese, and accountancy. Heck, it even made it into the Fiske Guide.</p>
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<p>@LucieTheLakie probably as the last school in the rankings. And if by excellent, you mean excellent in comparison to the University of Wyoming or University of Phoenix, then I’d definitely agree that they’re excellent.</p>
<p>We have a friend being recruited by Ole Miss for football and this is exactly why I don’t want him to go there – I don’t think he will graduate with a functional degree/career. </p>
<p>You have no idea what you’re talking about, @lbad96. Fiske doesn’t “rank.” It profiles 300 or so schools it judges to be among the “best and most interesting” colleges and universities (and does’t include the University of Wyoming). Of course, Ole Miss isn’t Harvard or Wharton, but it’s not some horrible, unaccredited school either. </p>
<p>You do realize Ole Miss is the alma mater of William Faulkner and John Grisham? Such losers!</p>
<p>And what exactly do you think the average GPA of Cal’s football team is? </p>
<p>@Ramon712, what are the student’s academic stats? His success in ANY college will have a lot to do with how well he was prepared academically BEFORE he arrives to campus. </p>
<p>I want to be clear on my post about the football player – I think Ole Miss is a terrific school, I just wonder if the football players are really encouraged to be students as well. The UNC scandal comes to mind – pick from three majors? That isn’t what I want for this kid – and it will be a true disservice to him and his family.</p>
<p>We have lots of friends who play high level Div 1 sports – and have several friends who are Div 1 coaches (both helmet and non-helmet sports) so I realize that there are lots of places that truly are for student-athletes – just not sure Ole Miss is one of them – and this tweet doesn’t make me feel any better.</p>
<p>There are two things worth mentioning here.</p>
<p>First off, while Ole Miss doesn’t have the sort of US News ranking that tends to impress CC types, it is a national university and has a reputational peer group that includes several schools I tend to see touted by our East Coast-biased posters here as “hidden gems.” </p>
<p><a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/page+14”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/page+14</a></p>
<p>Second, it’s usually prudent to assume that no matter how small, obscure, or bad you think a college might be, some parent who posts is sending their child there. Temper your comments accordingly. </p>
<p>@LucieTheLakie okay, apologies about the Fiske Guide. But Faulkner and Grisham are the only two alumni who are/were actually capable of making a decent impact on the world in any aspect. Ole Miss is only useful for football; many students are very close-minded and ignorant, stuck up, shallow, and racist IMO. </p>
<p>I can guarantee you that Cal’s football team’s GPA is much higher than that of Ole Miss’s.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.dailycal.org/2013/10/28/despite-improvement-mind-cal-football-teams-graduation-rates-fall-national-lows/”>http://www.dailycal.org/2013/10/28/despite-improvement-mind-cal-football-teams-graduation-rates-fall-national-lows/</a></p>
<p>Ibad96, you aren’t going to get far in life with being such an incredible snob. I see you have schools on your list like Stetson, and there is no way that anyone in the South would rank Stetson over Ole Miss. No one in the West has ever heard of Stetson, and will think you were crazy for going to a school named after a hat.</p>
<p>Most students will get out of a school exactly what they put into it. I happen to know a lot of people who majored in French at colleges around the US, some of those schools highly ranked, others not on any list. They all speak French. One even went to the U of Wyoming! One started at U of Chicago in the honors program but hated the school, so switched to Metro State and even has a masters from the U of Phoenix (paid for by her employer, where she makes $$$ working in business). All those French majors are very successful in OTHER fields, except for the one who went to the school you would approve as being ‘ranked’, Wesleyan; she’s a secretary.</p>
<p>You won’t get far in business by insulting people and putting down schools you know nothing about. </p>
<p>How old are you, @lbad96? Word to the wise: Don’t “guarantee” anything unless you have the data to back it up. And don’t slam flagship universities you clearly know nothing about. If you genuinely believe that two famous authors whose names I just pulled off the top of my head are the ONLY two successful individuals Ole Miss has ever graduated, your own critical thinking skills leave quite a bit to be desired. </p>
<p>BTW, I am not an Ole Miss parent. I just hate when people make ignorant, ill-informed generalizations about schools they clearly know nothing about.</p>
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<p><em>Much</em> higher? Probably not. I think it’s probably rare to have a div. 1 football team with a team gpa over 3.0/4.0.</p>
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<p>Maybe the team GPA is low because they aren’t steering the football players into made-up majors with exams with exams that ask you, “How many points do you get for a 3-pt. shot?” (That question was on a U. of Georgia exam.)</p>
<p>Interesting timing on your post, ucb. I’m reading the book, The Blind Side, right now. The whole world of college football is utterly fascinating. </p>
<p>I say kuddos to the team. I don’t think 2.57 is too bad. That’s more Bs than Cs.</p>
<p>@Ibad96
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<p>Really?! Where do you go to school? As an African American female, I am offended by your remarks. Do not make loose unsubstantiated allegations of racism. It is not something to take lightly. You need to have a seat. </p>
<p>@collegealum314 Actually that is a really good point - perhaps the question isn’t the team GPA but instead are they “real” classes across a variety of majors. If they are – the GPA isn’t worrisome.</p>
<p>@twoinanddone it’s rather ill-informed of YOU to think that Stetson was named after a hat; in fact, they were named a major benefactor, John B. Stetson, who just happened to manufacture hats. And at least Stetson doesn’t have a nickname and history that is absolutely engulfed in racism.</p>
<p>@LucieTheLakie okay, my bad. I forgot James Meredith, Jim Barksdale, Dixie Carter, Weston Fulton, Pedro Rodriguez, Archie + Eli Manning, Patrick Willis, and Michael Oher. </p>
<p>For @Tperry1982: <a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/21/us/mississippi-meredith-statue/”>Ole Miss racial incidents have many feeling uneasy - CNN;
<p>Also for @Tperry1982: <a href=“Five-star recruit tweets on racism, monthly KKK marches at Ole Miss - NBC Sports College Football”>http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/24/five-star-recruit-tweets-on-racism-monthly-kkk-marches-at-ole-miss/</a></p>
<p>“Judging an entire school by how well its football does academically is pretty silly. Ole Miss has a number of excellent programs, including those in creative writing, Mandarin Chinese, and accountancy. Heck, it even made it into the Fiske Guide.”</p>
<p>I agree it is inappropriate to judge anyone graduating from a given school by how well the football team does academically; all the same, if a school is perceived as lowering its standards excessively for football players, that does leave a bad taste in the mouth for some people.</p>
<p>And yeah, cue the inevitable “but the Ivy League admits …” … because it’s completely irrelevant. The Ivy League is still admitting students who can do the work; they aren’t graduating the barely-literates, and the depth to which they “drop down” is in no way comparable to the depth to which other schools “drop down” to ensure a good football team. </p>
<p>This is not directed at Ole Miss specifically, just a general comment. If Ole Miss feels the need to “brag” about a 2.57, that doesn’t say much about what their expectations were. </p>
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<p>You can look at the Ole Miss football roster at <a href=“http://www.olemisssports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/ole-m-footbl-mtt.html”>University of Mississippi - Ole Miss Athletics; . For each player, his major is usually listed under “personal” (obviously most relevant for juniors and seniors (and the graduate student), since many frosh and soph level students are undeclared). It may also list whether he was on the honor roll (UMAA >=3.00 GPA, Dean’s >= 3.50 GPA, Chancellor’s >= 3.75 GPA).</p>
<p>Other schools’ sports teams may have similar rosters.</p>