That's how you know they're dumb as shit. Pass up the best public school in the state in TTU to go pay that kind of money at Ole Miss.
I think some of this is can be done with branding the state schools better as a whole. the state has some good schools with real value. I'd take the whole of the two systems over the state of Mississippi, that's for damn sure.
I have unbelievably strong anecdotal evidence that shows these opinions are false or that the best engineering program in the state turns out complete dumbasses.
For undergrad, my kids will attend one of the following: 1. University of Tennessee at Knoxville, or 2. An Ivy League School, or similar (Vandy, Stanford, etc.) 3. A Service Academy. - OR - Their momma’s second husband can tote the note.
Full disclosure, neither the Commander (Marquette, from Meeshigan), 2nd in Command (Alma State ... wtf?, from Missouri) nor the Senior Chief (No College, from Texas) were graduates of the Naval Academy. Bunch of landlubbers in charge. I'm gonna guess that there was a bammer at the helm.