Anonymous wrote:My child is seriously considering Kansas (KU). We loved it when we visited.

Kansas State University has a quite of few professors who attended Yale, Harvard, MITT, and University of Michigan.

Sorry I am afraid to send my daughters to schools in locations with heavy gun culture and lack of women's health care.

Anonymous wrote:There is only so far an inclusive town can go when you are in a hostile state

How many of these states have you been to?

NYU is offering internships in Tulsa this coming summer. Tulsa has a growing group of Eastern educated folks due to Tulsa Remote.

Anonymous wrote:We have lived up and down that part of the country.

People are sooo nice in those states. Texas in particular is amazing, culturally, food, entertainment, etc.

I personally am not a big fan of Oklahoma or Kansas, simply because I don't like the geography. But the people are great. My preference geographically would be Texas, Missouri (particularly the St Louis side down I-44 to Springfield), or Arkansas. The Ozark foothills are lovely.

People-wise though, you cannot beat those in the middle of the country

Look at University of Missouri- Columbia, University of Missouri-Rolla (engineering or geology type stuff) or Southwest Missouri State for some good Missouri state university options. K State and KU are both good schools too.

Congratulations on being openminded. Not “openminded” in the Oberlin sense, where you are open to every idea that is identical to yours, but truly open to exploring things for yourself & not blindly following the herd.

There is only so far an inclusive town can go when you are in a hostile state

For the public universities you are already seeing students applying to southern public universities in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee but as those get more competitive and increase effort to attract their in-state students , becoming more competitive OOS and offering less merit to OOS, the students from this area have to expand where they look for schools. The question is will the SEC/big football type student now expand to look at Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana etc.

I’ve also seen an increase in mid-west schools being recommended and public universities in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio are making the list of kids in this area pretty regularly. Partially for us, having it within a 8-10 hour drive is part of the allure. Not sure if the student attracted to these schools would expand to Kansas and Nebraska. As for the political climate and racial diversity etc., we are aware of the rural vs city divide even in the most progressive of states. Wherever they end up, they have to feel that they would be included and safe in the chosen college community which I imagine is universal desire among all parents .

My child is seriously considering Kansas (KU). We loved it when we visited.

We have lived up and down that part of the country.

People are sooo nice in those states. Texas in particular is amazing, culturally, food, entertainment, etc.

I personally am not a big fan of Oklahoma or Kansas, simply because I don't like the geography. But the people are great. My preference geographically would be Texas, Missouri (particularly the St Louis side down I-44 to Springfield), or Arkansas. The Ozark foothills are lovely.

People-wise though, you cannot beat those in the middle of the country

Look at University of Missouri- Columbia, University of Missouri-Rolla (engineering or geology type stuff) or Southwest Missouri State for some good Missouri state university options. K State and KU are both good schools too.

Anonymous wrote:I am familiar with most of those schools & think they are among the most underrated colleges in the country. But many people in the East think Michigan & Ohio residents are backwoods hicks, much less those from Kansas & Oklahoma. Some of the same people who bristle at disparaging comments about some foreign countries have no problem calling the plains states $h!+holes.

We'd feel differently if they weren't. Climate change, terrible social policies, decidedly unhealthy and uneducated populations - no thanks.

Fwiw, I did briefly investigate Wichita state university. It has scholarships for kids from surrounding states.

If I had to live in TX, I’d be begging to escape, but not to any of the states you mention.

I’m here currently only because I am forced to be for the annual holiday visit. Cannot wait to return home to where my girls and I have rights.

My son (current high school senior) was accepted to Oklahoma and has been offered a generous scholarship. He will hear from his first choice school in mid January, but if he does not get in there we plan to visit Oklahoma. He's also been accepted at a few other schools.

I am familiar with most of those schools & think they are among the most underrated colleges in the country. But many people in the East think Michigan & Ohio residents are backwoods hicks, much less those from Kansas & Oklahoma. Some of the same people who bristle at disparaging comments about some foreign countries have no problem calling the plains states $h!+holes.

As an individual who ended up in the Plain States for business a few years ago, and I now a southern plain state for the time being. Texas is the only state will have more young people than older people by 2030, and along with it a growing number of college students. Texas high school graduates, in the top 10% of their class receive automatic admission to the state's flagship colleges. If you in the 11th percent of your high school's graduating class, you have a fight to be admitted. Sure, Texas colleges can be large, but many students in the top 20% are leaving the state for Oklahoma State University, University of Arkansas, University of Oklahoma, University of Mississippi, and others in the south. In addition, will this have an effect on South Dakota State University, North Dakota State University, Kansas University, University of Nebraska (big volleyball state), Kansas State University, and any other plain state college? As Texas attracts more families, what other colleges in the south and plain states will grow? And, will families from the east join in? Sure they might not send their kids to Oklahoma, but Kansas is a good purple state with some liberal policies.