When Pam Gilcrease of Rowlett, Texas, was considering universities, the University of Oklahoma made her choice convenient.

“When I came up for my first campus tour, it was with the OU Dallas recruitment office,” Gilcrease said. “We took a bus from Plano, so it was really convenient because my parents and I didn’t have to drive.”

Such is the case with many other students from Texas deciding to make the Red River run. The numbers speak for themselves — 3,526 OU on-campus students are from Texas as of fall 2005, whereas just five years before in 2000, there were 1,719, according the OU 2006 Factbook.

During the same five years, Oklahoma on-campus student numbers grew from 16,589 in 2000, to 17,070 in 2005. The difference? Oklahoma student enrollment at OU increased by 2.9 percent, or 481 students, while Texas student enrollment at OU increased by 105 percent, or 1,807 students.

It is no coincidence that these numbers reflect the recruiting done in the state of Texas for OU, said Craig Hayes, director of OU recruitment services. Hayes said there are offices in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as well as Houston, to reach across the border.

“Oklahoma students are still most important to us, but Texas is a close second,” Hayes said. “There’s lots of people with OU ties in those areas.”

OU President David Boren can understand where these students are coming from — literally. His father was born in Texas. President Boren likes to joke about them seeing the light and coming to Oklahoma.

“We’re getting very, very good students from Texas,” Boren said. “Our Texas students seem to love OU a lot.”

Boren credits the surge of Texas Sooners to several factors. One of these is the “Ten Percent Plan,” where Texas state universities must accept Texas high school students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class. That began in 1997.

“I think that has benefited us as well,” Boren said. “Texas and (Texas) A&M; end up taking a student with a 20 ACT score who couldn’t even get into OU. They are being disadvantaged by that. I think it has really benefited us, because the students we get are outstanding.”

Boren said another factor is increased standards for OU. During the 2000 school year, residents and non-residents had the same admission standards, with a 24 ACT score, or a 1090 SAT score, or a 3.0 grade point average and ranking in the top 30 percent of the student’s graduating high school class. More recently in 2005, the standards are split for non-residents and residents. For automatic admission, residents have the same standards as 2000, with a ranking in the top 50 percent of the student’s high school class. Class ranking and GPA standards are similar for non-residents, but automatic admission requires a 26 ACT score or 1170 SAT score for automatic admission, with a 24 ACT or 1190 SAT to be wait-listed.

“Of all the students in the region, the percentage of graduates in the state of Texas has grown exponentially,” Boren said. “Having changed our admissions standards, our academic reputation has soared over this time.”

Hayes said another draw to OU is it is a smaller campus with fewer students enrolled than Texas schools. At OU, total enrollment in 2005 was 31,447 students, according to the 2006 Factbook. The University of Texas has 49,500, Texas A&M; has 46,587, Texas Tech has 28,588, while private college Baylor University has 14,040 students, according to the Big 12 conference Web site.

“Not only are we a great place to go, but OU is considerably smaller than Texas schools,” Hayes said. “I think we have a small-campus feel compared with some schools in the state of Texas. I think OU is a contrast to that.”

Another part of the equation also comes down to money. According to the OU 2006 Factbook, in the 2000-01 school year, non-resident OU tuition and mandatory fees were $6,916 per year for OU undergraduates, comparable to the Big 12 average of $3,241 for residents. However, that gap widened during the 2004-05 year, when non-resident tuition and mandatory fees were $11,658 for OU undergraduates, while the resident average was $5,285 in the Big 12.

Hayes said parents considering sending students out-of-state are sometimes cautious, because they know tuition would be more expensive. However, Hayes said what causes them to consider OU is that rates are comparable to in-state tuition in Texas.

“Basically, Texas students saw that there wasn’t much difference between in-state tuition in Texas, and out-of-state tuition at OU,” Gilcrease said.

Gilcrease said one of the best selling points for students is that Norman isn’t that far away from home.

“The University of Oklahoma is the perfect drive from Dallas,” she said. “I’m close enough to home that I can drive there if there’s an emergency, and it’s far enough away that my parents won’t visit every weekend.”