Last year, The University of Texas saw a 48% increase in OOS applications. Im not sure how many are from the Northeast, but I highly doubt “not as much interest as before”.
I live in a deep blue state and the HS counselors told me that UT interest was “off the charts”. No offense, but I think you’re wrong.
I am neither right nor wrong. I posted about my OWN community in my OWN region, where all of a sudden, interest in Canadian universities beyond McGill and Toronto has exploded- and interest in going South has waned.
I was making an observation. You can think I’m wrong- which is your prerogative. But a bit foolhardy since you don’t know the application patterns in my neck of the woods, and you don’t know the local patterns, etc. The guidance counselors in my area have had to get smart pretty quickly about the in’s and out’s of the Canadian system. Which is a good thing IMHO- especially for the very “academic” type kids who didn’t do the Class President/Cure Cancer type EC’s during HS.
Common app inclusion ?
Fair. But your ultra urban Northeast may be an outlier compared to the overall trend.
Im guessing Arch Manning effect.
I never said it wasn’t. And since CC is not a debating society, you can continue to argue the point. But maybe get the data on where the explosion of applications is coming from?
Actually I do. 
That’s my day job.
People lie. Data doesn’t.
That said, point taken.
Im not “arguing” anything. Im making my own observation.
Every state has red and blue areas, and the political polarization at this point is only becoming more extreme. Regardless of the state students live in, I would not be surprised if students in non-urban (more red) areas or with more right leaning views would be more interested in southern schools, while students in urban (more blue) areas or with more left leaning views might be more interested in Canada.
We are in a very blue area of a blue state. My D applied to one school in the south… GA Tech… because they have great programs in her various areas of interest. She is also applying to 5 Canadian schools. Most of the kids she knows have 0 schools in the south on their list, and are applying to blue states, Canada, and some applying overseas.
I would say going outside of your local area for education yes and no. We have few local students go South (not that many), and some very North (Canada). On the other hand, more and more stay instate because of cost of education. Our family was exception, 2 out of 3 kids went South (parents are originally from South), but both plan to come back North after graduation. We are not moving South, no way.
My Rhodes kid met a kid from rural VA who is extremely uncomfortable at Rhodes and Memphis due to obvious reasons. So not all South is attractive to everyone.
True or False?
Students from New York and New Jersey are flocking south for college in search of warmer weather, cheaper tuition and a more relaxed atmosphere at a time many campuses have become political battlegrounds.
Schools like Clemson University in South Carolina and Louisiana State University, for instance, saw a record number of students apply last year, with more than twice as many students enrolling from New York and New Jersey than 10 years ago.
For applicants – many of whom had their high school years disrupted by the pandemic – social media images around college football, parties and ‘Bama rush, are top of mind. As a result, more students are looking to let loose and move past cultural stereotypes that have kept previous generations of Northerners closer to home.
True or False?
The rising popularity of Southern colleges is not just a passing trend; it’s a sign of a significant shift in the broader higher education landscape. From the strategic expansion of Vanderbilt University into New York City to the booming tech industries in cities like Austin and Atlanta, Southern universities are emerging as competitive alternatives to the traditional Ivy League schools. As more students flock to these campuses for both academic excellence and the promise of post-graduation success, it’s clear that the South is becoming an increasingly influential player in the world of higher education.
This is funny, because it’s true that these media images are what kids from farther away associate with these schools… but it is difficult to overstate how incredibly unappealing this stuff is to my D and the other kids she knows! The Bloomberg article must be talking about a very different sort of kid 
It took D months to overcome her revulsion over how southern schools are presented in the media, and decide to apply to the 1 southern school on her list…
As a general trend, are southern schools gaining more popularity? Nothing will ever be for everyone.
I’m guessing that southern schools may be gaining popularity with some groups of kids, and blue-state / Canada / overseas schools may be gaining popularity with some other groups of kids.
I’m disturbed by this increasing polarization and that’s one reason I encouraged my kid to consider going to school in Atlanta.
We are in a small suburb in the Northeast and there is a recent trend of more students heading south from our small public HS. The more competitive students are targeting places like UNC, Vandy, UVA, Ga. Tech, V. Tech, etc. The less competitive students seem to be headed to larger Southern public schools who are rolling out the red carpet for them. I don’t think this is a reaction to recent campus protests. It’s more due to kids following what their friends are doing and considering soft factors like weather, lifestyle, etc. for their college experience. The Instagram culture is probably a contributor as well. We have seen some kids transfer after first year once they realized that the actual experience/environment was different than what they had imagined.
Which is why we look at data, not anecdotes. The full story will be known 10 years from now, but certainly the data is pointing towards migration to southern schools, for a variety of reasons. Several of them are likely to be as stated in the Bloomberg article.
I have no particular ax to grind here. I have one kid in an Ivy and another applying to state flagships, mostly in the south. But my read is the the “elite” schools have shot themselves in the foot of late, and will never fully recover their luster. Like any good business: southern schools smelled opportunity and swooped to take advantage of it.
Anecdotal: in our NJ district (in a reddish area of a blue state), I have seen a change from 2020-2024 (the years my D’s graduated). In 2020 many went south, including some really good students–salutatorian went to UF–and almost no one went north or midwest (my D was the ONLY one in her class of 250 to go to Boston). In 2024, many still went south, but none of the great students, and many went north and midwest.
Overall, south still seems to remain popular, but not for all.
True or False?
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/16/college-south-sec-northeast-students
A bar chart that illustrates the change in enrollment from Northeast students at SEC schools from 2014 to 2023. LSU leads with a 486% increase, followed by Tennessee at 378.7%. Notably, Missouri shows a significant decline of 62.9%, while Vanderbilt’s change is nearly flat at -0.3%.
LSU
+486.0%
Tennessee
+378.7
Ole Miss
+230.1
Florida
+106.3
Georgia
+106.1
Texas
+102.5
Auburn
+94.0
South Carolina
+89.8
Kentucky
+63.9
Texas A&M+59.6
Mississippi State
+38.5
Alabama
+31.2
Vanderbilt-0.3
Arkansas
-6.7
Oklahoma
-16.9
Missouri
