What were the unexpected "hot" schools in your area this year?

Where I live (Central MA, town with many tradespeople, mixed-income, high school is middle of the pack when it comes to ratings), Stonehill has come out of nowhere. I remember only 1 kid every few years attending until last year, and now, quite a few top quartile kids are attending.

For kids out of the top quartile, Coastal Carolina was the hot “new” school last year, with a couple of kids attending this year. There are a slew of kids attending UNH. More than in the past. And fewer are attending UVM. Kids in the past have tended to stay close to home but this year they seem to be going all over the place.

Where I work (also Central MA, very high income, very competitive high school) I’m surprised by the number of kids going to school abroad (UK and Canada). A lot of kids going to BC and Northeastern, but that’s to be expected.

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Northeastern was uber popular at the school DS attended in PA. Drexel, not as much love in spite of the similarities.

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Not sure how unexpected, but Miami of Ohio got a lot of love from my town in IL. Also more students are going to Macalester and Wash U than previous years.

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A couple of years ago it seemed to be University of Denver. This year it seems to be University of Nebraska (these are in addition to UMN and UW Madison both of which always get a lot because of tuition reciprocity.)

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U of Florida seems to be getting a lot of love from kids in my area of the North East. In fact, southern colleges in general seem to be quite popular right now.

I agree that UNH is getting more attention around my area also. Binghamton has been getting more and more popular over the last few years and it is on fire at the moment. It is drawing a lot more OOS students and more kids seem to be choosing it, rather than settling for it.

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University of Michigan, UConn and Ohio State getting lots of love at the fanciest school in South Florida… I guess it helps to be able to come back home to defrost every so often…

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The line at college night here in central NJ was of course longest for Rutgers but Pitt was a close second. Our town has a LOT of STEM and health care majors with ridiculous stats who can get in and maybe even get merit.

It’s not a new hot school. The same old hotness…getting hotter and hotter.

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U Wisconsin. University College Dublin.

We’re nowhere near them either of them.

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Auburn and UTK. Both are getting to be tougher OOS admits.

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Our large public suburban school has a few who go each year to Canada or the UK. Also some who go to schools in the EU, usually The Netherlands. The Dutch universities are excellent, have many programs taught completely in English, and unlike most European universities have options for “undeclared” majors. The admissions process is extremely straightforward and transparent, and the COA (even with travel) is less than our Flagship. No, there is no Greek life, big sports or hand holding, but these students are strong and don’t want/need that. Many of the students who choose this have the IB diploma, but not always.

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Not a specific school, but a geographic trend I noticed last year and this one: after a solid 6 or 7 years of the south (primarily SC and FL) as the destination for many in our NJ school, the midwest has started to get some love. We’re sending kids to Indiana U, Iowa State, Wisconsin, Michigan, Northwestern and DePaul this year.

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Not really unexpected per se, since it is reasonably consistent choice, but CMU had a record year at our HS. Some of the normal tech-type stuff but also kids going for businessy stuff.

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State schools: Penn State had a huge year at our HS. Also Wisconsin, Michigan. Less UVM and UVA than usual. More CU Boulder than usual.

Among privates: Northwestern, Morehouse, Spellman, Barnard, Tulane

International: St. Andrews

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Wisconsin, cal poly SLO

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Fewer elite schools this year at our small Catholic school outside of Portland but also fewer in state. Boise State is getting 3 really bright kids, our valedictorian is going to the University of Idaho honors college. One kid is going to Oxford, which I think is the first in the school’s history.

Last year’s class was full of Ivies and Claremont colleges, so it’s a pretty big shift.

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Well, aside from the predictably hot schools (Wisconsin, Indiana, state flagship, Kansas among them), unexpectedly hot schools included Tulane, UVA, Tennessee, and Montana State. Montana State makes sense regionally (so it’s not a surprise in that respect), but I don’t remember that we sent so many grads there in the past.

One reverse trend (or maybe not a trend - maybe it’s just this year) is that we sent more kids to Ivies and LACs previously than this year. Last year, a handful went to Dartmouth, but none this year. LACs are never the most popular choice for our students, but far more went last year than this year (seems like mostly athletes this year). It will be interesting to see if that trend continues.

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SUNYs are very popular choices at our school, and for the first time ever, no kids that I’m aware of are going to Bing (usually 3-5 go each year of around ~200 kids graduating). This year, Buffalo and New Paltz were most popular, while last year’s most popular - Oneonta - has only one one student this year. Oswego seems to be very hot at neighboring high schools.

Northeastern continues to be very popular, and also seeing more FL schools. And as others reported, UVM is way down - we usually send 3-5 kids there and we have 0 this year.

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Love to see HBCUs getting attention.

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And I didn’t even mention the whole list! We’ve got multiple kids going to Howard, NCCU, VSU, Hampton, and NC A&T. Also representation at Xavier, Alabama A&M, Clark Atlanta.

And one more non-HBCU that I missed on my first pass: Temple. Very popular this year.

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Another trend I’m seeing is that fewer kids are committed athletes this year. Almost none.