Many schools, public and private, have a “college gear” day when all seniors wear the shirts of their college. It’s far from precise, but it’s always interesting for me to see which ones “repeat”.
However, my response above was based on which schools had the most interest in terms of applications.
In terms of repeating t-shirts, Loyola (MD), Drexel, and Duke.
Ours has a signing wall that runs all year and a final publication shared for graduation.
Ours takes a sweatshirt photo and although normally you can actually see everyone (it is usually with the kids on the theater stage then taken from above in the audience section), this year they did it outside from the same eye level. So I can tell you where the front row is going . . . .
Thanks for the search tips - sure enough, there’s an instagram page (and was one for my S22’s year too - oops). I’d say less than half the graduating class (about 450 students) are on there. Mostly it doesn’t surprise me. Small handful of Ivy’s, SLACs, strong tech schools, UCs. Random one-offs that were probably someone knew someone that got them interested there. Lots for our in-state schools. I think my biggest surprise is UGA. I wouldn’t have expected quite as many students to be going there, as we aren’t particularly close. Also, four to St. Andrews, which seems like a lot, and three to Univ Montana. Which, ok, why? We live in VA. I see lots of state schools up and down the East Coast, and typically we hear about a decent number at Wisconsin, Ohio State, etc. Montana? That just seems like its So Far away. I’ve never looked at them though, so maybe there’s some super cool specialty that caught people’s eye this year.
Montana State University in Bozeman? Very hot here on the west coast. Of course it’s closer to us and also has WUE but Bozeman is amazing. Yellowstone probably doesn’t hurt much either 
Montana State is becoming the new University of Colorado. Great location for kids that love the outdoors and want to be in a happening town but easier admit. University of Montana is a hot school for kids that are majoring in Wildlife Bio.
I can’t even imagine how gorgeous it must be out there. I think what got me is that it feels like it makes more sense for a West Coast person, or someone closer. Whereas kids in the mid-Atlantic would choose something more driveable, so I’m not as surprised to see the UVM, UNH, Delaware, UGA, USC’s etc.
Our rule was direct flight. We figured if he was getting on a plane anyway, it didn’t matter if it was a one-hour or 3 hour flight.
We are a private school in SOCAL.
We have 2 kids going to University of Wisconsin-Madison this year and neither of them are athletes. We’ve had kids attend UW-Madison in the past, but it’s usually one kid every 5 or so years and most of the time they’ve been atheletes. Besides the 2 kids who are attending, we had 6 apply there. I think the last time we had someone attend, was about 8 years ago…
Other schools that are becoming more popular in terms of applying and attending are more out of state public schools in the West. Schools like Western Washington, Oregon State, University of Montana, Colorado State, University of Wyoming, Northern Arizona, Washington State, University of Idaho, University of Nevada-Reno are all becoming more popular at our school both in students applying and attending. In fact, based on what we’re hearing from kids at other schools in our area, these schools are becoming very popular. Maybe it’s because UC’s are becoming so hard to get into.
This year we have 3 kids attending Northern Arizona (the most ever) and 8 kids applied. 2 kids going to Colorado State and 4 applied. One kid going to Colorado state is an athelete. 1 kid going to Wyoming. He’s an athlete, but we’ve never had anyone from our school attend.
We have no kids attending Ivies this year, which is a little odd because there is always at 1 kid who attends an ivy. We did have kids apply, but no one attending. Who knows why?
Another interesting trend this year…we have no kids attending Loyola Marymount, University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University, University of San Diego, St. Mary’s College of California…usually we have at least 1 kid attend at least one of these schools every year, but this year no one is attending any of these schools and we had only a few kids apply to Loyola Marymount and University of San Francisco only. It was also the same with the Claremont schools, Chapman, University of Portland, Gonzaga, SMU and Texas Christian, George Washington, NYU, Boston College, all have no one attending this year and these schools have always been pretty popular at our school and only a few students applied to each school as well. We also only have 2 students attending USC (univeristy of southern california) this year, normally we have at least 3. I don’t know if it’s the cost or students are casting a wider net? Or maybe it’s just chance.
Another “hot” school is Eckerd in Florida, we’ve had lots of kids applying and we’ve sent at least one kid every year for the last few years. Florida and Texas seem to be states that are getting more popular…same with Arizona as well…
Cal Poly-SLO seems to be more popular in the last few years at our school. We’ve always had at least a few students apply and 1 or 2 attend every couple of years, but it’s gotten more popular recently with students attending. This last year we had 2 students attend, and the year before that 2 students attend. From what I’ve heard the students who’ve gone are enjoying it.
Cal Poly is very popular in our school near Portland as well. We send a few every year now which seems a little random given that we’re not in state.
University of Idaho continues to gain momentum here (serial killers aside!), the WUE discount is amazing and it’s a nice size school and you can always drive the 10 min to WSU for parties and games. Same with Montana, Bozeman just is a great town.
We are still sending a fair number to CA though, both Santa Clara and USD took more than one this year, but we are a Catholic school. Gonzaga remains popular.
Yes, Idaho remains popular in our area, though we did see a dip after the whole serial killer thing happened.
Except for the decline in University of Portland and Gonzaga applications and attendance, we still send a decent numbers of kids to University of Washington, University of Oregon, Lewis and Clark, Reed, Puget Sound, Willamette, Linfield, Whitman etc.
At our school Syracuse has been that school where we always have a decent number of kids apply, but no one ends up attending. When kids have attended Syracuse it’s been like 1 kid every 10 or so years.
When D was applying to college, Northeastern was very popular at our school. For about 5 or so years we had several students applying and at least a couple attending each year. Now, hardly anyone applies and we haven’t had anyone attend in last few years…
Another “hot” school is Eckerd in Florida, we’ve had lots of kids applying and we’ve sent at least one kid every year for the last few years. Florida and Texas seem to be states that are getting more popular
This makes no sense to me at all. Are any of those students girls?
Your politics may not matter to everyone. Texas and SEC schools are very hot in our Portland, OR suburb.
D23 only wanted to look in Texas and is having a marvelous time.
SMU and TCU are increasingly popular in our NorCal suburban public, particularly among women! I think the rah-rah Greek life can be very appealing if you’ve grown up around more hippy/surfer/flip flop vibes 
My blue state has been sending many students to southern schools over the last few years. UF, TCU, SMU, Alabama, Eckerd, Tampa, U of SC, and Clemson have been popular for the last handful of years. Many of the students in my area tend to be affluent, so they don’t necessarily believe a given state’s reproductive rights laws would impact them, as they could leave the state easily (even though one could construct a scenario where they could be impacted, for example an emergency situation.)
Biggest change this year was fewer Ivy acceptances than normal (most who were accepted were hooked) - including 0 acceptances to Brown where at least one or two kids have gotten in every year. U Conn was unexpectedly hot this year while far fewer than normal opted for UVM. Otherwise, it seemed like a pretty typical year - UMass gets the biggest number with Northeastern, BC and other Boston area schools getting the next most.
Still on the upswing at our Bay area private. The acceptance rate was a little lower this year but still around 45% so way above typical for Northeastern. They yield pretty good from our school which might help. Most of those attending got Boston as their campus but not all.
SMU, TCU, and Baylor (to a lesser extent) continue to grow in popularity, especially for those looking for greek life.
Syracuse is still popular but yield was lower the past couple of years. Admissions to Newhouse seems to be the key factor for attendance. USC is also popular for certain kids and I think that there might be competition with Annenberg since most of the SU applicants are trying to get into Newhouse.
University of Colorado is also popular but it took a jump this year. I suspect the Deion effect might be in play.
Strange question…why wouldn’t they be? UF is roughly 55% female/ 45% male.
University of Utah was unusually popular this year at our local public. I’m assuming they give a lot of merit.
Since Eckerd is 70% women, I’m guessing some from out of state are women.