Northeastern freshmen are flocking to southern colleges because they’re cheaper, friendlier, and aren’t being torn apart by progressive politics.
According to the Wall Street Journalthe number of northerners attending southern public schools has skyrocketed to 84 percent over the past two decades. Between 2018 and 2022, the figure increased by 30 percent.
Students are drawn to the South in part because public universities offer cheaper alternatives to schools in the North.
But the exodus is also being driven by teenagers who want to avoid the intense political polarization that plagues Ivy League campuses in New England and New York.
Large numbers of high school seniors in the North are deciding to leave Ivy League schools for universities in the South, where they can expect to pay less tuition and be free of a highly politicized environment. A Georgia college football player will take place on September 14 this year.
The exodus is being driven, in part, by teenagers who want to avoid the intense political polarization affecting colleges in New England and New York.
For these prospective students, the sense of community that Southern football Saturdays represent is especially appealing.
Throughout American history, ambitious high school seniors have tended to set their sights on Ivy League schools.
Although their private counterparts in the South, such as Duke and Vanderbilt, have always attracted academics from the North, the recent trend of students toward the South has caused many to opt for public universities.
Since 2002, interest in popular Southern institutions like Clemson and the Georgia Institute of Technology has surpassed interest in Ivy League schools, according to the Journal.
Colby College sociology professor Neil Gross said students who move south to attend college pay less attention to politics than those who attend schools in the Northeast.
The number of northerners attending public schools in the South has skyrocketed to 84 percent over the past two decades.
Over the same period, applications to Alabama have skyrocketed more than 600 percent. Applications to Harvard, which has been rocked by accusations of anti-Semitism following the October 7 attacks and the Israeli bombing of Gaza, have only increased by 200 percent during the same period.
Covid accelerated the trend, with closures and mask mandates lasting much longer at Ivy League universities than at their southern counterparts.
Mitch Savalli, a freshman at Georgia Tech from Long Island, told Wall Street Journal who was drawn to the school after witnessing his older brother’s difficult experience at a college in upstate New York.
Mitch’s older brother attended school during the pandemic. He was subjected to routine lockdowns at the university after being exposed to Covid.
There were also mask requirements, social distancing rules and online classes he attended in his dorm.
During this time, the Savalli brothers watched college football games that featured students from across the South cheering on their teams in person.
“Some students say, ‘I don’t want to be in a super political environment,'” Professor Gross said.
“There were more freedoms in Southern schools and that really started to drive applications,” said Vincent Pisano, assistant principal of the Long Island district where Savalli attended school. WSJ.
‘Then the reach really started to grow from the Southern schools. “Schools like LSU and South Carolina started attracting large groups of kids,” Pisano said.
In the Savalli school district, applications to southern colleges have tripled compared to a few years before the pandemic.
However, this district is not unique. Federal data shows that while the number of students opting for Southern schools was already growing, growth accelerated after the pandemic.
Federal data shows that while the number of students opting for Southern schools was already growing, growth accelerated after the pandemic.
“There were students at home in their basement in Connecticut looking at their phone and seeing that most of the Northeast was closed and not much was happening,” said Rick Clark, executive director of strategic student access at Georgia Tech. WSJ.
‘At the same time, they’re watching sororities in Alabama and football games in Georgia and Florida. Life is happening,’ he continued.
Cheaper tuition at Southern universities acts as an additional incentive for Northern students.
According to the WSJLast year, schools in the South that rank among the nation’s top 100 public research universities charged substantially less than universities elsewhere.
Rachel Rubin, co-founder of Spark Admissions, a private college counseling company, said bitter student protests over the war in Gaza have led some Jews and Southeast Asians to close elite Northeastern schools.
According to college counselors, many teens are also drawn to the South because they want to participate in the area’s heady Greek life.
“Southern schools charge out-of-state students an average of $29,000 in tuition and fees, the lowest among top public universities in any region,” the report said. Diary noted.
Mitch Savalli originally hoped to attend Tufts, where out-of-pocket costs are approximately $80,000. At Georgia Tech, the financial burden is half that.
According to college counselors, many teens are also drawn to the South because they want to participate in the area’s heady Greek life.
Through Instagram and TikTok, members of fraternities and sororities offer fun glimpses into their world.
Meanwhile, over the past year, Northern schools have tended to feature prominently in the news about campuses being in the crosshairs of intense protests.
College counselors say this crucial juxtaposition of atmospheres is another reason why increasing numbers of teenagers are choosing to go to school in the South.
For Northern students, the sense of community that Southern football Saturdays represent is especially appealing.
Neil Gross, a sociology professor at Colby College, said students who move south to attend college pay less attention to politics than those who attend schools in the Northeast.
“Some students say, ‘I don’t want to be in a super political environment,’ and they opt for an atmosphere where they can focus on things other than politics,” Gross said.
Rachel Rubin, co-founder of Spark Admissions, a private college counseling company, said WSJ that bitter student protests over the war in Gaza have led some Jews and Southeast Asians to dismiss elite northeastern schools.
“They are being much more careful in choosing which Ivies they apply to and are expanding their search to the rest of the country.”
Interestingly, many parents who come to visit their children at universities in the South end up moving there themselves, a practice known as shadowing.
They are attracted to good weather, good vibes and cheaper properties, as well as proximity to loved ones.
