Northeast students flock to Southern schools in record numbers: report
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Students from the Northeast are heading to the South in record numbers, drawn by universities where sunshine, football and Greek life define campus life.
Instead of pursuing the Ivy League dream, many students now choose schools in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), which consists of 16 schools, including the University of South Carolina (USC), the University of Alabama, the University of Mississippi and the University of Tennessee. Sunday Times reported.
Between 2014 and 2023, SEC colleges saw a 91% increase in undergraduate students from northeastern states, The Sunday Times reported, citing government data.
USC alone was up 90% over the same period.
FIRST HISTORICALLY BLACK UNIVERSITY TOLD TRUMP ADMIN IT WANTED TO JOIN ACADEMIC COMPACT AFTER SCHOOLS FALL
University of South Carolina students celebrate at the pool at Thomas Cooper Library on campus after the Gamecocks defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship game on April 7, 2024 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
USC broke a record with more than 40,000 students this year. According to The Sunday Times, out-of-state enrollments have increased by 58% over the past decade, largely from the Northeast, and the school’s student body has increased by 46%.
According to The Sunday Times, the largest pipelines come from North Carolina, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
“All my friends [New] Jersey, [Philadelphia]New York, Maryland,” Sean Carroll, a 21-year-old USC senior from New York, told The Sunday Times. “People always ask me, ‘Was this a culture shock?’ he asks. but there are so many people from the north that you don’t even realize you’re in South Carolina. It’s so trendy.”
Carroll, a member of USC’s Chi Psi fraternity, said only 10 of the 200 members are from southern Virginia.
FAKE YALE STUDENT SCANDAL RAISES ALARMS ABOUT ACADEMIC FRAUD AND FOREIGN INFLUENCE RISKS
Students and their families move their belongings into campus residence halls at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, on August 10, 2020. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
“Northern fraternities are with northern fraternities, southern fraternities,” Carroll told The Sunday Times. “Even the tailgate sections are split.”
Meanwhile, Cameron McManus, a high school senior from the suburbs of Washington, D.C., recently said: Fortune Magazine He was eyeing Clemson University, USC or the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after seeing TikTok and Instagram videos featuring sports, Greek life and warm weather.
“You can be outside any month of the year,” McManus said.
While applications to Southern colleges have increased by 50% since 2019, the rate was less than 30% for schools in New England and the Mid-Atlantic, according to Fortune Magazine’s report based on Common Application data.
COLLEGE GIRLS PAID CASH WHEN VIRAL CORPORATE CRACK BECAME A MONEY-MAKING MACHINE
Views from the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville, Tennessee, on September 30, 2023. (Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
According to Fortune Magazine, the rise is driven by the growing appeal of Southern schools and increased competition for the nation’s most selective universities, with students now applying to more colleges than ever before.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION
As competition intensifies, some Southern states have moved to protect access for local students. Clemson’s acceptance rate dropped from 52% to 38% in a decade, The Sunday Times reported.
North Carolina currently limits out-of-state enrollment to 18%, while Texas offers guaranteed admission to public universities for the top 10% of high school graduates, according to The Sunday Times.
Spokespeople for USC, the SEC and the New England Board of Higher Education did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
