Colleges growing in popularity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Occidental

No. Financial difficulties. Moody downgraded it. Google it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of kids who are very smart, middle or lower middle class and don’t want to go far away to college are choosing GMU. It really appeals to kids who want/need to be near their families in NoVA.

Florida, South Carolina, Clemson, and Alabama have been popular with kids here for years. The next wave of popularity in Southern schools will be Tennessee, Auburn, Florida State, and UCF.

Not Auburn.

Alabama isn't popular from here either. Why anyone would send their kid out of state to Alabama besides football??

Popular is Wisconsin, Indiana, College of Charleston, University of South Carolina, Tennessee. These all became popular in the last ten years. Elon as well.

Locally I’d say Alabama and Auburn are both more popular OOS options than Tennessee.

Tennessee is becoming more popular. It’s not there yet. But we’ll flood Alabama and Clemson and Florida with students, they’ll tighten up merit aid and admissions if they haven’t already, and then kids will start looking elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Occidental

No. Financial difficulties. Moody downgraded it. Google it.

We're talking about the college, not the oil company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Occidental

No. Financial difficulties. Moody downgraded it. Google it.

We're talking about the college, not the oil company.

Not PP, but colleges do have credit ratings which are very important to them. In this case, google says:

New York, September 26, 2019 -- Moody's Investors Service has revised the outlook for Occidental College (CA) to negative from stable. Concurrently, we have assigned a Aa3 rating on the proposed Taxable Bonds, Series 2019 and affirmed the Aa3 ratings on approximately $84 million of rated debt

[Anonymous]

Purdue

Gettysburg

Reed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t places like Lafayette and Gettysburg super pricey?

Depends on your financial circumstances and your kid’s appeal to the school. Amazes me how people just don’t get this.

Lafayette has little merit aid; Gettysburg offers a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Occidental

No. Financial difficulties. Moody downgraded it. Google it.

We're talking about the college, not the oil company.

Not PP, but colleges do have credit ratings which are very important to them. In this case, google says:

New York, September 26, 2019 -- Moody's Investors Service has revised the outlook for Occidental College (CA) to negative from stable. Concurrently, we have assigned a Aa3 rating on the proposed Taxable Bonds, Series 2019 and affirmed the Aa3 ratings on approximately $84 million of rated debt

Precisely my point. Moody's does rate schools and Occcidental's was downgraded Dec. 2019 to negative. I'm an alum. Since the coronavirus pandemic hit, I've been asked three times to send money in to tide it over. Oxy's situation is so poor that it cancelled the football season and team two years ago for lack of funds. Its endowment is at a low of 434M (or was before the pandemic). It's sister college, Pomona, which started around the same time and once upon a time drew from the same high school applicant base is 2.35 billion. That's why Moody's downgraded it.

[Anonymous]

As regards "It's not Miami of Ohio," of course it's not officially - but everyone there or who went there calls it that. I'm well acquainted with it. My daughter went there, and have been there many times, and I have discussed it jillions of times with others. Your's is the first time I have ever heard anyone called on using that name.

[Anonymous]

Back to OP. Both Miami of Ohio and the University of Miami have become extremely popular at our well-regarded high school.

[Anonymous]

I am not sure about "growing" because it's become extremely popular at my kid's school since I started tracking college destinations -- Tulane.

During my generation it was considered a safety school and not even a first choice safety school. Now it's become an ED favorite.

Not sure what their secret sauce is I guess NOLA is a big draw but was still very surprised.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pennsylvania SLACs like Dickinson, FM, and Ursinus

DC got in ED elsewhere, but we loved Dickinson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure about "growing" because it's become extremely popular at my kid's school since I started tracking college destinations -- Tulane.

During my generation it was considered a safety school and not even a first choice safety school. Now it's become an ED favorite.

Not sure what their secret sauce is I guess NOLA is a big draw but was still very surprised.

+1

At my DD's school, UVA and Virginia Tech have always been popular. But Virginia Tech has become a much more popular option because of its cheaper price relative to UVA.

University of Pittsburgh has been growing in popularity as well at my DD's school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not sure about "growing" because it's become extremely popular at my kid's school since I started tracking college destinations -- Tulane.

During my generation it was considered a safety school and not even a first choice safety school. Now it's become an ED favorite.

Not sure what their secret sauce is I guess NOLA is a big draw but was still very surprised.

FYI for those considering, Tulane has a reputation for deferring most EA apps. ED is the way in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Occidental

No. Financial difficulties. Moody downgraded it. Google it.

We're talking about the college, not the oil company.

Not PP, but colleges do have credit ratings which are very important to them. In this case, google says:

New York, September 26, 2019 -- Moody's Investors Service has revised the outlook for Occidental College (CA) to negative from stable. Concurrently, we have assigned a Aa3 rating on the proposed Taxable Bonds, Series 2019 and affirmed the Aa3 ratings on approximately $84 million of rated debt

Precisely my point. Moody's does rate schools and Occcidental's was downgraded Dec. 2019 to negative. I'm an alum. Since the coronavirus pandemic hit, I've been asked three times to send money in to tide it over. Oxy's situation is so poor that it cancelled the football season and team two years ago for lack of funds. Its endowment is at a low of 434M (or was before the pandemic). It's sister college, Pomona, which started around the same time and once upon a time drew from the same high school applicant base is 2.35 billion. That's why Moody's downgraded it.

Yet irrelevant to this thread. Occidental is growing in popularity, has had record applications in recent years, and is popular in the DC area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What schools do you see students getting excited about that largely may not have have been on the radar five or so years ago? Be sure to include what may have made the difference in terms of the popularity shift. Please be respectful, this could be a useful tool since there are no college tours right now.

Community Colleges. Once the cause of much embarrassment amongst "high achieving" parents, those same parents are now turning to CC's more and more - and without the same shame and perceived stigma.