Record number of high schoolers swapping the Ivy League for the SEC thanks to sunshine, campus culture - The Times

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's be Honest ... SEC schools are White HBCU

How many times do we have to cover this? SEC schools are in areas with more African Americans than any other part of the US. Just stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I teach at an average SEC school and the party/fun-filled/non-academic culture is so strong that half the class don't bother to show up to a 10:30am lecture after the first few weeks. Many faculty members especially newer ones have expressed shock/disappointment at how weak the student body is. When our classes are filled with <22 ACT and <1100 SAT, there is only so much we can do to educate. We need to slow down, cover less (often much less than the same course at schools we did our Ph.D.), give fewer/easier assignments, and make exam questions very similar to previous ones (even then many don't have a prayer because they didn't care to study). That's SEC-level of education for you.

So you're an adjunct lecturing in some 500+ student guts level course? Of course kids don't show up. It's a waste of time when all the lectures and slides are online, assignments are submitted online, two in-person tests a semester, (and most of them are cheating). It's the same at the military academies, Ivies, and rah-rah degree mills. My daughter was in medical school over ten years ago and her classmates were always skipping class because everything they needed was posted online. Even the lectures were live streamed and record to watch later, so why show up? The tech has only gotten better in a decade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I also hear people say that there are too many immigrants or children of immigrants at Ivy league schools from alot of parents and kids, i hear it from Black and White families to be honest.

The Ivy league testing is a bad way to judge who gets in, in my opinion it should be 50% weighted and 25% leadership, and 25% Extravehicular,

Let's be honest the immigrants who are 35% of the ivy league are great at taking test, but are horrible at applying those skills as leaders in industry

The leaders of Google, Nvidia, Meta’s Super Intelligence group (who sold his company to Meta for $15BN) and countless other companies would disagree.

Folks…you can’t both claim SEC schools are incredible, but then ignore that the most transformative companies in existence are founded, run and filled with grads of the top schools for the most part.

The SEC frenzy started less than ten years ago. Give it time. By the time you’re in a nursing home things will have changed.

That's always the answer....give it time...you can give it as much time as you want, and I guarantee you things won't change.

No offense, but all the kids i know at SEC schools (my sample size of like 10)...they aren't kids who aspire to found companies or change the world, which is fine. They want to get a nice job and have a nice life, perfectly fine.

This sort of online tiger mom rhetoric is hilarious. Most of your kids become "consultants" at freaking Deloitte. Changing the world? Hahahaha. They're just Excel and PowerPoint desk jockeys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Literally no one is doing this. People are just applying to big southern or big state schools because they are easier to get into than Harvard or Princeton.

They are applying to them because they are easier to get into than like Ohio State, PSU, Rutgers, UMD, VTech, and Stoney Brook. All solid public schools getting harder to get into. No magic here, less capable Northerners have migrated South for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The tours were took in the spring of a few T20s it seemed like Caucasian American kids were a small minority of the overall student body. Indian and Asian were the clear majority, then Jewish, Hispanic, Arabic, and Black American and Nigerian kids. It felt like a UN summit.

This x1000. It was shocking. I get why people are outraged. It is 100% manufactured ratios and keeping out smart, UMC, high achieving kids SOLEY because they are white. They want that DEI. Best thing Trump has ever done is force these schools to scrap their ridiculous DEI efforts. And I am a liberal democrat! DEI just reached the point of absurdity.

My high achieving UMC white kid was accepted at multiple top 15 schools in 2023 (so before the Supreme Court ruling), as were several of his white friends.

No truly high achieving kids of any race are getting kept out of anywhere.

BTW, my kid’s Ivy campus is like 40% white…I find it interesting that someone differentiates Jewish kids who are also Caucasian American white as though they are Amish or some strange sect.

Sure, some get in. But once you tour do you still want to attend, let alone blow $400K to send your kid to school with no few white Christian peers? The whole vibe is off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now USC means the University of South Carolina, not University of Southern California.

If the article is about the South, it sure would. But why would anyone on the east coast assume one means California when they say USC?

Because one is a renowned institution and the other is a mediocre public school in the South.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Social media influence.

I can only speak for myself but it’s stunning how clueless we were about the rest of the country in the 80s and 90s. Social media and YouTube has made kids hyper aware of these colleges and regions before a campus tour. To me as a dumb propagandized high schooler in the 80s, the south seemed a world away, backwater, full of dumb and slow hicks. To kids now, the south is booming and fun, students look happy and attractive, academic programs are world class, merit scholarships can be life changing, and you get sunny weather instead of the cold, snow and grey skies.

What is with parents talking about the attractiveness of students?

World class academics? Really. Trump won with students at Alabama. Proof enough it’s not the place for serious students.

Gross x2

Plenty of writers used to write about how everyone at Yale and Stanford were attractive overachievers; from Fitzgerald a hundred years ago to Ann Coulter and David Brooks 20 years ago.

People instinctively appreciate beauty. People instinctively appreciate happy and confident young adults. There’s a certain energy to these booming southern campuses. Night and day from the gloomy, foreigner-filled campuses in the north and northeast.

I think like this triggers you ruthless striver parents. Y’all know no amount of scamming and helicopter parenting can get your kid into a top tier sorority or fraternity in the south.

This is of zero appeal to nearly everyone at top schools.

There was just a 30+ page thread on here about parents hoping their kid meets a spouse at college. This forum is full of strivers living through their kids, hoping they mix with and marry a gorgeous, high-born peer. The tiger mom and dad strivers can't penetrate these southern schools and their hyper-exclusive private fraternities and sororities. They also know if this trend continues and the rich and gorgeous American teens go south, the alleged prestige of their kid's "Top 20 U.S. News" northern and northeast college means squat. It's actually going to be a negative signal on your resume, while a southern school and whatever Greek house you were in will be a wink-wink signal you're normal, attractive, charismatic, smart and ambitious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The tours were took in the spring of a few T20s it seemed like Caucasian American kids were a small minority of the overall student body. Indian and Asian were the clear majority, then Jewish, Hispanic, Arabic, and Black American and Nigerian kids. It felt like a UN summit.

This x1000. It was shocking. I get why people are outraged. It is 100% manufactured ratios and keeping out smart, UMC, high achieving kids SOLEY because they are white. They want that DEI. Best thing Trump has ever done is force these schools to scrap their ridiculous DEI efforts. And I am a liberal democrat! DEI just reached the point of absurdity.

My high achieving UMC white kid was accepted at multiple top 15 schools in 2023 (so before the Supreme Court ruling), as were several of his white friends.

No truly high achieving kids of any race are getting kept out of anywhere.

BTW, my kid’s Ivy campus is like 40% white…I find it interesting that someone differentiates Jewish kids who are also Caucasian American white as though they are Amish or some strange sect.

Sure, some get in. But once you tour do you still want to attend, let alone blow $400K to send your kid to school with no few white Christian peers? The whole vibe is off.

Yes, we did at a Top 30 with a similar demographic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can’t argue with the data they cite. Seems to boil down to fun and sunny weather. Ivy League losing its cachet. Ivy match kids increasingly prefer Vandy and Duke or a full merit scholarship at Alabama.

Why young Americans are shunning elite universities for the Deep South. Social life, sunshine and picturesque campuses are luring students from the northeast to colleges in South Carolina, Alabama and more.

https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/why-young-americans-are-shunning-elite-universities-for-the-deep-south-2ktn6fmv2

LOL. Citing the Murdoch owned Times propaganda rag to push a narrative that the MAGA movement is desperate to mainstream is pretty funny. Skimming that article, I didn’t see any actual evidence of the central claim of that article - that kids who COULD go to elite northeastern schools are going to UofSC (it hasn’t been USC officially for quite a while). UofSC could be just mostly admitting kids who would otherwise go to SUNY.

-UofSC alum

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parents who comment about attractiveness of students at warm weather schools may be referring to happiness & fitness due to active outdoor lifestyle found at these schools.

This. Don’t make something a problem that isn’t. SEC kids simply take care of themselves and take pride in their appearance. They’re happy and outgoing, all American kids. Again, something that was once the status quo at “top” colleges before they got taken over by dorks.

The greatest levels of Obesity are in the South.....try again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Literally no one is doing this. People are just applying to big southern or big state schools because they are easier to get into than Harvard or Princeton.

They are applying to them because they are easier to get into than like Ohio State, PSU, Rutgers, UMD, VTech, and Stoney Brook. All solid public schools getting harder to get into. No magic here, less capable Northerners have migrated South for years.

LOL UF and UGA are superior to every podunk college you listed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parents who comment about attractiveness of students at warm weather schools may be referring to happiness & fitness due to active outdoor lifestyle found at these schools.

This. Don’t make something a problem that isn’t. SEC kids simply take care of themselves and take pride in their appearance. They’re happy and outgoing, all American kids. Again, something that was once the status quo at “top” colleges before they got taken over by dorks.

The greatest levels of Obesity are in the South.....try again.

Go on TikTok and see the fit SEC students that are in better shape than you could ever dream of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can’t argue with the data they cite. Seems to boil down to fun and sunny weather. Ivy League losing its cachet. Ivy match kids increasingly prefer Vandy and Duke or a full merit scholarship at Alabama.

Why young Americans are shunning elite universities for the Deep South. Social life, sunshine and picturesque campuses are luring students from the northeast to colleges in South Carolina, Alabama and more.

https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/why-young-americans-are-shunning-elite-universities-for-the-deep-south-2ktn6fmv2

LOL. Citing the Murdoch owned Times propaganda rag to push a narrative that the MAGA movement is desperate to mainstream is pretty funny. Skimming that article, I didn’t see any actual evidence of the central claim of that article - that kids who COULD go to elite northeastern schools are going to UofSC (it hasn’t been USC officially for quite a while). UofSC could be just mostly admitting kids who would otherwise go to SUNY.

-UofSC alum

If you were actually an alum you would know they switched back to USC. Another weak troll job. First the “prof” and now an “alum”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Social media influence.

I can only speak for myself but it’s stunning how clueless we were about the rest of the country in the 80s and 90s. Social media and YouTube has made kids hyper aware of these colleges and regions before a campus tour. To me as a dumb propagandized high schooler in the 80s, the south seemed a world away, backwater, full of dumb and slow hicks. To kids now, the south is booming and fun, students look happy and attractive, academic programs are world class, merit scholarships can be life changing, and you get sunny weather instead of the cold, snow and grey skies.

What is with parents talking about the attractiveness of students?

World class academics? Really. Trump won with students at Alabama. Proof enough it’s not the place for serious students.

Gross x2

Plenty of writers used to write about how everyone at Yale and Stanford were attractive overachievers; from Fitzgerald a hundred years ago to Ann Coulter and David Brooks 20 years ago.

People instinctively appreciate beauty. People instinctively appreciate happy and confident young adults. There’s a certain energy to these booming southern campuses. Night and day from the gloomy, foreigner-filled campuses in the north and northeast.

I think like this triggers you ruthless striver parents. Y’all know no amount of scamming and helicopter parenting can get your kid into a top tier sorority or fraternity in the south.

This is of zero appeal to nearly everyone at top schools.

There was just a 30+ page thread on here about parents hoping their kid meets a spouse at college. This forum is full of strivers living through their kids, hoping they mix with and marry a gorgeous, high-born peer. The tiger mom and dad strivers can't penetrate these southern schools and their hyper-exclusive private fraternities and sororities. They also know if this trend continues and the rich and gorgeous American teens go south, the alleged prestige of their kid's "Top 20 U.S. News" northern and northeast college means squat. It's actually going to be a negative signal on your resume, while a southern school and whatever Greek house you were in will be a wink-wink signal you're normal, attractive, charismatic, smart and ambitious.

It’s obvious you’ve never set foot on an elite campus.

It’s a very comfortable life plan for some and I truly wish them well that aspire for what you wrote about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Generally, the SEC schools offer both a better education and a better experience than public colleges in the Northeast. Most people would choose Georgia or Florida over UMass or Rutgers and so on. It’s not surprising that many students in the Northeast are choosing Southern schools. They are better by every metric over their counterparts up North.

As for Duke, Vanderbilt, and Rice - they compete for the same students as the Ivy League. But those three schools seem to be on the upswing when it comes to getting talented students. Whereas most of the Ivy schools seem particularly blah and even miserable these days. The Ivy brand doesn’t have the same cachet it did a generation ago. So more and more top students are valuing campus experience over the name brand of the old Ivy schools. And Duke, Vandy, and Rice are all well known for being fairly happy schools - and that matters for the more well adjusted smart 18 year olds applying to college today.

It's not useful to lump all the SEC schools together in posts such as the one above. There's a HUGE difference in the educational quality and experience at the University of Florida or UGA (e.g., incoming student stats, graduation rates, etc.)than at, say, Mississippi State or University of Arkansas.

Sure. But Texas, Florida, and Georgia are all much better public universities academically than anything in the Northeast. You can also get a very solid education at Texas A&M and Alabama. And I'd argue that South Carolina, Auburn, and Tennessee are still better academically than any public university in the Northeast.

That's a lot of SEC schools.

The Northeastern states dropped the ball when it comes to public education. If you have no chance at Harvard or Brown, why on Earth would any student choose to study at some bleak, desolate public university in the Northeast?

Why are you over focusing on the Northeast? Yes, many of the oldest universities are in the NE and they are private. But the best states for public universities are not in the South: they are California and Virginia, both of which have multiple very strong schools. Nothing else comes close. States that have two strong state schools? Pennsylvania, Michigan and sure now you start getting into some Southern states. New York also has a very good, inexpensive, very under-rated state school system.

This whole premise is ridiculous. Yes, kids who 30 years ago might have gone to the University of New Hampshire now apply to University of Tennessee. Good for them. The only SEC schools that are in competition with Ivies are also PRIVATE.

Funny how DCUM posters deride the South and categorize Virginia as the North. Virginia is 100% the South. Maybe it is deemed an “okay” college option for those liberals in a bubble that hate the South, but Virginia is a southern state. People on here are so arrogant they don’t even realize how idiotic they sound. Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy. I know y’all love the prestige of UVA, but it is Southern.

It was historically Southern but today few educated Virginians consider themselves Southern. They're kind of in the middle ground which is why Virginia is turning bluer everyday.