Why are Northern Kids Flocking to Southern Universities?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Her parents must be so proud that she’s a virtual prosty and countless incels are wanking to her videos.

Sex sells.

She’s made $2.3mil dollars, apparently. I’m not her parent, but I would encourage her quit while she’s ahead. Too many psychos out there.

There are a lot of NIL deals for female student-athletes. All of them post risqué booty and breast photos too. She’s just the prettiest and most successful. Most make peanuts, she’s making millions because she’s adorable and because of the sunny and sporty LSU backdrop.

Yup. Sex sells.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her parents must be so proud that she’s a virtual prosty and countless incels are wanking to her videos.

Sex sells.

She’s made $2.3mil dollars, apparently. I’m not her parent, but I would encourage her quit while she’s ahead. Too many psychos out there.

There are a lot of NIL deals for female student-athletes. All of them post risqué booty and breast photos too. She’s just the prettiest and most successful. Most make peanuts, she’s making millions because she’s adorable and because of the sunny and sporty LSU backdrop.

Look at the twins who just transfered to Miami from Fresno, they were making millions with Fresno State as the back drop while being not that good at basketball. In other news, the national championship South Carolina team is getting 25k a piece in NIL money.

Fresno is still in California. And they went there before the new NIL profiting rules were in place. When they wanted to cash in in NIL, they didn't choose some northern cold college, they transferred to sunny Miami. Not a coincidence.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This is the wealthiest college student-athlete in America. Olivia Dunne, a gymnast at LSU. She's a multi-millionaire. This is what American teen kids are bombarded with on tiktok and instagram - southern belles and bros wearing skimpy clothes at sunny and fun warm weather colleges.

Bryce Young out earned her by about $1 million.

If someone goes to a university because they think there are tons of women around like that who are going to hook up with them - well, good luck!

^^This post meant for the person who posted the picture of the multimillionaire gymnast - I have no idea who Bryce Young is - or the poster woman-gymnast either for that matter!

You must be living in a New England bubble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Full pay family here. Cost is a non-issue for our family. My kids applied to mostly southern schools. It had nothing to do with cost and everything to do with the vibe, beautiful campus, friendliness, weather, school spirit, etc. Friends and roommates at the southern college are all very wealthy. I think your just don’t see the appeal of these schools, which is fine. I am just here to say it definitely isn’t because people can’t afford anything else. They are offering a product we want to pay for.

I know three families recently who sent their kids to Clemson, Auburn, and Ole Miss. All of them are loaded professionals. The kids are all outgoing and smart and got merit awards to go to big southern universities they wanted to in the first place. It was a win/win.

Academically, Ole Miss is much easier for admittance than Clemson or Auburn. Not really comparable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are lots of people with tons of cash who aren't intellectually minded. Their kids aren't looking to contemplate Sappho in a brick library covered in Ivy. They want to do an easy major like Business with a Management focus and hop into the corporate ranks, all while doing as little reading and paper writing as possible. For this type, schools like Bama and Ole Miss are a great option. These are the people who would rather own a newly built house in a subdivision than a Kalorama townhouse. They drive a Tahoe with 4WD even if they never engage the 4X4 to pick their kid up from cheer lessons. Meanwhile, the professors and the intellectuals are still battling over spots at places like Middlebury for their kids.

WTH?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Full pay family here. Cost is a non-issue for our family. My kids applied to mostly southern schools. It had nothing to do with cost and everything to do with the vibe, beautiful campus, friendliness, weather, school spirit, etc. Friends and roommates at the southern college are all very wealthy. I think your just don’t see the appeal of these schools, which is fine. I am just here to say it definitely isn’t because people can’t afford anything else. They are offering a product we want to pay for.

I know three families recently who sent their kids to Clemson, Auburn, and Ole Miss. All of them are loaded professionals. The kids are all outgoing and smart and got merit awards to go to big southern universities they wanted to in the first place. It was a win/win.

Academically, Ole Miss is much easier for admittance than Clemson or Auburn. Not really comparable.

99.99% of the public doesn’t care. But good on you for studying us news lists and googling pointless stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Full pay family here. Cost is a non-issue for our family. My kids applied to mostly southern schools. It had nothing to do with cost and everything to do with the vibe, beautiful campus, friendliness, weather, school spirit, etc. Friends and roommates at the southern college are all very wealthy. I think your just don’t see the appeal of these schools, which is fine. I am just here to say it definitely isn’t because people can’t afford anything else. They are offering a product we want to pay for.

I know three families recently who sent their kids to Clemson, Auburn, and Ole Miss. All of them are loaded professionals. The kids are all outgoing and smart and got merit awards to go to big southern universities they wanted to in the first place. It was a win/win.

Academically, Ole Miss is much easier for admittance than Clemson or Auburn. Not really comparable.

99.99% of the public doesn’t care. But good on you for studying us news lists and googling pointless stats.

Sorry to disappoint you. I'm in the education field and know these things.

[Anonymous]

Academically, Ole Miss is much easier for admittance than Clemson or Auburn. Not really comparable.

99.99% of the public doesn’t care. But good on you for studying us news lists and googling pointless stats.

Actually, 99.99% of the public outside Mississippi doesn't think they have accredited universities in Mississippi. 90% of the public thinks the same about South Carolina and Alabama. But you're probably right that for kids who see college as an opportunity to limit their options rather than expand them, lower ranked Southern universities can be a nice path of low-resistance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Full pay family here. Cost is a non-issue for our family. My kids applied to mostly southern schools. It had nothing to do with cost and everything to do with the vibe, beautiful campus, friendliness, weather, school spirit, etc. Friends and roommates at the southern college are all very wealthy. I think your just don’t see the appeal of these schools, which is fine. I am just here to say it definitely isn’t because people can’t afford anything else. They are offering a product we want to pay for.

I know three families recently who sent their kids to Clemson, Auburn, and Ole Miss. All of them are loaded professionals. The kids are all outgoing and smart and got merit awards to go to big southern universities they wanted to in the first place. It was a win/win.

Academically, Ole Miss is much easier for admittance than Clemson or Auburn. Not really comparable.

99.99% of the public doesn’t care. But good on you for studying us news lists and googling pointless stats.

99.99% of the public thinks they all equally suck

[Anonymous]

I thought about this topic some more and there is NO WAY the weather is the reason for selecting southern colleges.

I live in Alabama and have visited Texas and Florida many, many times.

The summers in the south are so hot and humid, people are not outside in the summers. They're inside with air conditioning on. It's too hot to hike, do any outdoor sports and even be at the pool for very long.

Summers last 6 months, in Alabama from April until October. TX and FL are even hotter than AL.

Winter in FL is nice, but in Alabama it's not particularly pleasant, it's cold and rains often. Again, no one does outdoor sports in the winter for that reason.

So let's be honest. Weather is not the reason they pick southern colleges. If you wanted nice weather you'd go to California.

[Anonymous]

Less competitive housing market, including for upperclassmen off-campus rentals. Places like Boston are brutal in this respect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I think only white kids go south. We are Asian and would not consider a Southern school, besides UVa.

You don't speak for Asians.
Duke, Emory, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Rice are plenty popular.

This is ridiculous. Have you been to Texas? 20% of UT student body is Asian with same at Univ of Houston. 40% at Rice and nearly 10% at the remaining TX schools. And all Texas schools have greater Hispanic populations than the entirety of the NE. As a Hispanic myself, I'd much rather be in school in Texas than anywhere on the E coast. Y'all just need to get out more.

+1 I think a lot of these posters have never been out of New England and have attended schools and lived in states with no fewer than 88% whites. They've lived their lives in a rarefied bubble. Their private high schools may be "diverse," but only if those "diverse" families have money.

100%. I'm from Texas and I was actually blown away by the lack of diversity on the E coast when I moved here. It is WHITE. I'm not really too bothered by that but there is some gall from the NE crowd to call the South "white". Texas is a minority majority state so y'all can just sit down with all that. We don't need to seek out diverse schools for our kids. The entire state is diverse. It's not some to-do list that we have for our kids. It never occurred to me that I'd need to find other Hispanic kids in schools. We are EVERYWHERE.

But ok, NE. Enjoy the bubble.

PP here. Exactly! Thank you.

I moved to Oklahoma! Tulsa is 37% minority, and the under 18 population is 47% minority. Not only do we have Blacks, but Hispanics, Tribal Members, Asians, and Pacific Islanders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the wealthiest college student-athlete in America. Olivia Dunne, a gymnast at LSU. She's a multi-millionaire. This is what American teen kids are bombarded with on tiktok and instagram - southern belles and bros wearing skimpy clothes at sunny and fun warm weather colleges.

Jersey girls stand up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the wealthiest college student-athlete in America. Olivia Dunne, a gymnast at LSU. She's a multi-millionaire. This is what American teen kids are bombarded with on tiktok and instagram - southern belles and bros wearing skimpy clothes at sunny and fun warm weather colleges.

She is adorable, extremely talented and hard working. What is the issue, exactly?

Do these girls ever eat? Her waist looks unnaturally tiny.

It’s sad that American women don’t know what fit women look like anymore

She is normal in european cities. In fact becsuse she’s a d1 athlete, she’ll be thicker than your median pretty Milanese and Madrid girl

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:it's more fun, kids get bored in dark cold places with crappy sports teams.

Most people don't sit around studying 24/7 they like to be out and about. Imagine being at an outdoor party while those up north are inside sipping tea on a study break

Students who are primarily focused on partying, having a good time, and ogling "hot coeds" may indeed be flocking to Southern universities. I don't think that's a big loss for colder-weather northern universities, especially those receiving record numbers of applicants (e.g., University of Michigan, University of Chicago, Purdue, etc.).

Agree!

You agree that the bolded is true? You know this how?

https://www.michigandaily.com/news/university-highlights-gains-in-applicants-for-class-of-2026-admissions/#:~:text=For%20the%20class%
20of%202026%2C%20the%20University%20of,to%20the%20over%2080%2C000%20applications%20received%20last%20year.

For the class of 2026, the University of Michigan received a record breaking number of applications from prospective first year students, according to the University Record. In total, the University saw over 84,000 applications, which was a 6% increase to the over 80,000 applications received last year.

The Southern schools are seeing 20 plus percentage increases in apps, some significantly higher.

Because they're starting from a lower baseline. And the increase is NOT coming at the expense of applications to strong northern universities.

And your proof of that is that the northern schools had a much smaller increase?

Have you not been reading prior postings on this thread yesterday and today? Percentage increases are just one data point. Just as important is the actual number. The University of Michigan, for example, received twice the number of applications as Auburn. Purdue University received 20,000+ more applications than Auburn.

Look, I don't think anyone is arguing that some Southern schools aren't seeing an increase in applicants from the North. I'm sure they are. For example, a surprising 41 kids at my DC's FCPS high school applied to Clemson last year (although only 6 of the 21 who were accepted chose to enroll there.) But the argument that kids in the Northeast/Mid Atlantic and Midwest are now "flocking" South (i.e., preferring Southern schools over those in the North much more so than in years past) doesn't appear to be backed by reliable data and does not mesh with the fact that the number of applications to many strong schools in the North has increased. Look at UIUC -- the population of Illinois is declining, but the school experienced a big jump in applications. (Google it if you want.)

Also, one data point cited is that the number of OOS applicants to Southern schools has in some cases increased quite a bit. But OOS just means outside that particular Southern state. The growing number of OOS applicants to Alabama or Auburn, for example, likely includes those from out West (e.g., California and Colorado) and nearby Georgia and Tennessee.

Purdue University's student body is comprised of approximately 40% of students from Indiana. While the number of students who attend college, in Indiana, continues to decline, the other factor is many are leaving and going next door to UofI. Why? Alumni of Illinois' colleges, who live in Indiana and came from Illinois, tend to have their offspring attend those colleges. In addition, UofI has strong hiring from tech companies which boosts business and computer science applicant numbers.

Southern states colleges are getting not only help from the North but the state of Texas. Texas has a population of 8 million under 25, and thus many are not getting in their first choice, and often will go out of state. Both University of Arkansas and the University of Oklahoma benefit from Texans. Speaking of UofA, it's being bolstered by Walton money, has developed a strong business school that is putting out stellar results and its students are being placed in Fortune 500s at a rapid rate.

For northerners, who want to go South, I believe it's not the weather or the escape from the politics or the COVID. It's the ability to develop a different perspective on life and become a well rounded thinker. Is that not what education should be about "Not what to think, but being able to critically think from all sides of an issue."