Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fad elite: rice, grinnell

Fad upper 20 percenters: Michigan, usc, northeastern, Tulane

Fad middle of the road: Franklin and Marshall, umiami, trinity, Lafayette, Colorado college, cu Boulder

Fad lower middle of the road: elon, high point, TCU, asu

Grinnell elite?

Rice fad?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, but no. That's not a thing.

Tulane begs to differ with you.

It's been around since 1894

It's been up and down and up and down - just like all the rest of them, over a more than 100 year period. You have no clue what you're talking about. haha.

hahaha. wrong. why so defensive? Do you understand what 'trending' means?

Tulane is newly very, very trendy among the full pay private school set. How you know: all of the middle-low GDS and Sidwell kids go there. None of their parents went to Tulane. None of their parents' friends went to Tulane, nor does anybody on their block of NWDCbethesdaCCMDPotomac. You see, their parents all went to places like Northwestern and Cornell and Penn -- but now their similar kids can't get into Northwestern et al. So those middleish affluent kids need new targets.

Enter Tulane, Wisconsin OOS, Pitt, Santa Clara, Northeastern, Vermont, Clemson. But especially, Tulane.

Anonymous wrote:Christopher Newport. I'm a native NoVA born and raised and I had never heard of this school until about 2 years ago.

How old are your kids? I'm also a native NoVa, born and raised, and I definitely heard a lot about this school as my kids reached middle school and beyond. It's a very popular choice and has been for some time.

Anonymous wrote:Every few years there seems to be an out-of-state school that has all of the buzz and soon you know a ton of kids in your neighborhood/school that are going there. It's like all the kids talk and they all want to go there.

What is it this year?

There is no "fad" school...just schools that young humans are interested in and feel will suit their needs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, but no. That's not a thing.

Tulane begs to differ with you.

It's been around since 1894

It's been up and down and up and down - just like all the rest of them, over a more than 100 year period. You have no clue what you're talking about. haha.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, but no. That's not a thing.

Tulane begs to differ with you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely Northeastern right now.

+1. Lots of kids are suddenly at Northeastern.

+1
My DS opted not to apply after we visited (even though he really liked it)....he decided to go for a SLAC in ED and got in...but EVERY SINGLE ONE of his close friends with top grades/scores has applied except for the few that got in ED to top 10s....

I think its appeal is: 1) Co-Op/Experiential learning just seems cool (and also super practical); 2) Boston is a great city (and these DMV kids seem to want urban); and 3) students seem interesting/happy/not ultra-competitive.

Anonymous wrote:Definitely Northeastern right now.

+1. Lots of kids are suddenly at Northeastern.

Anonymous wrote:Fad elite: rice, grinnell

Fad upper 20 percenters: Michigan, usc, northeastern, Tulane

Fad middle of the road: Franklin and Marshall, umiami, trinity, Lafayette, Colorado college, cu Boulder

Fad lower middle of the road: elon, high point, TCU, asu

Grinnell elite?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HS saw an unusually large group going to U Mich Ann Arbor. More than ever in the past. And, the kids in our neighborhood all have Michigan sweatshirts.

Its a great school, but statistically crazy how many in my immediate area half-way across the country are going there.

Yes. Michigan is the new target for high stats kids who want CS or engineering and would have targeted Ivies - especially Cornell - but have been shutout due to the test-optional shift. It’s also a fallback for Virginians who don’t get into UVA’s CS or engineering. Michigan may have a somewhat better CS and engineering program, but many (probably most) would take UVA for in-state tuition and proximity to home. However, UVA is half the size of Michigan and doesn’t have enough CS/Engineering seats, so students go to Michigan for more than twice the cost, which makes Michiganders very happy.

Many would take Virginia Tech over UVA for engineering and CS. Students go to private schools too for-more than twice the cost of UVA and most of those schools aren’t as good as Michigan for engineering and CS either. You have no point other than UVA needs to upgrade its STEM education.

No, they won't. DD was accepted into UVA's aerospace engineering program and is now in grad school for same.

Your example doesn't disprove the claim that many would take VT over UVA for engineering.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HS saw an unusually large group going to U Mich Ann Arbor. More than ever in the past. And, the kids in our neighborhood all have Michigan sweatshirts.

Its a great school, but statistically crazy how many in my immediate area half-way across the country are going there.

Yes. Michigan is the new target for high stats kids who want CS or engineering and would have targeted Ivies - especially Cornell - but have been shutout due to the test-optional shift. It’s also a fallback for Virginians who don’t get into UVA’s CS or engineering. Michigan may have a somewhat better CS and engineering program, but many (probably most) would take UVA for in-state tuition and proximity to home. However, UVA is half the size of Michigan and doesn’t have enough CS/Engineering seats, so students go to Michigan for more than twice the cost, which makes Michiganders very happy.

Same reason for Northeastern’s rise. Kids who want CS and engineering are scrambling to find a seat at anywhere decent. Test-optional and the surge in demand for these majors has made it very difficult to get these majors at a very selective college.

Good point about CS/Engineering.
Northeastern's CS is ranked pretty high and well respected in the industry.
They establised it's own College of Computer Science seprated from the College of Engineering in 1982.
Again a good move by the University.

It's Business program is also very popular.
So pretty good school + good popular programs = Winner
The school just seem to do many things right.

Anonymous wrote:I hear Temple is hot because kids like the city, they give merit, and not super difficult to be accepted. Apparently a great school, just that damn area.

Same. Pitt is getting less generous with merit aid than they used to be and it seems like Temple is trying to follow their path. But, yeah, tough part of the city.

Auburn, Clemson, GA, Indiana, Elon, SMU

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say Northeastern and Northwestern drew unusually outsized attention this year.

Obviously Northwestern has been a fabulous school for more than a century, but in terms of being a "hot" school, it just seemed like there was more buzz this year.

And obviously Northeastern has become a de facto "must apply" for a certain segment of kids.

Curious, do you know a lot of kids who applied to Northwestern/what are you basing that intel on? We absolutely love the school and were sort of hoping it was a bit more under the radar here in DMV, but haven't really been keeping track of online conversations or talking about it with other families... Thanks!

3-4 years ago, I think, Sidwell sent 7-8 kids to Northwestern....

I don't think it's quite accurate to characterize Northwestern as a fad school. It's always been popular/selective/reputable, and its trends reflect positive upward momentum alongside its peer schools that are also doing well (i.e. Hopkins, Duke, Chicago, Brown, etc.)

Northeastern has been pretty popular for some time with relaively low acceptance rates:
2016-2017: 28.9%
2017-2018: 27.4%
2018-2019: 19.3%
2019-2020: 18.1%
2020-2021: 20%?

Much more than expected students actually committed last year, so it caused some overcrowding problem last year.
It has been gaining popularity surely and steadily at a fast rate.