Quick anecdote (not data) on the long term family migration South due to Covid/lack of restrictions, etc.
I have neighbors who headed South, sold their home quickly, decided that living in a low tax/lower cost of living state was their destiny.
They are now looking to buy a home back in their old neighborhood.
Why? They are living in a low cost state, and in a town with very low property taxes. After a bad school year (last year) they had high hopes that their local elementary school could “turn things around” for one of their kids who has some LD’s. Now that the kid has been in a school for two months they realize- no, it won’t turn around. Every service that the kid got- to which he was legally entitled-- in our local public school- was free. (not without cost of course- that’s what our high property taxes pay for.) Every accommodation- provided. In the new town- everything is a battle, nothing is assumed, they were told point blank “you don’t like it, sue the school system”.
I am sure there are phenomenal school systems in low tax states, in towns with low property taxes, and I’m sure there are terrific city governments that run on a shoestring with high efficiency. But I’m equally sure that high taxes often equate with other things and if you happen to be a family who NEEDS those things- it is much harder to navigate in a place with a history of “cut cut cut”, vote down every bond issue, extra spending is wasteful spending, etc.
Just an interesting story I thought… Our local public schools do lots of things wrong. But we do excel in special services-- and I know a lot of teachers and paras and the non-teaching professionals in speech, OT, etc. who take great pride in working with kids who don’t fit into a neat educational box.
For my D18 it was probably big time sports, and the weather that made her chose Clemson over UDel. She actually got more merit money to Delaware and was accepted to honor college at both but she wanted the big time sports.
According to Clemson website in 2021 the incoming class was only 51% SC residents. Historically it has been more like 60%
My D23 is looking only at colleges in Texas, the SE, and the midwest. We live in the PNW. Part of it is a desire to move away from home and she knows she’s way too laid back for the NE (we lived in Boston at one point). A larger part of it is Covid and the restrictions that she had to live with here vs our family in the midwest and friends in the south. She’s also sick of politics, living in the Portland area has worn her out and she wants to go to football games and parties and not talk about social justice for a while.
I am concerned about Roe and had her start birth control.
Definitely seeing more middle class upper middle class families chasing merit and more Southern schools have merit or low cost OOS Tuition
Alabama, Ole Miss, South Carolina to start very good merit
All of the Florida Public Universities very Cheap OOS Tuition compared to Northern Counterparts ( This is a general statement and I know there are exceptions)
There are also some very good schools MidWest for merit as well
From our area (fairly affluent towns in NJ), there are always a bunch that go to Duke, Rice, Emory, Georgia Tech, etc each year. Those that seek merit mostly tend to go in-state but I guess a few do go south seeking merit money or big sports. However, since the question (as stated in the thread title) is “Are more students applying…”, the answer is no for my area. It’s probably been the same number each year.
I also see that many responses above talk about their kid’s positive experience at a southern school, but that’s not what’s being asked.
Many such students do not merely think their quality of life will not be as good as it should be; they know this from firsthand experience.
I’ll add that this is the case not only for prospective undergrads but also to some extent for grad students and faculty as well. My boyfriend and I did not entirely rule out applying for jobs in the South when we were on the academic job market, but neither of us was keen on taking a job at a southern college.
Some of the most LGBTQ+ friendly colleges are in the South. Sure there are some where that’s not the case just like there are some where that’s not case in other parts of the country.
I imagine to really answer the question and I don’t have the time - but you’d have to define the “South” boundary and you can compare - maybe looking at 10 or 20 colleges - their annual application figures.
And you can do the same for the North.
I believe the answer is absolutely yet - and while on the CC it’s not the typical user, I’m sure the “mass” reason is dollars…no different than many other functions of society.
But if you tracked - say 20 publics up North and 20 down South - you’d see the growth.
Don’t forget, we talk about the name brand schools - but there’s many a non name brand - whether a directional or a TN Tech or UT Chattanooga, etc. - just like many SUNY schools.
In PA, for example, and I’m not saying it answers this question, but some of the publics had to merge administrative functions due to declining enrollments.
I think that CC is dominated by students who are targeting the most rejective colleges in the U.S. I also think it’s dominated by full-pay families, whether they want to be full-pay or not. The majority of posters are privileged enough that not only can they pay for room & board for their kid to live on-campus (vs. living at home), but they are also willing and able to pay for increased travel costs and tuition, even if it’s not up to $65k/year for tuition.
Although there are families who get an awesome deal at an out-of-state university that makes it cost less than their in-state flagship (whether lower-income families at the wealthy meet-needs schools or high-performing students with lots of merit at others), the vast majority of families in the U.S. have difficulty affording their in-state flagship. So regardless of the politics, sports culture, LGBTQ treatment, abortion legality, etc, those students are staying close to home, as it’s their most affordable option.
So when we start talking about whether students are applying to more northern or southern or any other region’s colleges, we should acknowledge that we’re largely talking about students who are upper middle class and above.
But then to this point it would make sense that the sunbelt (not just the Southern schools) would in many cases be getting more applicants because states like TN and SC are booming and NY, NJ, PA and now even California have flatlined or lost population.
I was born and raised in the South and have two degrees from southern universities. (And though I graduated from Duke, I took many courses at Carolina and did research with faculty there.) My boyfriend graduated from a southern LAC and got his master’s at a flagship public in the South. We’re quite familiar with southern colleges and their queer communities.
At the end of the day, it is a matter of personal preference. There are some good colleges in the South, and though they are not everyone’s cup of tea, no college is.
Many Northern kids were locked down and unable to do things for a very long time. We had one in school in NY last year and one in FL. NY school was not allowed to hold some in person events for most of last year. FL kid had an absolutely normal year. Many students may be looking at those things as well. If they were to be locked down during the winter again, where would they rather be? Kid # 3 watched how both sibling’s schools handled things and is choosing to apply to schools in the south.
My daughter’s LAC in NC is more than 50% LGBTQ+. She’s very happy there so far. Thought about going up north or overseas, but is enjoying where she landed.
Actually, yeah, quality of attendance experience is a key consideration for this cohort of students.
My kid had no in-person schooling from March 2020 to September 2021. In my kid’s case, this was mitigated by the fact that their particular public school is an independent study one so each subject only gets 75 minutes of class time per week. The rest is homework packets.
The lack of student support from March 2020 to June 2020 was eye-opening. A full year of virtual instruction followed. My kid doubled down and did a couple of extra classes on the schedule. Hated being online so much but tried to make the most of the situation.
Any schools with tight restrictions and excessive virtual classes won’t work for us, so they will be off the list. My kid’s high school graduating class each year is small. Many stay local and start community college. There’s at least one, maybe two, “status” school admissions each year. Will have to check the matriculation billboard to see if Southern schools have started popping up.