The more I search for colleges, and talk to my peers about it, I find that there are some schools that seem to be “in.” I’ve heard them called “Trendy schools.”
They seem to be garnering a lot of attention from lots of prospective students for no particular reason, and SOME of them dont quite have the academic reputation that would warrant all this interest. Plus, this newfound popularity probably won’t last too long. I think some people recognize trendy schools as ones that have a huge rise in applications, then they die back down after a year or two. However some schools might only be considered “trendy” in a particular region and not have a rise in yield (so there is no definitive answer to this post I was just curious!)
I was wondering what posters thought the “Trendy” Schools of this and the past year are!
From talking with my classmates it seems like some of the recent trendy schools are:
1.) Elon
2.) NYU (It seems like this is usually pretty popular, but with movies and TV shows that glamorize city life, I can think of around 8 kids in my grade that have declared this their “Dream School.”)
3.) University of Georgia - I was surprised at how many PA kids applied here last year! Many of them had no connections of GA. I think the nice weather, big school feel, and surrounding city of Athens is what drew them in.
Anyways, this post is just for fun! Share your thoughts! 
For New Jersey students some are Clemson, University of South Carolina, Elon and High Point.
You are right about NYU, like living in Manhattan is only rainbows and unicorns, endless trips to museums, limitless shopping sprees, lazy days going from art gallery to art gallery and of course the theatre.
Elon is trendy bc its appearing in the Princeton review rankings. (school on the rise, best value, etc)
Wow! I’m surprised at all the NJ kids interested in schools in NC and SC! Especially because Clemson and university of South Carolina are public, so I would think tuition would be rough.
Yeah I’ve never understood the fascination with NYU and NYC in general. It’s nice to spend a day or so in the city, but for me, i don’t think I could handle the pace or noise.
No doubt NYU is fun but many kids don’t realize the expense involved in doing all those things or that NYU is 50% commuter.
My son has a friend going to Clemson that was accepted to Dartmouth and Dartmouth was a bit cheaper.
I’m not sure about USC, but Clemson gives fairly good merit aid to OOS students and is ranked #20 in USNWR for public universities and has a very strong engineering program.
These “trendy” schools have been around for over a century but were local or regional. All that has happened is that they are now attracting a national student body.
@carolinamom2boys engineering is the trendy major rn in the Northeast so any school with a strong engineering program will get a lot of applicants from the northeast
Clemson has a very nice campus. My son did visit with a friend. He said it was great. He also said there is a beach on a lake.
Both USC and Clemson have strong Honors programs as well. In fact, because they’re becoming so popular with OOS students, it’s becoming very competitive for in state students. For a true college experience in a great college town you can’t get much better than Clemson. You can be at the beach in 3 1/2 hrs, mountains in 2 -3 and Atlanta or Charlotte within several hrs. Can you tell I’m a little biased?
According to[this](http://m.mic.com/articles/103988/the-most-popular-colleges-in-america-aren-t-the-ones-you-think) site, the trendiest colleges as far as application increases go are Liberty University, St. John’s in N.Y., CWRU, and some other colleges which save for U Chicago are seldom discussed on CC.
Keep in mind that Liberty’s enrollment growth is mainly due to its online programs.
Over the past couple years a lot more kids from my HS started applying to Vanderbilt. I agree with above posters though, for some reason northern east coast prep school boys from NJ are going to a lot of southern schools. Some people from my area go to Elon, Wake, Richmond, W and M, UVA, Clemson, UNC, and Tulane (although Tulane has always attracted northeastern kids.
New College of Florida has been receiving more attention at my alma mater.
Isn’t anything other than a NJ public trendy in NJ?
Actually, TCNJ is very desirable. The middle 50% in scores has skyrocketed. This year 28 - 31, higher than Rutgers. Rowan is on that track as well.
The move south seems to be boys. Maybe it’s the lure of southern bells, the weather. Could be many B+ boys getting elbowed at the go-to schools of yesterday.