**What are this year's HOT schools?**

College Search & Selection
21

@Much2learn You know me, i love Penn, but i think this has also a lot to do with the size of the schools. Penn and Cornell are the biggest ivies by undergrad class size.

I think Penn had the biggest increase in early apps out of all the ivies which in part could be attributed to being hotter (there is no such thing as bad publicity, if you know what I mean…). The other part that probably also explains this would be that Penn takes 55% of its class early, which is the highest percentage amongst the ivies.

22

@Penn95

I am sure that size is a component of it. However, Penn has many other differentiating factors that are attracting students:

  1. A large segregated campus, that is in a major city.
  2. Emphasis on hands-on experience to balance book learning.
  3. Strong business, and engineering programs in addition to world class arts and sciences.
  4. The social ivy!
  5. Ability to take classes in any school. (One University policy).
  6. Ability to participate in research, including a world class research hospital on campus.
  7. Outstanding placement.
  8. Penn’s emphasis on activities that go beyond the classroom.
  9. Access to dual degree and special programs: M & T, VIPER, Huntsman, Cs and Cog Sci, NETS, DMD.
  10. Flexible curriculum that allows students to tailor their education to their interests.
23

For our school (in New England) the most popular OOS public school is UVM. Any top student would be “ashamed” to say that they are going to “just” a public school except for UVM. It used to be Uconn but not anymore.
From LACs Middlebury is very hot although it has zero interests in our school and we never had an admit.
From ivies, it is always Harvard and Yale.
NYU used to be very hot and got a lot of apps in the past but not anymore since no one could make it work financially the last five years.
USC (in California) is getting more and more apps but no admits yet.
There is also increased interest in women’s colleges from top girls that they feel they get a better chance of admissions there compared to equally ranked co-ed schools.

24

In Northern Virginia, the top students apply to Ivies, MIT, Berkeley, and Stanford, but don’t get in. UVa is the school they want otherwise; JMU is the one they are happy to attend otherwise. For some reason the top LACs are pretty much unknown.

25

What makes Vermont less “shameful” than the in-state flagship (presumably Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, or Maine)?

26

``The Ivies that seem to be getting the most applications from students are Penn and Cornell. ‘’

My guess is that Penn and Cornell are hot because they are good places to do either of business, engineering, or pre-med – areas that are the interest of an increasingly dominant fraction of (top) students. These are the only Ivies that have business undergrad. Moreover, together with Princeton and Columbia (and possibly Harvard), they have good engineering programs (Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth are all considered quite weak in engineering).

27

@ucbalumnus
I have no idea why UVM is that popular. I would assume location?

28

^Popular with prep school kids so, like Miami Ohio, it’s become a public University that wants to be seen as a peer to some privates and capitalizes on the image.

29

Among those accepted to UVM only ~13% attend though.

30

We didn’t look at UVM but we have many friends who did - and they were very impressed. It’s a popular option in the northeast.

Also “hot” at my kids’ schools: USC, Tulane, Duke, Bucknell, Bowdoin.

31

^UVM has relatively few graduate students compared to UMass and UConn. A lot of out-of-staters like it because it resembles a large LAC.

32

^^ I definitely agree- D15 and D18 applied to LACs and also UVM. It was on both of their lists, the only public and/or research type university on either list. UVM seems to have tremendous crossover appeal for the students interested in outdoorsy schools with winter sports and an attractive college town.

33

And its honors program is strong, right?

34

The big National Merit programs with decent/great compsci here in the West seem to get a lot of attention. University of Southern California, ASU Barrett, and UT-Dallas seem to be especially popular.

35

It is hard to tell without looking at admissions data (number of applicants relative to past years) and yield rate.

36

Agree that UVM seems to have a lot of appeal to many in the northeast corridor for the reasons listed–cute town, easy to get to (airport nearby and good highways); outdoor sports galore; smallish school and attractive.

I think that UMaine Orono is attempting to give UVM a run for its money as it’s recently started a flagship matching program of discounted tuition. It offers much of what UVM offers.

Hot schools in my area also seem to include McGill. I’m not sure why every other kid seems to be applying to McGill . . . ? But that’s what seems to be happening.

Vassar and Skidmore seem to be heating up as well.

37

My kids’ high school is seeing much more attention paid to places that are more financially feasible. Last year’s top ten in the class went to three good-but-not-awesome privates and seven public flagships in or adjacent to our state (and that’s from one of the better privates in the region.) MN and Madison are fine schools, so there’s nothing to be ashamed of, but there was far less discussion of “best” and far more “full ride” and “huge scholarship” talk last spring.

38

Outside of the Texas schools the hot ones this year seem to be Arkansas and Alabama. OU also is always big but I would say Arkansas has passed Alabama this year as the “flavor of the year”. This is not for the top tier just among the regular students looking for an OOS option.

39

The discussion of hottest schools would not be complete without the University of Richmond. It’s certain to be garnering attention this season with it’s rise in the USNWR LAC ranking from #28 last year to #23 for 2018. Whether one takes the ranking seriously or not, it still puts UR in the limelight. And for good reason. I know several ecstatic alums from different fields of study who can’t praise their experiences and outcomes enough.

40

Richmond is a hidden gem (maybe not so hidden). It’s rare in that it combines four points of interest (at least):

  1. Great LAC feel and curriculum (all classes taught by profs, no classes more than 50 - most 25 or less)
  2. Great undergrad business school (not just econ but full business program)
  3. Location is not int he middle of nowhere (like many LACs), but rather just outside a very cool, historic city
  4. D1 sports. Basketball has been very good for a long time. Football is well received

Because of these, you get a bigger university feel but are still on a beautiful quaint campus of 3k kids.