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

I’m from a wealthy part of New York and the hot schools in the area seem to be the Northeast LACs (think Colgate, Vassar, Midd, F&M, Skidmore, etc.) as well as Mich, Boston College, Northeastern, Tufts, UMiami in Ohio. Somewhat obviously, given my geographic placement and academic pedigree of the people, the Ivies as well as Duke are also “hot schools” in the area. I might be biased here but Emory (or I should say Oxford) seems to be a “hot school” with a spike in applications last year and a 50% increase in ED applications this most recent round.

@Prodesse, I agree that UVA is hot in state. 37,000 applications this year. JMU’s appeal is starting to wane in our area high schools. The reputation as a party school, and lower admission standards for OOS students isn’t helping. University of South Carolina is a popular option, especially the Honors College, because they offer amazing merit based scholarships and transfer most AP classes. U Richmond and even VCU are popular choices, as well as UMaryland and smaller LACs. For some reason, William & Mary’s popularity among my DS’18’s peers has decreased, which I don’t understand. It is an excellent school and an amazing value for in-state students. For other excellent area schools, Hopkins, Georgetown, and GW are all holding steady. UA-Huntsville is popular because of the merit aid.

@TheTennisNinja Yes, for ED1, Oxford had an increase of 47%; ED1 increase for Emory was 7%. The Oxford jump is notable, while the Emory increase is not unlike early app increases at other selective colleges, with 10-15% increases being common. (We are only beginning to explore Emory as the college counselor recently added it to the Naviance list. I suppose we will have to visit; maybe we should visit Oxford too.)

@VSmom23 Regarding William and Mary, I believe students are concerned about over-intensity and academic pressure, following a tragic cluster of suicides that were widely publicized a few years ago.

@Chembiodad It’s not at all clear that their value is any more or any less, as evaluated by numbers of people flocking there. (Note: Dutch bulb bubble.) The value of many schools (or other products) is perceived value rather than actual value. And humans are easily swayed into seeing more value when observing groups of other humans flocking towards something: Wow! That must be great!!! I’d better run there TOO!!!

That’s why they do marketing, to create the flocks of humans running in their direction and laying down hard cash. To get the momentum going toward them. It’s the case, also, that when you put a high-achiever in X school the person will still be a high achiever, regardless of the school. Studies have been shown that the school is less a factor in a person’s success than are the personal qualities of that individual. So Northeastern fills itself with high achievers who read no deeper than the USN&WR rankings, but they are still high achievers and will do well later in life. The graduates credit the school for their success, whether it deserves credit or not.

UChicago had a lot to offer before its marketing jiujitsu. Northeastern . . . . not so much and I’m not convinced that it’s any better than many dozen (several hundred) other schools around the country. And ones that are more attractive, to boot. And probably cost less. And don’t come with the Marketing Profile of A Used Car Lot. But that’s just me. Not my favorite school. But you guys enjoy!

The definition of “hot” anything is “shortlived perceived success that has little to do with any underlying change in value”. It’s the ice cream of the month. The Ryan Gosling school this year among 17 year olds. And everyone knows how fickle the opinions of 17 year olds are

I think George Mason is coming up in the DC area over American and Catholic U. I don’t think Loyola in Maryland holds any kind of candle to JHU or Gtown in the same area even though it is a Jesuit school.

@Dustyfeathers, Northeastern isn’t a tulip bubble, the graduate outcomes are very strong - much of it is likely due to its location in Boston, as there are only a couple other markets creating that many tech jobs and have such a cool lifestyle, and its coop based program.

@alexandre oh yes! thanks for adding it

this year’s hot colleges can turn into a long term trend. There was a time, not so long ago, when Duke, Emory and Tulane were all considered quite equal in terms of prestige and student body. I would guess that the relative movement of those schools was due to being “hot” at one point, which was sustained, and they are unlikely to fall back into equalness in our lifetime.

UMich is expecting a 25%-30% increase in applicants this year suggested by the number of EA applications received. Thanks to the increase in financial aid. The admission rate will drop accordingly though. In the last 7 years, the applications increased only 4-7% per year.

Schools can also be “hot” in a narrow area. For example, Ithaca College in upstate NY is red-hot for Musical Theater. 5% acceptance rate. The school is otherwise little known except regionally.

“UVA is hot instate. 37,000 applications this year.” Historically, there are always many more OOS applicants than IS applicants .

billcsho, while it is true that the EA applicant pool to Michigan increased by approximately 25% this year, it is unlikely that the overall applicant pool will increase by that amount. I would anticipate a 10%-15% overall increase, which is already substantial. It is not uncommon for universities of that calibre to experience a surge in applications when they join the Common App. The surge lasts several years until the acceptance rate drops to a level that is no longer appealing to applicants. Michigan’s threshold has yet to be breached. Only then will you see a plateauing in applications.

@roycroftmom
Maybe Emory and Tulane at one point, but Duke has always been considered 20 years ahead of Emory imo. But yes Emory certainly fall into the “HOT college” category.

Not in 1970, in my experience.

@VAMom23 , while UVA is obviously popular in-state, a lot more applications come from out-of-state, where the acceptance rate I think is low 20% range, vs. in-state where it is 40%+.

I don’t think JMU’s popularity has declined, but I think 1) it has grown a lot and has a lot of spots to fill (it is now the size of UVA with many more undergraduates) and 2) I think it has kind of settled into the tier below UVA, W&M, and VT.

I think W&M gets over 15K applications, which is a fair number given class size is about 1,500. Any issues may be more with yield. Like UVA, there are comparatively more OOS vs. IS applications. If you look at the state’s SCHEV site, which has a normalized view of data for state schools, you can see W&M stats remain high. I believe SAT scores have generally been as high if not slightly higher than UVA.

Our (OOS) S19 is interested in W&M. Part of me thinks we need to find a VA family to give us the real scoop. On paper, for VA kids who want a LAC, it looks like a no brainer. Yet, I get the vibe that there’s something about it that turns VA kids off.

@homerdog W&M is a wonderful school. It was not appealing to either instate son though and neither thought of applying. My youngest would not even take a tour. They wanted a larger school, more of a sports scene. They ended up at UVA and Virginia Tech. This is, of course, anecdotal and your son should take a look if the interest is there. It might be a great choice for him. W&M has a reputation of having a quirky vibe. I believe they get many more female applicants than male, or at least that is my perception. Good luck!

Native Virginian here(although we live elsewhere in the South currently). We toured W&M with our senior. The pluses-beautiful, historic campus. What turned my daughter off is that the kids looked unhappy. We did not see a single group of students laughing or hanging out. The vibe was just dreary. Older daughter, who is in law school there (totally different type of student) agrees that the undergrads seem to lack the “fun” gene.

All of this info would be more revealing if posters mentioned what part of the country they are from. What region you’re from still has a huge impact on what type of schools are considered attractive…as I am reminded of whenever I read a thread about some student (presumably from California or the Northeast?) whose life is ruined because he/she has to attend a big state universitiy.

Also, while some schools are hot to apply to, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are hot to attend. Bad financial aid, distance from home, dangerous neighborhoods, lack of direct admittance to desired major, crappy dorms, and so on can deflate that dream school when the stark reality of decision time comes.