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Students from the Northeast are heading South in record numbers, drawn by universities where sunshine, football and Greek life define campus life.
Rather than chasing the Ivy League dream, many students are now opting for schools in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), which consists of 16 schools including the University of South Carolina (USC), the University of Alabama, the University of Mississippi and the University of Tennessee, The Sunday Times reported.
Between 2014 and 2023, SEC colleges saw a 91% increase in undergraduate students from northeastern states, according to The Sunday Times, citing government data.
USC alone is up 90% over that same period.
University of South Carolina students celebrate on campus in the Thomas Cooper Library reflecting pool after the Gamecocks beat the Iowa Hawkeyes in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship game on April 7, 2024, in Columbia, South Carolina. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
USC hit a record this year with more than 40,000 students. Out-of-state enrollment has jumped 58% over the past decade, largely from the Northeast, as the school’s student body has grown 46%, according to The Sunday Times.
The largest pipelines are from North Carolina, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, The Sunday Times reported.
“All my friends are from [New] Jersey, [Philadelphia], New York, Maryland,” Sean Carroll, a 21-year-old USC senior from New York, told The Sunday Times. “People always ask me, ‘was it a culture shock?’ but there’s so many people from the north that you don’t even realize you’re in South Carolina. It’s just so trendy.”
Carroll, a member of USC’s Chi Psi fraternity, said only ten of its 200 members are from south of Virginia.
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Students and their families move belongings into a campus dormitory at the University of South Carolina on Aug. 10, 2020, in Columbia, South Carolina. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
“Northern fraternities hang with northern fraternities, southern with southern,” Carroll told The Sunday Times. “Even the tailgate lots are divided.”
Meanwhile, Cameron McManus, a high school senior from the Washington, D.C., suburbs, recently told Fortune Magazine he had been eyeing Clemson University, USC or the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after seeing TikTok and Instagram videos featuring sports, Greek life and warm weather.
“You can be outside all months of the year,” McManus said.
Since 2019, applications to Southern colleges have risen 50%, compared to less than 30% for schools in New England and the mid-Atlantic, Fortune Magazine reported, citing Common Application data.
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Views around the campus of the University of Tennessee on Sept. 30, 2023 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
The rise stems from the growing appeal of Southern schools and tougher competition for the nation’s most elite universities, as students now apply to more colleges than ever, according to Fortune Magazine.
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As competition intensifies, some Southern states have moved to preserve access for local students. Clemson’s acceptance rate has fallen from 52% to 38% in a decade, The Sunday Times reported.
North Carolina now caps out-of-state enrollment at 18%, while Texas offers guaranteed admission to its public universities for the top 10% of high school graduates, according to The Sunday Times.
USC, SEC and a spokesperson for the New England Board of Higher Education did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.