Young people from the Northeast have decided the Deep South is where they want to be — at least for their college years.

The prospect of better weather, better parties, and better campuses has lured many Gen Zers from the Northeast to campuses in states such as South Carolina and Alabama, according to The Sunday Times.

“Where young people used to travel to the well-to-do corners of New England for higher education, increasing numbers now want to attend state schools in the South — Alabama, Clemson, the University of Mississipi (‘Ole Miss’), Tennessee, Charleston, Elon — drawn by good weather, exciting football, beautiful campuses and viral social media videos of game-day parties and sorority dance routines,” The Times reported.

Reviewing government data for its analysis, The Times found that “universities belonging to the Southeastern Conference — there are 16, including USC — recorded a 91 per cent rise in undergraduate students from northeastern states in a decade from 2014 to 2023.”

“…At the University of Louisiana there was a 486 percent increase in students from the northeast between 2014 and 2023; at Tennessee it was 378.7 percent.”

The immersive and popular Greek Life community is a major draw for these schools, as well as festive football games and mild winters, with students lured by dazzling TikTok videos. Another perk? The positivity is high, and divisive politics is low. It’s less “in your face,” one admissions counselor told The Times about the political vibes on Southern schools.

But the trend has created something of a North-South rift on campuses, too.

“Northern fraternities get along with northern fraternities,” one student told The Times. “Southern get along with southern fraternities. So there’s definitely a divide.”

The increase in out-of-state enrollment has been a deliberate strategy by some public Southern universities to boost revenue through higher non-resident tuition fees, especially following state budget cuts, according to the article.

“Tuition fees are much lower for homegrown students than out-of-state — at [the University of South Carolina], for example, it is the difference between $12,688 and $37,376 a year,” the outlet reported.

Another downside? A question has arisen on whether jamming in out-of-state students strains the original mission of these Southern state schools to educate their own populations.

“To curb this, some states have put a cap on out-of-state students: North Carolina has a cap of 18 per cent; the University of California proposed a 10 per cent cap by 2033,” The Times reported.

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