There are plenty of reasons why enrollments at Southeastern Conference universities are increasing. But a small part of this trend may be the most interesting one: More students from Northeastern states are coming down South.
The Axios website reported this in March, and the Magnolia Tribune website followed up on the story this month.
“Warm weather, affordability and politics have prompted a teenage migration from the Northeast to the South,” Axios reported.
The Tribune talked to an SEC academic relations official, who said academics, sports and university research portfolios have encouraged “Yankees” to look at the South more favorably.
“Then the benefits of the region and the quality of life and experiences that can be gained on SEC campuses and in the South in general I think speaks to it even more,” she added.
There is no swarm of Northeastern students. But over the past decade, the number of them heading this way clearly has increased.
LSU led the way in attracting more students from the Northeast, going from 100 students in 2014 to 568 in 2023. That 468% growth was by far the largest percentage increase among SEC schools. Tennessee was second with a 378% gain, and Ole Miss was third at 230%.
Florida, Georgia and Texas doubled their enrollments of Northeast students — which includes the six New England states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island; along with Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
The only four SEC schools that did not have more Northeastern students in 2023 were Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri.
Warmer weather and affordability, even for out-of-state students, are obvious factors. Students also have a better chance of getting into an SEC school than an elite private school.
Another factor that’s less obvious but surely plays a role is the political climate of Southern campuses. A college admissions author told Axios that more students “saw more freedom and fun in the South than they saw up North.” And a counselor at a higher-education company said students tell her they don’t want to go to colleges where issues like pro-Palestinian protests result in on-campus clashes.
The SEC’s “school spirit and football culture” gets the attention of prospective students, too. This was well documented in 2014 at Mississippi State, when a huge season by Dak Prescott & Co. led to a noticeable increase in applications.
There are plenty of benefits to this trend. A little more outside money circulates through college towns’ economy. In-state students get to know people from a different part of the country. But the long-term positive is that SEC graduates tend to stay in the South, giving the region’s population growth a head start at outpacing the rest of the country’s.
