Students are rejecting elite colleges like Columbia and Yale to attend southern schools like Clemson: report

Prospective students are increasingly opting for colleges like Elon in North Carolina, Clemson in South Carolina and the University of Miami in Florida over elite northeastern schools. 

For Jewish students, the rise of antisemitism and anti-Israel protests on campuses like Columbia have shown students like Scott Katz that choosing Elon was the right decision. Elon received an A grade from the Anti-Defamation League for its work to protect Jewish students from hate on campus. 

“It was a big deal,” Katz told The Free Press of the environment on campus. 

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“Even if I could’ve gotten into Harvard, I wouldn’t have gone,” Katz said. “I wanted a school that felt right for me, not someplace that we’re told we’re supposed to want to go.” 

“Never before have we seen so much interest in colleges like Clemson, Georgia Tech, and North Carolina State,” assistant vice provost and executive director of undergraduate admissions at Georgia Tech, Rick Clark, told the outlet. “That’s just unprecedented.”

Other parents and students cited COVID-era lockdown policies as the reason that they started to more seriously consider southern schools. 

“Kids up north were pretty u