The Hottest College in Boston Is... Northeastern?

Not very long ago, Tulane was named the "#1 party school in America" by an education ranking site. Today, the New Orleans university is one of the hardest places to get into—and it’s not the only institution with an erstwhile reputation for fun that now requires far more than an affinity for Greek life and a healthy appetite for beer to gain entry.

As T&C reported earlier this year, the college admissions process in 2022 was something of a horror show. Traditional hacks for earning a coveted slot at one of the nation's prestigious institutions of higher learning have went out the door. Recommendation letters from a famous person? Useless. Hoping for better odds with early decision? Not a chance. After Harvard released its admissions data for the year, revealing it had accepted a mere 3.2 percent of its applicants, a record low, parents and rising seniors everywhere began re-ordering their college wishlists.

Back in 2018, we published a list of 15 Alt-Ivies, colleges that had previously been classified as safety schools but that had slowly risen to become nearly as selective and sought after as Harvard, Yale, Brown, et al. Given the state of admissions today, we decided to create a new list to spotlight 15 additional schools that are experiencing dramatic increases in popularity. Once again we consulted with the college counseling service IvyWise, which examined changes in competitive acceptance rates, notable increases in applications, and other unique factors that are enticing prospective students.

Some of the results were expected—so-called Public Ivies, like the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia, made it, as did "Little Ivies," like Colgate. But some schools that made the list were a surprise. Take Northeastern: In just five years, the acceptance rate for that Boston university plummeted into the single digits.

Below, a list of 2022 Alt-Ivies along with the IvyWise team's rundown of why these are no longer just a safe bet.