Some of the country’s top graduating high school seniors are reconsidering leading universities amid backlash over far-left protests as administrators do little to counter radical student and faculty groups who dominate headlines, campus discourse and even swaths of physical space.
“There’s a feeling of anxiety and concern, whether they need to withdraw,” said Adam Nguyen, a college admissions specialist and founder of Ivy Link, which helps some of the nation’s top high school graduates navigate their way into elite universities. “So many of my students had accepted already. But, given ongoing protests, how the schools have handled those protests, the families are concerned and exploring options to potentially pull out, which is unprecedented.”
In many cases, they’re circling back with non-Ivy schools that had accepted them but which the students had already turned down, he said.
“It’s concerning for alumni of these institutions as well as prospective students,” Nguyen told Fox News Digital. “It’s concerning for current students because it affects the value of their degrees.”
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Protest supporters watch as members of the NYPD detain protesters from the anti-Israel protest encampment at Hamilton Hall, where demonstrators barricaded themselves inside April 30, 2024, in New York City. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
Nguyen has worked in Columbia’s admissions office and as a graduate school adviser for Harvard and is an alumnus of both universities. But he said those schools and others with like-minded leadership are suffering serious damage to their branding.
A masked man smashes glass at Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall April 30, 2024, in New York City. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)
“Parents and counselors are looking very warily at what used to be a worthy aim, a goal of applying to the Ivy League. Now they’re reexamining their choices, their goals, and looking at schools in the South.”
“The selling point of the Ivy League has always been you go there, you’re exposed to great ideas, great people. You form a lifelong bond with other accomplished, educated individuals, and you get a high [return] on your education investment,” he said. “Now, that reputation, the potential [return on investment] or at least the perspective of a potential ROI, has been tarnished severely in the last year or so and culminating in this climax of protests and disruptions, as well as cancellation of commencement, for example, at Columbia.”
NYPD officers arrive in riot gear to break into a building at Columbia University, where anti-Israel students were barricaded inside a building and have set up an encampment in New York City April 30, 2024. (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)
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Students graduating from Columbia University this semester had their college tenure disrupted first by the coronavirus pandemic, which sent them into remote classes, and then by protests that have had the campus locked down for weeks. Campus closures have taken away students’ access to public spaces, including historic libraries, workout centers and green spaces occupied by unauthorized tent encampments.
Students wrap a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh around a statue of George Washington at the George Washington University encampment protest. (Probal Rashid/LightRocket via Getty Images)
School leaders finally called police to clear away the anti-Israel demonstrators after a mob smashed its way into the school’s Hamilton Hall building, barricaded the doors and holed up inside. Police later said almost a third of them had no connection to the school, and the city’s Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, blamed outside agitators for egging on student protesters.
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That same night across town, NYPD officers raised the American flag after taking down Palestinian colors that demonstrators had flown in place of Old Glory at the City College of New York.
“My uncle died defending this country, and these men and women put their lives on the line – and it’s despicable that schools will allow another country’s flag to fly in our country,” Adams, a former NYPD captain, told reporters.
Anti-Israel agitators block roadways outside Yale University in New Haven, Conn., April 22, 2024. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital )
To get around safety concerns, Columbia officials revived remote learning and canceled a school-wide graduation ceremony, prompting more complaints from students and their families with no connection to the anti-Israel demonstrations.
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Demonstrators from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology rally at MIT at an encampment in Cambridge, Mass., April 22, 2024. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)
Many of Nguyen’s students have been prepping for elite colleges since seventh grade or earlier. Now, he said, they’re reconsidering their long-term plans with future repercussions in mind.
“The takeaway is that there is definitely short-term damage, and it’s affecting the ROI of these Ivy League degrees. It’s affecting current students, it’s affecting prospective students and it’s impacting alumni, many of whom are very unhappy with what they’re seeing.”
Protests have rattled campuses across the country, but they kicked off at Columbia University in New York City and quickly spread to nearby Ivy League establishments and elsewhere. Police have arrested hundreds of demonstrators, many of whom are not students.
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Schools like Duke University in North Carolina, Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and Emory University in Georgia are now more attractive than Columbia, Yale and Harvard to many families, he said.
Even schools where protests have broken out are attracting attention based on how administrators and the student body at large responded, including the University of Texas at Austin and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
A masked demonstrator stands guard at a locked gate on Columbia’s West Lawn, where dozens of students have set up tents as they demand the university take a number of anti-Israel measures amid a conflict between the country’s military and Hamas terrorists who attacked Oct. 7, 2023. (Micheal Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
“There are clear guidelines that are quickly enforced and enforced early,” he said. “For some reason, the Ivy League just lost control over these protesters, especially Columbia.”
Prospective students and their families don’t oppose the First Amendment rights to free speech and to protest, he said, but they have fears about the disorder.
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“What they’re really concerned about is how the universities have just lost control to a fringe element, and that loss of control has created safety and other issues for students,” he said.
Rice University in Texas is appealing because it has largely avoided becoming embroiled in the campus culture wars, he said.
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Hundreds gathered for the anti-Israel encampment at the University of Chicago. (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
“There’s definitely a mass brain drain going on, and a shift that’s going to last for years in regards to the schools and applicants,” said Liora Rez, founder and executive director of StopAntisemitism. “We’re going to see a drop in standings in certain schools and a rise in others.”
She pointed to Brandeis University in Massachusetts, which she said is actively trying to recruit transfer students who faced antisemitism at Ivy League schools.
“It’s not just Jewish students,” Rez said. “It’s any sane family that is spending a fortune sending their child to learn. It should be the best time in your life, these four years.”
Police intervene and arrest more than 100 students at New York University during an anti-Israel demonstration in support of activists at Columbia University. (Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Many prospective students are looking to learn, make lifelong friends, join clubs and experience the college life, she said. And in doing so, they want to avoid the drama of what she called “social justice pro-terror advocates causing havoc on campus.”
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“Instead of Harvard, Columbia, the focus is shifting to schools in Texas, Florida, Connecticut, Indiana, Ohio,” she said. “I’m not sure if blue versus red is an accurate characterization, but there is more of a focus on which administrators are actually standing behind their students, versus administrators that are allowing this to fester and be prolonged.”
The Ivies can cost a student about $90,000 a year for tuition and related expenses. Families that look at that as a losing investment can turn elsewhere, Nguyen said.
And while he expects the country’s historic, elite universities to recover, they may not.
“If you see a drop in those really highly qualified students applying, that’s going to hurt the student population that these institutions have,” he said. “Colleges, their reputation rests on the students that they’re able to attract. If they’re not able to attract the best and brightest, over time, the quality will suffer.”