My wife works in admissions at a public university in Virginia and she is always dismayed by the kids that come from out of state to Virginia, paying huge out-of-state tuition, to major in Communications or Psychology or something clearly offered at their own state colleges.
Virginia has been attracting wealthy New England kids for decades.
The universities were seen as a cheap alternative to the insanely expensive private colleges in New England. (But not anymore)
I know because my family is from one of those unfashionable little towns in the southwest corner, a couple of miles from Tennessee.