Among the colleges that drew the highest percentages of first-time students from other states were elite private institutions on the East Coast; colleges devoted to serving American Indians, deaf and hard-of-hearing people, African-Americans, or Seventh-day Adventists; colleges in states with relatively small populations; and universities close to the borders of states with which they have tuition-reciprocity agreements. North Dakota State University, the University of North Dakota, and the University of Wisconsin at Superior all had more first-time students from Minnesota than from their own states. Vanderbilt University was the only private institution on the list that drew more students from its own state than from any other state.
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4-year public institutions
| 1. | Haskell Indian Nations U. (Kan.) | Plains | 151 | 81.5% | 59.6% | Oklahoma | 35 |
| 2. | U. of Vermont | New England | 1,988 | 75.2% | 38.2% | Massachusetts | 378 |
| 3. | U. of Alabama at Tuscaloosa | Southeast | 7,462 | 67.8% | 38.4% | Georgia | 559 |
| 4. | Delaware State U. | Mideast | 887 | 66.0% | 10.1% | New Jersey | 130 |
| 5. | North Dakota State U. | Plains | 2,384 | 65.9% | 4.8% | Minnesota | 1,394 |
| 6. | Keene State College (N.H.) | New England | 987 | 64.0% | 7.3% | Massachusetts | 262 |
| 7. | U. of North Dakota | Plains | 1,695 | 64.0% | 14.7% | Minnesota | 793 |
| 8. | U. of Delaware | Mideast | 4,120 | 60.5% | 9.4% | New Jersey | 952 |
| 9. | U. of New Hampshire | New England | 2,782 | 58.5% | 10.7% | Massachusetts | 896 |
| 10. | Lincoln U. (Pa.) | Mideast | 466 | 57.7% | 5.8% | New York | 68 |
| 11. | Oklahoma Panhandle State U. | Southwest | 173 | 56.6% | 20.2% | Texas | 58 |
| 12. | U. of Mississippi | Southeast | 3,718 | 56.4% | 27.2% | Texas | 386 |
| 13. | Central State U. (Ohio) | Great Lakes | 586 | 56.3% | 4.8% | Michigan | 126 |
| 14. | Langston U. (Okla.) | Southwest | 438 | 56.2% | 32.6% | Texas | 103 |
| 15. | Coastal Carolina U. (S.C.) | Southeast | 2,157 | 55.8% | 40.7% | Virginia | 139 |
| 16. | U. of Rhode Island | New England | 2,728 | 55.8% | 21.4% | Massachusetts | 504 |
| 17. | Jackson State U. (Miss.) | Southeast | 1,174 | 54.3% | 30.7% | Illinois | 185 |
| 18. | U. of Wisconsin at Superior | Great Lakes | 306 | 54.2% | 52.0% | Minnesota | 153 |
| 19. | Southern Oregon U. | Far West | 594 | 54.0% | 3.7% | California | 220 |
| 20. | West Virginia U. | Southeast | 4,739 | 54.0% | 42.7% | Pennsylvania | 696 |
4-year private nonprofit institutions
| 1. | Gallaudet U. (D.C.) | Mideast | 208 | 99.0% | 73.1% | California | 20 |
| 2. | American U. (D.C.) | Mideast | 1,536 | 98.9% | 59.9% | New Jersey | 174 |
| 3. | Georgetown U. (D.C.) | Mideast | 1,403 | 98.6% | 61.2% | New York | 211 |
| 4. | George Washington U. (D.C.) | Mideast | 2,094 | 98.3% | 57.5% | New York | 286 |
| 5. | Howard U. (D.C.) | Mideast | 814 | 98.3% | 64.1% | New York | 110 |
| 6. | Catholic U. of America (D.C.) | Mideast | 621 | 98.1% | 37.0% | Maryland | 110 |
| 7. | Dartmouth College (N.H.) | New England | 905 | 97.6% | 82.2% | California | 131 |
| 8. | Bennington College (Vt.) | New England | 125 | 96.8% | 85.6% | California | 33 |
| 9. | Middlebury College (Vt.) | New England | 509 | 95.7% | 67.2% | Massachusetts | 91 |
| 10. | Brown U. (R.I.) | New England | 1,373 | 95.5% | 76.5% | California | 237 |
| 11. | Rhode Island School of Design | New England | 313 | 94.2% | 72.8% | California | 57 |
| 12. | U. of Notre Dame (Ind.) | Great Lakes | 1,871 | 94.1% | 69.3% | Illinois | 241 |
| 13. | King’s College (N.Y.) | Mideast | 143 | 93.7% | 86.0% | Texas | 28 |
| 14. | Union College (Neb.) | Plains | 136 | 93.4% | 77.2% | California, Florida (tie) | 17 |
| 15. | Yale U. (Conn.) | New England | 1,173 | 93.2% | 86.1% | New York | 190 |
| 16. | Reed College (Ore.) | Far West | 287 | 92.7% | 48.4% | California | 96 |
| 17. | Oberlin College (Ohio) | Great Lakes | 670 | 92.2% | 80.0% | New York | 109 |
| 18. | Wesleyan U. (Conn.) | New England | 606 | 91.6% | 76.7% | New York | 130 |
| 19. | Providence College (R.I.) | New England | 1,021 | 91.4% | 34.1% | Massachusetts | 392 |
| 20. | Vanderbilt U. (Tenn.) | Southeast | 1,266 | 90.8% | 63.5% | Illinois | 114 |
Note: The “first-time U.S. students” counted in this table are first-time degree- or certificate-seeking American undergraduate students who graduated from a high school in the last 12 months preceding their enrollment in college and who were enrolled in college in the fall of 2016. Students whose states were unknown were excluded from the total. For-profit and two-year colleges were excluded from the comparison. Institutions with 50 percent or more of students taking classes through distance education only were also excluded from the comparison, as were institutions with fewer than 100 first-time undergraduate students from the United States. At four-year public institutions over all, 16.5 percent of such students were from outside the college’s home state, and 9.4 percent were from outside the region. At four-year private nonprofit institutions, 48.8 percent of first-time students were from outside the college’s home state, and 30.3 percent were from outside the region. Regions are defined by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Percentages are rounded; institutions were ranked before rounding. Questions or comments on the Almanac should be sent to the Almanac editor.
Source: Chronicle analysis of U.S. Department of Education data
