<p>According to a recent article in the Washington Post:</p>
<p>"States in New England and the Mid-Atlantic have a tougher time holding onto their high-school graduates"</p>
<p>"More than half — 58 percent — of high school graduates go to college within 100 miles of home"</p>
<p>"High-achieving students (at least as defined by a single measure, the SAT) go farther away for college. Just 24 percent of students who earned between 1,200 and 1,500 points leave their state for college. That rate is more than doubled — 56 percent — for students who scored at least 2,100. Among those higher-achieving students, the average distance traveled for college was 526 miles."</p>
<p>Reed college students travel the highest average distance from home.</p>
<p>Haven’t read the story but no surprise that New York State pupils run from colleges in their region, the exceptions being Cornell, Columbia, Vassar and a handful of very fine LACs in the upstate counties. New Jersey may be even worse.</p>
<p>You know this, of course, but it’s silly to compare rates at which small states “lose” graduates compared to larger states. It doesn’t take much distance for a kid from Rhode Island to leave his state, but a kid could travel many tines that distance and still be in state in Texas or California. </p>
<p>Right. In most of New England – at least the parts of New England where people live – and in many population centers in the Middle Atlantic states, 100-150 miles from your home can mean crossing several state lines. And good public transportation networks may mean that even longer distances are comparatively easy to travel. </p>
<p>On top of that, of course, you have an extensive higher-education infrastructure that was in place long before the advent of public universities, with the result that the public universities are relatively weaker and face more, and more established, competition from private colleges and universities, for which state lines matter very little.</p>
<p>Agreed. We live in the Washington DC Metro area and we can get through Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine in the same time it takes for someone to drive through California or Texas. My D goes to school 300 miles away, in Conn. There are no top tier schools here in the Middle Atlantic Region that she even considered (and it can be argued that none exist).</p>
<p>New Hampshire in-state tuition, room and board is very high. My kids both were offered better money from neighboring state flagships as well as private schools. UNH was their most expensive option. </p>
<p>People have already pointed out the flaw in this study. If you look at net loss/gain of students, NJ does lead the pack in terms of losing HS students to colleges elsewhere, but PA is one of the leaders in being a net gainer of college students.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, NYS is about flat.</p>
<p>Did Massachusetts lose my brother since he doesn’t live there any more? (He lives in NH.) OTOH he used to work in NH, but now works in Massachusetts.</p>
<p>My older son works in CA because that’s where his kind of computer jobs are. Younger son is more likely to stay on the east coast (most likely DC or NY) unless he finagles his way overseas again.</p>
<p>Add UVa as a school that would disagree with @TPerry1982. And not including PA, NJ, and NYS in the Mid-Atlantic region seems strange. Or maybe Princeton isn’t prestigious enough for him/her, so he/she thinks only H&Y are top-tier.</p>
<p>If you can’t find a top-tier school in the Middle Atlantic region that appeals to you, you’re not trying. We have half the Ivy League, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Hopkins, the University of Virginia, the Naval Academy, and a wide selection of fine liberal arts colleges, including Swarthmore, Haverford, Vassar, and Barnard, among others.</p>
<p>@twoinanddone - I’m from DC and live in MD - twenty lashes to me!! I did forget those schools though they are right under my nose. Probably forgot them because my D would never consider GT because it was right around the corner from where she went to school from Pre-K to 12th grade and she hung out on the campus for volleyball camps every summer.</p>
<p>Most of the schools you all are listing we consider to either be Northern or Southern - though they may technically be Mid-Atlantic on some map. Must be our DC mindset. I definitely do not argue the point that they are top tier.</p>