“I agree. Lots of people here in MA wish to avoid UMASS. It is definitely a grass is greener on the other side kind of thing.”
I agree with you. If I had a nickle for every Ohio student I know who didn’t want to go to school in Ohio (but did) I could fund both my kids educations.
This may sound like a technicality, but the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents isn’t appointed by anyone in state government. They are directly elected by the people on an at-large, statewide basis, as provided in the state constitution. That makes them state constitutional officers, and the university’s ultimate governing body. Neither the legislature nor the governor has any significant say in the university’s budget, policies, programs, or priorities, academic or otherwise. As a consequence, there’s much less political interference in the university’s affairs than there is in many other public universities.
The downside of this arrangement, perhaps, is that without political “ownership” over the university, the legislature has been pretty miserly with appropriations to support the university for the last, oh, say, 30 or 40 years. Left to its own devices, the university has developed its own financial model, centering on building a massive endowment (perennially among the top 10 for any college or university. public or private), aggressive and highly successful pursuit of competitive research grants that now exceed $1 billion annually (#1 or #2 nationally, depending on ow you count), and at the undergrad level, heavy reliance on OOS tuition, with OOS students comprising roughly 40% of the undergrad student body. It works for Michigan, and UVA has successfully developed a similar model. Others want to emulate it, but most of them have a long way to go to catch up.
^ Detroit and the auto industry going downhill in the '80s actually was kind of a positive for UMich as it made them realize (before most publics did) that they needed to fundraise and grow their endowment like a private as the public money wasn’t going to be there in the future. And yes, not being under the direct control of the state was a plus.
Compare and contrast with UW-Madison or UIUC, who’s endowments are nowhere as big (and are more under state control).
The data presented in the report is pretty misleading because the population of California dwarfs any of its nearest neighbors. It would be better if they presented the number as a percentage of total college going students of that state.
I couldn’t wait to go to NJ for college! I’m at Princeton and Jersey is honestly exceeding my expectations… plenty of nature preserves and parks to hike and run in- honestly beautiful! Couldn’t see myself staying here after graduation, though.
^ You are very lucky. Princeton is a great area. Make sure you get to
enjoy NJ while you are there, go to the Shore, etc.
@reuynshard The link in post #17 has the percentages. 89% of the students in CA, stay in-state. The national average is 82% (0.82 ratio of in-state students to residents enrolled in any state). Even though CA keeps a large % of it’s students in-state, it still exports over 41,000 students, far more than any other state.
So, from the point of view of Arizona, CA students make up a significant number of it’s total enrolled students.
The % can tell us something, but so can the raw numbers.