Thinking primarily here of big state flagships where the majority, if not vast majority, are from in-state. Some I checked:
U Mich: 51.5% in-state (is this the lowest of the flagships?)
UVA: 68% in-state
UNC: 82% mandated minimum in-state
U Mass Amherst: 67.5% in-state
UT Austin: 80%+ in-state
UCs: variable but “high” in-state in general…and Berkeley for example recently said they’d be going from 70% in-state to 90%
Compare those to say U Chicago, a medium sized U with an understandable regional draw, which is under 20% in state.
If any of the above are incorrect I apologize. I used direct sourcing where possible. Happy to amend.
But I guess I’m wondering at what point a campus feels culturally more like a local school than it does a melting pot? Or, perhaps because these schools are all quite large, the reality is that even if only 10% of kids are from OOS, that’s still some thousands of kids and so they make their collective mark on campus culture?
No judgment in either direction (truly), am mostly just bored waiting for late March at this point!
I welcome thoughts especially from those with experience as the fish out of (state) water at these or other schools. What’s it like being 1 of 10 from OOS at UCB, or 1 of 3 from OOS at UVA?
It can depend on how big and/or diverse the state (or its college bound population) is.
Out of state students are likely to be from higher SES families than in state students, since the latter get lower tuition and better financial aid (though some states’ in state public financial aid is still quite poor). SES background can be significant in a cultural sense.
I think an important aspect of this is the prevalence of that state’s/region’s culture. For example, I think it is harder for a student from the Midwest to go to a school in New York with a very strong representation of say students from Manhattan/Long Island than vice versa. I think the Midwest tends to be friendlier and more accepting. I realize that’s a generalization, but I’ve personally found it holds up…
Yup that makes sense @ucbalumnus - CA is obviously already extremely diverse. So assuming it’s roughly representational of the state population, that’s pretty diverse. Though I could see the SES stuff playing a part too as you point out.
And I hear what you’re saying about the local culture itself @comtnmom. Some stuff probably travels better in one direction than in the other
I also think students coming from “harsher” cultures might want to be aware of that when going to schools in a “friendlier” environment- sometimes that edge can be perceived negatively.
Not sure where UChicago would even belong in this conversation at it is a private school with a national draw. Many state flagships have mandated percentages for in state kids, while most private schools do not.
It would apply to some private institutions, for example Cornell - because it has the contract colleges, it draws heavily from New York. When I attended I used to joke that there couldn’t be anyone left on Long Island because they were all at Cornell!
It was there precisely for contrast, but also specifically because it is simultaneously a school which draws kids from all over the world yet still has a regional draw that gives it a local population bump.
However, individual universities in California can have skewed demographics relative to the states. For example, Hispanic / Latino students are underrepresented at many campuses, but being underrepresented from around half of the state’s new high school graduates can still be a large and visible presence.
College students in general skew toward higher SES background than general population – about a third get Pell grants whose eligibility goes up to about the median income. But different states’ in state financial aid can affect the SES skew of their in state public universities.
At the risk of throwing shade at Long Islanders, this is the sort of micro-climate that would not appeal to me, assuming they collectively created an out-sized impact on the overall culture.
Makes me wonder, if LI is to Cornell, what is the ‘LI’ to the other schools?
I’m told by someone who has a daughter there now that the prevalence of New Yorkers directly affects sorority rush, some houses only want recruits from New York, more or less automatically disqualifying anyone they deem unworthy (not from NY, specifically Manhattan ).
I know two kids who sort of struggled a bit at the start because many of the instate kids seemed to already have friend groups.
I have to say this wasn’t something I had thought much about as a point of concern, but when D22 was accepted to W&M and I started following the '22 page, it felt like EVERYONE was from VA and it bothered me. For S24 UNC was a hard pass after looking at the OOS rate.
One thing I think about is how many of these OOS kids are recruited athletes? Does this make a regular OOS kids even more uncommon?
And when things go wrong, and many struggle, they can go home for a weekend or mom/dad can visit and if you’re from half way across the country, that’s going to be much harder - adding to the discomfort.
Depending upon your definition of “highly ranked” it might be the highest for highly ranked flagships. However it is not even close for all state flagships.
The University of Vermont (UVM) has 18% of their students from in-state. The small population of Vermont, plus the small physical size of Vermont and correspondingly relatively small distances to other states (such as New York and Massachusetts) might have something to do with this.
My daughter was an OOS student at UNC. It was very hard the first semester- she felt like an outsider, thought the instate kids all knew each other (they did not) etc. There were other OOS kids who had no problem at all.
By the second semester of freshman year she made friends from all over the country and from outside the US.
Despite 82% being from NC, once she became acclimated she did not think the school had a local feel to it …at all. I never felt that it had a local feel. The area has a lot of “transplants,” she was involved in an activity very early on where she met people from all over the world, many of her profs were from the northeast, she was involved in research early on with students from all over, we met a coffee shop owner from the northeast while walking in town, etc. She was actually surprised (after a few months) at the diversity, given that 82% are from NC. She also realized quickly that there is a lot of diversity even within the state.
It was definitely a big issue at first (thought about transferring) but became much easier after the first semester. Being a big school with a lot going on definitely helped. It’s a busy campus.
When we visited Cornell my daughter said hello to 16 kids from her HS who were current students. Regardless, it’s a big school with students from all over.
