Ha, I was just about to say the same, Wis75. This state has been a lovely place to live and bring up kids and the quality of life is being gutted. Might as well return to AZ. S returned here for an Americorps year, felt it was too provincial and is glad to live in CA. One D has lived here, and another is returning for grad school from DC. But I think they’ll all go elsewhere. Many friends offspring are in Boston and NYC.
Both of mine attended/attend an instate public university. Doing so allowed them to graduate debt free. D started her career about an hour north of us in Indianapolis. She will likely relocate this year OOS as her long-term BF is finishing grad school and there are few/no opportunities for him here. I do hate to say it, but I do think part of the problem he experiences in job hunting here is related to race. Since she’s a female in a tech field I don’t anticipate she’ll have too many problems should she decide to switch jobs. Her current employer does allow telecommuting in some cases though. Son will move to the SW after graduation for a job. Although there were tech opportunities here for him, they were not as “exciting” as the one he took. Most of D’s friends are now moving OOS as they finish undergrad and grad degrees. As others in midwestern states have indicated, the political climate here (especially after the passage of a RFRA law yesterday and the fight last year about gay marriage) does not make it appealing to young people or businesses that employ a lot of young people. A number of tech companies are threatening to divest from the state given the passage of SB101. The pharmaceutical companies are also complaining about the difficulty in attracting talent. Brain drain has long been an issue here. I suspect it’s going to get worse as long as the current administration is in control of the state government.
I do not know what my state is doing, but D. wanted to stay in state for UG and Med. School and residency after and she is doing that for the next 4 years, whatever after, we do not know. During her interviews all over the country, she discover that some places will not fit her personality at all. She does not care to live in big cities, she does not mind to be in a middle of nowhere though. If it is a city, then she prefers to be in somewhat “suburban” environment. She did not apply in NYC at all, way too familiar with it, not her place.
Here in WA we are accumulating young professionals by the boatload, many internationals. Of the 10 recent graduates from my neighborhood, 6 are still in WA, 2 in CA, 1 in TX and 1 in the military.
I hope our kids, when the time comes, stay at least car accessible to us since I do not want to leave. We are doing our best to play up the gloomy, rainy, unlivable weather to discourage the Californians but it does not seem to be working.
Older D graduated from the state U and stayed in-state to attend medical school. She’ll be going OOS for residency, but she says she plans to return and practice in the state after residency. (In fact, she already has a job offer, contingent on successfully completing residency.)
Older D is a westerner at heart and likes living in rural areas. She’s lived in both coastal California and New England --and didn’t especially enjoy her time at either place. So when she says she wants to come back here (or CO) after residency, I believe her.
Younger D went to upstate NY for college, lived in the midwest for a couple of years and came back for med school. Like her older sister, she’ll likely have to go OOS for residency. I don’t have a good feel for whether or not she come back after residency-- and she won’t make any commitments.
One kid went to college in our home state of Massachusetts, which is blessed with more than a few fine educational establishments. Other other kid went to Canada for a semester, and after choosing a field, transferred back to Massachusetts.
The one who was in MA for four years is now in grad school in California. The school is by all accounts the best in the world in his field (and it is not entirely clear who number two is). I’m guessing given his interests (startups in big data) that he will stay there. The money, the developers, the buzz are all there. But, we’d be happy for him to move back. The other finished undergraduate school in 3.5 years and is now in a masters program to become a Nurse Practitioner in Boston. She’s been told that, despite the fact that there is a nation-wide shortage of NPs, it is hard to job as an NP in Boston if you don’t already have experience and she may have to move.
One did and the other did not. We were from PA (over 22 years there) but moved to Manhattan last year. My older D is at Pitt Med. She got a full ride at Pitt for undergrad (one of 10 GAP admits that year), not a big surprise as she had acceptances to Harvard and UPenn. OTOH, my younger one was not wooed at all by Pitt for ChemE. Her portfolio was not as strong as her sister’s but she did get lots of scholarships at other univs (state and private). She wittled down her choice to GTech, UMich and UCB and is currently a Freshman at GTech (full fare).
It is well known that PA does nothing to attract its own kids. Also, the instate tuition is comparatively high to be considered a bargain of any kind. So the brain drain will continue and I have been advising my friends likewise to look elsewhere for their kids. Or maybe even move to a more college friendly state.
CC obviously attracts a different demographic where kids/college grads are conditioned to chasing opportunities wherever they may lead (not criticizing – I am one of them), but where I’m from most people stick around irrespective of the fact that there are better opportunities in other cities. I’m from the southern NJ area, which isn’t great economically – commuter town to Philly which is ok but lots of big employers have moved out of Philly in recent years and it’s no where close to the opportunities that exist in NYC, DC or Boston. We’re a bit too far to be able to commute to NYC for a job (2+ hours). A good 80+% of students I’ve known whether they went to Rutgers or OOS will return to South Jersey and take whatever jobs they can find; they won’t even consider a move to NYC/DC/Boston for better opportunities, even for a short time. And on top of it, they tend to be a bit critical of the people who do make those moves – in uneducated ways like – so what if so-and-so’s kid is in a finance job in NYC, I have a finance job at Burlington Coat Factory – it’s all the same. I think it’s probably a combo of close extended families where people refer to aunts/uncles living near Trenton or Princeton as having moved “far” away, comfort zone, and being scared of the cost of living in other east coast cities.
I have high school and college age cousins in NC, Georgia, and Texas currently, and ALL of them are going in state for college and I’d venture to guess that all (or maybe all but one) stay in their own home state when they graduate. If you’re from a place like Charlotte or Atlanta or Dallas with great employability, it makes sense. Though I do think there is something to be said for spreading your wings in college/your 20s and living some place else. These cousins and their parents won’t hear of it though – it always comes back to – we have great jobs, great weather and great COL – why should he go “struggle” in NYC or Seattle or Chicago or San Fran.
Magnetron, Washington is gaining MY Pennsylvania son who seems to think that gloomy weather might be preferable to the Vermont winters that he’s had the last four years in college! Here’s his five day forecast: http://www.weather.com/weather/5day/l/USVT0033:1:US Honestly though, for him, Washington has been on his radar forever because he’s a huge Microsoft fan. For geeks that spend a lot of time inside, weather is not high on the priority list.
aj725 - Funny, most of my side of the family is from South Jersey and you are right, most of them stayed there or went to college and moved back. I was just down there today and twenty minutes over the Commodore Barry Bridge and I start to relax, and I’m not even from South Jersey!
Mine went to college in Texas and is gainfully employed in Texas. Even during this downturn in the oil business, there are still jobs here. And it’s warm!
Magnetron- you are right that it’s not working. Several of my kid’s friends have settled near Seattle in the last few years, and a couple we know recently followed their kids up there to retire. Also the big pharmaceutical employer here has had major lay-offs so quite a few people from around here have headed up there to find similar employment. Our weather is close to perfect where we live but it’s getting more and more congested and the drought is having a serious impact. I can see the pull of Washington and might consider it myself but we have too many ties here and my H is a warm weather guy! In the meantime, you’d better bump up the negative messages to us!!!
Pharmaceutical employment in Seattle will be very, very challenging for quite a while. The tiny local biotech job market has to absorb 300+ laid off Amgen (Immunex) employees.