Document Type

Report

Publication Date

9-7-2022

Publisher

Brookings Mountain West

First page number:

1

Last page number:

32

Abstract

For the last twenty years, nearly every flagship university in the U.S. has been decreasing its share of in-state students and enrolling more students from out of state, a phenomenon I call the “Great Student Swap.” Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), I examine every “flagship” public university by comparing incoming first year students from 2002 through 2018 (those who would have graduated in the spring 2022 assuming the traditional four-year timeframe for completion). I find that the share of out-of-state students has risen by an average of 55 percent since 2002 and that 48 of the 50 flagships experienced a growth in their share of out-of-state students. The average decline in in-state students was 15 percent, and five states swapped more than one out of every five in-state students for an out-of-state student.

Keywords

Higher education; Flagship; University; Institution; Funding; Pell grant; Tuition; In-state; Out-of-state

Disciplines

Economics | Education Economics | Education Policy | Higher Education | Public Policy

File Format

pdf

File Size

737 KB

Language

English

Comments

This version replaces and expands a 2021 version co-authored with Ariel Gerlud Shiro.

Previous Versions

Aug 31 2021
Aug 30 2021

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