Source: www.act.org/emtrends Enrollment Management Trends 2012
Graph reads: Some states draw the brightest undergraduate students (based on ACT scores). Other states are losing that wealth of talent as their brightest high school students choose to study out of state. An example: West Virginia gained 3 college enrollees migrating from out of state for every 2 WV high school students who chose a college out of state - a net gain of 1 smart student. However, the data show that the average ACT Composite score for students who migrated into West Virginia to attend college was about 2 points lower than the average score for students who migrated out of West Virginia. So the smartest students are heading out of state.
Standardized testing organizations have a wealth of data on student behavior. This chart from the ACT provider caught our attention since it provides a snapshot on student migration patterns. It looks at the movement of students across U.S. state borders in terms of number of students and college preparedness of these students as measured by ACT scores. Student in- and outflows are an important source of future potential economic growth for cities. Look at the winners and losers. The states in the upper right quadrant of the chart are gaining more students than the number leaving these states. The net gain of students represents better academically prepared students, measured by ACT scores, than those who are leaving. For example, Massachusetts, with highly visible and successful university brands, attracts high-quality students from out of state. Ohio, on the other hand, which also has a large number of universities, is still losing students both in quantity and quality. The next question to research would be the retention rate of students for post-college employment in the vicinity of their college town.
The entire report has a many insightful statistics based on ACT scores EMTrendsReport2012.
