Student Mobility – 2015

Nationally, 14.6 percent of all 2013-14 college graduates attended college in at least one other state or territory in the 10 years prior to receiving a credential.

Crossing State Lines to Graduate

Nationally, 14.6 percent of all 2013-14 college graduates attended college in at least one other state or territory in the 10 years prior to receiving a credential. The comparable figure for 2010-11 graduates was 13.9 percent. As shown in the map, for each state and territory, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has calculated the percentage of undergraduate credential completers in the 2013-14 academic year who had prior enrollments in at least one other state or territory. The median per state/territory was 17.5 percent.

Students were counted once in each state where they earned an undergraduate credential between July 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014. Students with any enrollments or credentials from single institutions that span multiple states were excluded from this analysis. A student was counted as having had a prior enrollment in a different state if any of the student’s enrollments prior to the 2013-14 completion date were in an institution whose state differed from that of the institution that awarded the 2013-14 credential. Enrollment histories were searched for the 10-year period prior to July 1, 2013.

Results are based on student-level enrollment and graduation data reported to the Clearinghouse by its participating institutions. Institutions reporting data to the Clearinghouse accounted for 96 percent of all U.S. postsecondary enrollments in 2013-14 and 94 percent in 2010-11.