IU fights ‘brain drain,’ hooks in-state students

For 20 years, the IU-Bloomington administration has worried about the “brain drain.”
Many in-state high school students at the top of their graduating classes were leaving Indiana to go to college elsewhere. 

After leaving, many never returned.

“There was concern in Indiana that we were losing our best and brightest kids,” said Larry MacIntyre, IU spokesman. “After graduating high school, they would go to college out of Indiana. It was a real problem.”

After continued effort to reverse the brain drain, the administration is seeing results.
This years in-state students had an average score of 1179 on the verbal and math sections of the SAT, the highest average score ever.

MacIntyre said this was likely a result of an increase in scholarships.

“President McRobbie came up with the idea of offering scholarships to in-state students that would cover a good share of their tuition,” MacIntyre said. “Now that those scholarships have been in place for a few years, it has significantly changed the character of IU-Bloomington. We are looking more attractive to in-state students.”

This year, 63 percent of the freshman class is in-state, and to qualify for merit-based scholarships, those students had to be in the top 25 percent of their graduating class, MacIntyre said.

For many incoming freshmen, the scholarships are what enticed them to come to IU.
“I live in Indianapolis, so I was either going to Purdue or IU,” freshman Juan Estrada said. “IU gave me a better scholarship.”

Without a scholarship, Estrada said he might not have chosen IU.

“I would’ve wanted to come to IU, but I don’t know if I could have,” Estrada said. “I would’ve had to get loans or something, and I didn’t want to do that.”

Estrada is a member of the Hutton Honors College.

For students in Hutton, average SAT and ACT scores are the highest they have been in the 44 years since the program’s establishment.

Not only did the IU administration increase merit-based scholarships, but they also increased need-based financial aid.

In 2006, IU-Bloomington supplied $1.2 million to the 21st Century Scholars Covenant program and $1.16 million to the Pell Promise program, according to a press release.

This year the same programs are expected to provide $6.5 million for the 21st Century Scholars Covenant program and $3.14 million for Pell Promise to students.

MacIntyre said he believes continued promotion of both merit- and need-based scholarships will lessen the brain drain for long term benefit. 

“It is believed that if students graduate from an in-state college they will stay in the state for their working careers,” MacIntyre said. “It is a benefit for the state.”