The number of out-of-state students enrolling at LSU has been increasing each year — a recent trend among public universities nationwide.
In September 2022, LSU announced the 7,367 enrolled freshmen surpassed the previous year’s record-breaking number of 7,038 students. Of those 7,367 students, 32.5% were from out of state, up nearly 13 percentage points since 2012.
Why are out-of-state students coming to LSU? Here’s what the data shows.
Scholarships and cost of attendance
A common perception among the LSU community is that out-of-state students generally receive favorable scholarship awards — a claim that, once investigated, revealed mixed results.
“Wish they gave kids from Louisiana that kind of money. Then we [the state] might be able to keep some of our best and brightest home,” said a concerned parent on the LSU Parents and Students Facebook page.
Overall, about 57% of admitted in-state students received a “major merit scholarship” compared to about 44% of out-of-state students, according to Amy Marix, the director of financial aid and scholarships. But the amounts differ considerably, with the average amount awarded to in-state students being around $2,100 while out-of-state students are awarded, on average, about $16,000.
However, this is complicated by the fact that the in-state amount is designed to be in conjunction with TOPS, which gives out values from $7,462 to $8,262 per academic year. An amount that does narrow the gap, but still leaves the out-of-state students receiving around $6,000 more than Louisianans.
Despite this difference, out-of-state students still contend with an average higher cost of attendance of $52,000 while in-state students get an average of $35,158.
Academics
But why does LSU pay more for out-of-state students?
Some argue it could be to boost academics. As schools in populated areas continue to see their acceptance rates plummet, many qualified and accomplished students are forced to turn their eyes outside of state borders for the education they want.
And the Southeastern Conference schools have been benefiting from this, as schools like the University of Alabama and University of Mississippi have become majority out-of-state and have seen their average GPA and test scores rise.
LSU could be hoping for the same effect, especially as LSU President William F. Tate IV and his administration regularly emphasize LSU’s incoming classes’ ever increasing academic ratings.
“If our current situation holds in enrollment, and I hope it does, we would have the highest average GPA admitted in LSU history … I mean, that’s getting it done,” Tate said at a February Board of Supervisors meeting.
But are these out-of-state students performing better academically? Not necessarily.
The percentage of students that made the President’s Honor Roll with a 4.0 GPA or higher last semester was close, with in-state students at 5.9% and out-of-state students at 5.1%.
But this gap widened when expanded to the number of students that made the Dean’s List with 3.5 GPA or above, with 23.3% of in-state students to 20.4% of out-of-state students, throwing cold water on the idea that out-of-state students perform at higher levels than their in-state counterparts.
The Honors College
While set to be more exclusive in terms of academics, LSU’s Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College has been keeping up with the university’s increasing trend of out-of-state enrollment.
Jonathan Earle, the dean of the honors college, emphasized the need for different perspectives in the honors college, which includes those from outside Louisiana.
“My job as the dean of the honors college is to make a class that is the best honors class,” Earle said. “And for me, that means we need a lot of diversity—and that means diversity in terms of socio-economic background, it means underrepresented groups mixing with the dominant group, it means in state and out of state.”
According to Earle, there’s a major interest in the honors college from out-of-state students, and he’s already received 16,000 applications for next year’s freshman class, with “a huge majority of them from out of state.”
Of the 857 incoming students enrolled in the honors college in fall 2023, 247 students, or 29%, were from out of state, according to a chart shared by Earle. The percentage is up from 2018, when 108 out of 593 incoming students, or 18%, were out of state.
While there is no quota for how many out-of-state students the honors college accepts, Earle said the university has made efforts to find markets with lots of interest in LSU. The biggest example of this is right next door in Texas.
“A lot of people who went to LSU moved to Texas to work. So there are all these people who are the children, or grandchildren, of Louisianans or LSU alums … The other thing is Texas, because of just the demographics of [the] state, it’s so hard to get into Texas A&M and UT Austin right now,” Earle said.
The honors college’s recruitment efforts, like the university’s, include sending out mailers, making calls and having a recruiter meet in person with prospective students. By bringing out-of-state students in, Earle said he hopes they will bring innovative ideas to the classroom.
“That is certainly part of the strategy, is to keep people here and solving Louisiana’s problems. We’ve got problems, challenges … We’ve got endemic poverty, we’ve got coastal land loss, we’ve got a public school system that is ailing,” Earle said. “I’d love it if we use the best and brightest from states, all over 50 states, to solve our problems.”
Looking forward
Other public schools around the country have significantly higher percentages of out-of-state students. Earle pointed back to the University of Alabama as an example, where nearly two-thirds of the latest freshman class is from outside the state.
“Can you imagine if we had 65% on this campus out of state? I don’t think that would fly. Because we’re here for the people of Louisiana, we serve Louisiana,” Earle said.
While the ratio of students coming from outside Louisiana likely won’t change soon, the numbers might stop increasing. According to Earle, universities around the United States are about to be hit with an enrollment cliff caused by a decline in births between 2007 to 2009 due to the recession, resulting in fewer college applications. Because of the enrollment cliff, Earle said universities will be scrambling to bring in those 18-year-olds.
In the future, Earle said he wants the honors college to spend more time recruiting in places like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City, but ultimately, the out-of-state student trend at the university will depend on the direction of LSU’s leadership.