Data story · October 21, 2026 · All data stories
College is often pictured as a move across the country. The residence data tells a different story for most colleges: the typical first-year student starts within the state.
The picture
For each type of college, the shaded bar shows the middle half of colleges by the share of first-time degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates who lived in the college’s own state when they were admitted, and the dark tick marks the median college.
Source: NCES IPEDS Fall Enrollment, residence of first-time students, most recent collection each college reported (about 98% report fall 2024); colleges with at least 100 students with a known residence. Statistics across colleges computed by MajorPays and not weighted by enrollment.
What stands out
- Public two-year: median 97% from the same state (middle half of colleges: 93% to 99%); 82% of these 797 colleges draw at least nine in ten first-year students from their own state, and 1% draw fewer than half.
- Public four-year: median 89% from the same state (middle half of colleges: 74% to 96%); 46% of these 772 colleges draw at least nine in ten first-year students from their own state, and 6% draw fewer than half.
- Private nonprofit four-year: median 62% from the same state (middle half of colleges: 38% to 77%); 9% of these 939 colleges draw at least nine in ten first-year students from their own state, and 36% draw fewer than half.
What this does and does not say
These are shares of first-year students at each college, not of all students who leave home, and they count where a student lived at admission, not where the student ends up. A small share from out of state can still be a large number of people at a big college. Public colleges enroll mostly residents, while private colleges typically draw from a wider area; college type is strongly associated with the pattern, but the data do not show why. The figures say nothing about quality or cost.
If you are comparing colleges, the share from your own state is a rough sign of how local the student body is. School profiles on MajorPays show it with the most common other states, and never rank schools.
How we computed this
For each college with at least 100 first-time students with a known residence, we divide students from the college’s own state by all students with a known residence, then summarize across colleges within each type.
MajorPays shares information, not advice. Figures are group statistics from U.S. government sources, not predictions for any person, and MajorPays does not rank schools or places. See our methodology.