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According to reporting from LSU’s student newspaper, the Reveille , 40.4% of the incoming class this year is from out of state. Students navigate the area around the Student Union, Wednesday, August 21, 2024, during ‘Welcome Week’ at LSU in Baton Rouge, La.
STAFF PHOTO BY HILARY SCHEINUK Across the country, public university recruiters have been working for years to woo nonresident applicants and make up for budget shortfalls. The plan has been effective. Students navigate the area around the Student Union, Wednesday, August 21, 2024, during ‘Welcome Week’ at LSU in Baton Rouge, La.
STAFF PHOTO BY HILARY SCHEINUK Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Some want a good sports team to root for, while others want to try a different environment. Maybe they got a scholarship or moved to connect with their roots. Almost always, the decision is based on a mosaic of interconnected reasons.
Regardless of why, more and more out-of-state students every year are finding their way to Baton Rouge for college at LSU. This shift is part of a national trend. Across the country, public university recruiters have been working for years to woo nonresident applicants and make up for budget shortfalls.
The plan has been effective. The Wall Street Journal reported in September that the number of Northerners attending Southern public colleges and universities has increased by 84% in the last two decades. Students navigate the area around the Student Union, Wednesday, August 21, 2024, during ‘Welcome Week’ at LSU in Baton Rouge, La.
The Wall Street Journal reported in September that the number of Northerners attending Southern public colleges and universities has increased by 84% in the last two decades. According to Zach Labbe, media relations coordinator for LSU, out-of-state students represent 37.7% of enrollment this semester, a 1.
7% increase from Fall 2023. So, why do out-of-state students make their way to LSU, and do their expectations line up with reality? Family legacy For Ani Brasseaux, a junior biology pre-med major, the decision came down to wanting to reconnect with her family heritage. She was born in Lafayette, but she moved when she was a toddler after Hurricane Katrina, and grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, on Yale’s campus where her father was a professor and residential college dean.
In her senior year of high school, Brasseaux applied to a mix of 11 colleges: three Ivy League schools, including Yale, and other schools around the country like Rice University and LSU. Fans in the LSU student section react to Joe Burrow being announced over the sound system during an ‘LSU in the NFL’ segment in the first half against Grambling, Saturday, September 9, 2023, at Tiger Stadium on the campus of LSU in Baton Rouge, La. “I applied to LSU to honor my past,” she said.
“I didn't think I'd actually go. It was just kind of like my dad went there. My mom went there briefly before transferring to UL.
My aunt graduated from (LSU). I've got a lot of family who have degrees from LSU. It's my way of honoring them, but I wasn't really serious about it.
” When decisions started rolling in, she got into Yale, which she and her family were thrilled about, and she also got into LSU’s Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College. Shortly before she had to make a college decision, she got a call from the dean of the honors college informing her that she received the Hans and Donna Sternberg Endowed Honors Scholarship — which is awarded to one student per year to help recruit students who might not otherwise choose LSU. Ani Brasseaux and her friend, Noelle Rountree studying together at LSU.
Ultimately, LSU won out. Brasseaux enrolled, thinking it would be a less intense environment than Yale to pursue medicine, in which, in her opinion, has turned out to be mostly true. However, Brasseaux said it’s also based on what an individual makes of it.
At LSU, she's surrounded by amazing people doing incredible things at the honors college. “They're the type of people who I could very well see at Yale — have seen at Yale — but they just either didn't think when applying to colleges that that was an option, or for whatever reason, they just wound up at LSU as well.” New experiences Leaving support systems and familiar places to tackle new challenges in college can be tricky.
In the end, though, that shift is the exciting part about the new stage of life. For Seth Jackson, a freshman originally from New Jersey who moved to Atlanta in 2016, the move represented a cultural shift. He was attracted by LSU athletics but ultimately committed to LSU because he wanted the experience of going to a big school relatively close to Atlanta.
“Living in Atlanta, I got the experience of being around a bunch of people who look like me and may talk like me,” Jackson said. During college decision season, he was deciding between a couple of HBCUs, the University of Tampa and LSU. “At LSU, the cultures are very mixed," he said.
"I've met people from California, and I've also met people from where I was from in New Jersey, so I feel like you get the experience of being around people like you, but it's also different because you get to learn about different cultures and new areas.” Affordability According to the LSU website, tuition for out-of-state students is estimated to be $43,327 versus $26,650 for Louisiana students. These numbers don’t tell the whole story because they don't take into account scholarships or TOPS for in-state students.
Cyrus Bronson, a junior at LSU, has made Baton Rouge his home. Cyrus Bronson, a junior biochemistry major from Texas, chose LSU because he was offered nearly a full-ride scholarship. “Schooling in Louisiana with my scholarship is cheaper than me going in state as a resident in Texas,” Bronson said.
Compared to other schools he was considering, LSU seemed like a good cultural fit, too. He is currently in his second year of being a residential assistant which also helps to pay for his housing. “I don't really have any roommates.
I have 600 roommates,” he quipped. As a resident assistant, he helps freshman bond and navigate friendships while being away from home. Home is a little complicated for Bronson.
He was born in Honduras and moved to Port Neches, Texas, when he was about six. Now, his mom splits time between Honduras and Texas. No one from his family actually lives in Port Neches anymore.
“LSU really became my home,” said Bronson. His friends are here. He feels invested in the community here and volunteers at a local school.
This winter break, he’s staying in Baton Rouge to study for the Medical College Admission Test. Particular challenges and opportunities Ani Brasseaux, a junior at LSU, moved to Louisiana from Connecticut to reconnect with her heritage. Once out-of-state students are in Louisiana, they’re faced with some unique hurdles, often invisible to people who grew up in the state.
As with any move, the challenges often take time to emerge. Planting roots in the local community helps students navigate the transition. Brasseaux, from Connecticut, has roots here.
Her extended family is in the state, and she feels that she was raised with Louisiana culture even if she didn’t grow up here. Still, that’s not always how locals perceive the situation. “If you're coming from outside of Louisiana, they (people from Louisiana) very much have this perception of what that means,” she said.
People tend to have perceived notions about the North, she said, which aren't necessarily accurate. For example, she has met others who think that growing up on Yale’s campus is a close association with wealth that doesn't necessarily ring true. “Even just saying Connecticut changes things,” she said.
“People assume that means rich. That means country club. That means growing up golfing or sailing.
” Becoming a 'yes person' There’s a cultural knowledge that one might have if they've lived in Louisiana their whole life: it might be practical, like how to prepare for a hurricane or how to pronounce local place names, but it’s also social — having people you know from high school or who know your family in the state. Ally Hines (center) poses with her Delta Gamma little, Rachel Jensen (left) and grand little, Alea Westlake. Ally Hines, who grew up in Sammamish, Washington, says she felt the lack of cultural connections in sorority recruitment.
She didn’t necessarily recognize the disconnect at the time, but now as a senior, she’s privy to the way that being from out of state can make the process a little harder. “They will pair active members with people that they might know from high school, who their sister knows. Everything is intentional,” she said.
With out-of-state students, the process can be more random since sororities might not have a member who’s from the same state, and the current members have a lot less information about the person. But, Hines continued, this lack of context can be a good thing for the out-of-state experience — and for many, a big part of the rationale for leaving their home states. Being somewhere new not only allows a person to learn more about a new place, a new culture and develop new insights personally, it can also allow people the chance to reinvent themselves in a city where they don't know anyone.
“I'm turning into a 'yes person,'” Hines explained. Once, a friend asked her to a concert on the day of the event while they were at the gym, and she said yes without even asking who was playing. She found herself at a death metal concert in New Orleans.
Hines encourages other people to say yes to new experiences, too. “It can be super easy to get nervous and want to stay in your dorm," Hines said, "but go out. Do that fun thing.
You'll learn what you actually like and don't like by trying.”.
