To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, many colleges and universities in the United States adopted remote policies, shifting campus operations and instruction from in-person to virtual in 2020. Since many students were not physically required to be present on college campuses, one would expect a large shift in national enrollment and a disruption of…

In Chapter 1, I investigate the migration response of college students to tuition differences between states, using variation introduced by tuition regional reciprocity agreements. Out-of-state students generally pay higher tuition than in-state students, but reciprocity agreements reduce the premium paid by students from other states in the…

Brain drain--the movement of high school and college graduates out of state for employment--is a concern for state policymakers. This study focuses on brain drain of students who graduate from high school in Maryland. Using data from the Maryland Longitudinal Data System and applying propensity score matching to control for differences between the…

The Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) is a regional tuition-reciprocity agreement that enables students from WICHE (Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education) states to enroll in participating two- and four-year public institutions at 150 percent of the enrolling institution's resident tuition. WUE has been operating for more than 20…

This report describes the migration of college students into Iowa to attend colleges and universities in the state. The report suggests that there is more than a three-to-one ratio of arrivals to departures, and the state economy is improved by the presence of out-of-state students. Together, the first-year students who came to Iowa contributed…