Although national trends show little change in the number of students traveling to attend college close to home, N.C. State appears to be attracting more national and international students than in previous years.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, during the last 40 years, the average distance undergraduates travel for college have shifted minimally. The Chronicle’s data showed that in both 1971 and 2012, 53 percent of freshmen chose a school within 100 miles of home. 

According to collegeboard.org, 81 percent of students were enrolled in their state of residence in 2010. Nationally, students are consistently staying close to home to go to school.

But, according to Louis Hunt, vice provost and university registrar, N.C. State has been experiencing something different.

“Basically, our out of state numbers have increased,” Hunt said. “In 2007 it was about 8.5 percent of our incoming freshmen, and now it’s about a little over 16 percent. The number of international undergraduates have tripled in the last three to four years.”

Hunt said that the University has been deliberately promoting N.C. State to students in other areas of the country, and are accepting a higher percentage of out-of-state students and international students than they did in the past.

“It was an effort to kind of balance it,” Hunt said. “We wanted more international students so we had a more global feel on the campus. We wanted more out-of-state just to diversify the enrollment.”

According to Hunt, the University has no problem attracting students from in-state, and that both the number of in-state and out-of-state applications to N.C. State have gone up.

“Historically, we’ve had real strength in North Carolina in terms of attracting kids,” Hunt said. 

According to a survey conducted this year by The Chronicle of Higher Education, 20 percent of the respondents of full-time, four-year degree students said that being close to home was a very important factor in their college choice. 

Nick Hackett, a freshman in natural resources, said that this is probably because of financial reasons. 

“I am from Raleigh. I was the oldest of six, so it would be really expensive if all of us went out-of-state, so I had to stay in-state,” Hackett said.

Angela Curtin, from Raleigh, is a freshmen in animal science. She said she chose N.C. State because it made sense for her major—not for the proximity to home.

“I am pre-vet and they have a really good vet program here,” Curtin said. “I wanted the vet program, so that was the main reason I went here. I don’t go home that much.”

Some students, such as Jenna Neely from Greensboro, who is a junior in English, and Melora Trowell from Raleigh, who is a freshman in the First Year College, said some distance between themselves and the family can be good—but not too much. 

Neely said it takes an hour and a half to drive to Greensboro when she wants to go home.

“I live about 30 minutes away from State and so it’s far enough that my parents aren’t constantly coming here but close enough that they can come if I need something,” Trowell said. 

Bhavik Modi, a freshman in psychology from Cary, said that choosing a school that was a convenient distance to home was important to him in his college search.

“I like it because I can just go home whenever I want and get some food and stuff,” Modi said.