In fall 2010 — the most recent data available — more than 515,000 freshmen across the country started college at an out-of-state school. Nearly 393,000 of those students finished high school in the previous year.
So Greenwald scores no points for accuracy there.
Brian McGinnis, Greenwald’s communications director, said we were “missing the forest for the trees.”
“There’s a serious brain drain that’s disproportionately happening in New Jersey,” he said, adding that Greenwald’s overall point — that New Jersey “sends more homegrown students out of state than any other state” — was correct.
Nearly 35,000 New Jerseyans left home to attend college for the first time in fall 2010. Of those students, more than 31,000 finished high school the previous year.
No other state had a larger amount of students in either group attend out-of-state schools, but California and New York — two states with significantly larger populations — weren’t far behind.
More than 34,500 students — nearly 28,300 of whom recently finished high school — left California for college in fall 2010. In New York, more than 33,900 students left the state for school in fall 2010. Of those students, more than 28,600 were graduated from high school in the previous year.
Greenwald was comparing the amount of New Jerseyans who leave the state for college to a nationwide figure, but it’s worth nothing that as a percentage — a “more accurate barometer” for comparing states according to Joseph Stetar, a professor of education at Seton Hall University — four other states send more students out-of-state for college.
A larger percentage of all first-time freshman students in Alaska, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont attended college outside of their home state than New Jersey in fall 2010.
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