States and UGA

I'm updating data for a talk later this summer, so I worked up a quick-and-dirty analysis of where UGA gets its undergraduates. The map below provides a glimpse, with darker states sending more students in Fall 2015 as compared to Fall 2000, and lighter states sending fewer students. Click on any state to get more info, but I'll provide some details below. It's a Google map, so you can move it around to see the whole country if you so choose. These data reflect only full-time undergrads.



Georgia is dark because, obviously, it's the University of Georgia. In 2015, as compared to 2000, there were 3,459 more students from Georgia at UGA. What's fascinating is both what states increased and what states decreased.

Increased

Texas (135 more students, a 126.2 percent increase)
Maryland (125 more students, a 290.7 percent increase)
North Carolina (97 more students, a 59.5 percent increase)
New Jersey (70 more students, a 170.7 percent increase)
Virginia (59 more students, a 50.4 percent increase)

Decreased

All the border states to Georgia showed negative comparing 2000 to 2015.

South Carolina (143 fewer students, -54.6 percent)
Alabama (97 fewer students, -61.8 percent)
Louisiana (86 fewer students, -55.1 percent)
Tennessee (67 fewer students, -29.9 percent)
Kentucky (18 fewer students, -43.9 percent)

Admissions folks would be better able to explain these trends. Perhaps the state schools in Texas and other places have become harder to get into, making UGA an attractive option. Perhaps UGA's rising academic reputation (#17 public university) is drawing better students from out of state and that means weaker, nearby state students are less able to compete. Or maybe state schools in South Carolina, etc., are doing a better job of keeping their own students. It's probably a mix of these and lots of other issues.