As Michigan Shrinks, Local Colleges Recruit Outstate Students

The number of seniors graduating from Michigan high schools is dropping, and state colleges are looking to Chicago and elsewhere for students.

As the Free Press reports, out-of-state students are attractive because they pay higher tuition rates. On average, it costs $12,000 more for nonresidents to attend a Michigan university than their resident peers.

Last fall, about 51,000 students from another U.S. state or a foreign country took classes at Michigan's 15 public universities. That's just more than 20% of the total students and is up from fall 2010, when about 48,000 students (or 16% of the total) from another state or foreign country took classes at a Michigan university.