Merrimack Valley High School seniors Gage Caswell (left) and Keighen Duppong both plan to pursue their college education outside of New Hampshire. Photo: COREY GARLAND/Courtesy
Merrimack Valley High School senior Keighen Duppong recognizes that attending the University of New Hampshire would likely cost him thousands of dollars less per year compared to many of the schools on his college list.
Duppong, who plans to study applied physics, has already submitted his application to UNH but doesn't expect to enroll there. His top choices are public universities located hundreds of miles away.
"I would love to stay local if we had a tech school comparable to places like Georgia Tech or the University of Michigan, which is currently ranked number one in the country for nuclear fission," Duppong said. "These schools have the resources that UNH lacks."
Duppong’s close friend, Gage Caswell, is also a high-achieving student planning to pursue a college degree in a STEM field. Like Duppong, he expects to be studying out of state next year.
“I want to say I’m considering UNH because it’s a really good school,” said Caswell, who hopes to major in applied mathematics. “But honestly, I think I’d go somewhere like Clarkson University. New Hampshire just isn’t a state designed for young people. It’s not that appealing.”
For Caswell, the decision also comes down to finances: Many of the elite private schools he's applying to, including several Ivy League universities, offer full financial aid to students from families in his income bracket. Additionally, his mother works at Southern New Hampshire University, which gives Caswell the opportunity to receive free tuition through an exchange program at several schools on his list, including Boston University and Tulane University.
Duppong and Caswell, who met as second graders at Penacook Elementary School, reflect the views of many high school students in New Hampshire as they consider their college options.
New Hampshire ranks second only to Vermont in the percentage of students who leave their home state for higher education. In 2020, 57% of college freshmen from New Hampshire enrolled out of state—more than double the national average of 26%, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, the most recent data available.
What percentage of students attend college out-of-state?
New Hampshire has the second-highest rate of out-of-state college attendance in the U.S. Nationally, 26% of students attend college outside of their home state.
Out-of-State College Attendance Rates:
- 10%
- 13%
- 14%
- 15%
- 16%
- 17%
- 18%
- 20%
- 21%
- 23%
- 25%
- 26%
- 27%
- 28%
- 29%
- 31%
- 34%
- 36%
- 38%
- 42%
- 47%
- 52%
- 53%
- 54%
- 55%
- 57% (New Hampshire)
- 58%
Source: Data from the National Center for Education Statistics; analysis by Jeremy Margolis/Monitor staff.
The reasons behind students leaving New Hampshire for college are multifaceted, with economic factors being the primary driver. A 2023 survey by BestColleges of 1,000 recent college enrollees found that affordability was the most important factor in choosing a college. Professional outcomes, which are a key consideration for Duppong, ranked second. Meanwhile, student life factors, which Caswell cited, appeared lower on the list.
New Hampshire ranks last in the nation for per-pupil funding for higher education, according to a 2023 study by the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, using 2021-22 data. In that same year, in-state tuition in New Hampshire was the second highest in the U.S., trailing only Vermont's, according to Forbes.
Geography also plays a role, as New Hampshire is a small state with easy access to universities just across state lines.
The state’s public university system – comprising the University of New Hampshire (UNH), Plymouth State, and Keene State – has recently made efforts to attract students. The Granite Guarantee program, launched in 2018, covers the full cost of tuition for Pell Grant-eligible students. UNH is also considering transitioning to a set income threshold for financial aid, offering clearer assistance earlier in the process.
Additionally, UNH promotes its Hamel Scholars program, which provides merit-based scholarships and special access to faculty, while both UNH and Plymouth State are piloting a direct admission program, allowing qualifying students to be automatically accepted without submitting a formal application.
UNH’s vice president of enrollment management, Kim DeRego, believes that prospective students often underestimate the university’s strengths, citing its designation as the “top value” public university in New England by U.S. News & World Report.
Despite increased applications to UNH, undergraduate enrollment has dropped about 8%, from 12,313 students in 2019 to 11,365 this year, mirroring the national trend of declining college enrollment.
At a recent event hosted by Granite Edvance at Merrimack Valley High School, only one out of six students interviewed by the Monitor said they planned to attend a New Hampshire university. Hannah Walden, from Loudon, said she felt a personal connection to UNH, having grown up attending hockey games there because her father is an alumnus. Walden plans to study nursing at UNH next fall.
The event, called ApplyNH, allows students to apply to any school in New Hampshire without paying an application fee. About 80 high schools statewide held similar events this fall, according to Granite Edvance’s president and CEO, Christiana Thornton. Thornton emphasized that the goal of ApplyNH is not specifically to encourage students to stay in-state, but to support students in pursuing higher education, whether in-state or out-of-state.
Shanyn Grenier, the college and career counselor at Merrimack Valley High School, explained that multiple factors—primarily cost—drive students to leave New Hampshire for college. “Unless I qualify for a Pell Grant and can get my tuition free, some students, if they do their research and are a bit adventurous, can find better deals elsewhere,” Grenier said.
Interestingly, the search for better financial deals has led Caswell, from a lower-income family, to consider private colleges, while Duppong, whose family won’t qualify for significant need-based aid, is focusing on public universities in other states.
Elite private schools, despite their high sticker prices, have recently begun offering full tuition to families earning up to $140,000 annually. Caswell, focused on minimizing his financial burden, said, “That was my ethos going into this process: to limit my tuition as much as I can because I don’t want to be a financial burden on my parents.”
Duppong, whose family won’t qualify for those need-based thresholds, is targeting merit-based aid at public universities, even though they will cost about one-third more than UNH. He sees the investment as worthwhile, both for the advanced facilities available, such as nuclear reactors and quantum computers, and for the networking opportunities. “If you attend one of these colleges that has a network, you have far more opportunities,” Duppong explained. “You’ll have a better chance of landing a job in a field like physics, so I’d say that’s worth the extra cost.”
Grenier acknowledged that Caswell and Duppong’s approach is a good example of how students can navigate the increasingly complex system of higher education to fit their individual financial situations. Her own daughter chose to attend a public university in the South this year, in part because merit aid made it as affordable as UNH.
Incentives to Stay?
Newly-elected state Rep. Sanjeev Manohar, a Democrat from Nashua, is calling for changes to the system to incentivize more talented students to stay in New Hampshire. A chemical engineering professor at the University of Massachusetts–Lowell, Manohar observed that many of his students come from just across the border in Nashua. "Families are moving here, while our students are moving out," he said.
Manohar has proposed a bill to create monetary incentives for students to attend college in New Hampshire, offering between $500 and $750 per student, as well as financial incentives for businesses to hire graduates who remain in the state. "I see this as not political at all," Manohar said. "I think both parties can benefit from a program like this."
Manohar envisions transforming southern New Hampshire, from Concord to Nashua, into a biotech hub. "The attraction of Massachusetts and Connecticut will be diminished a little bit if we become the tech hub ourselves," he said.
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