Keeping Talent Here Starts With Knowing Who Stays

Every college town asks the same question: Do students stay after graduation?

New data presented by Tanner Terrell, Senior Director of Operations and Strategy for Academic Engagement and Student Experience in Indiana University’s College of Arts and Sciences, suggests the better question is not simply whether students stay, but which students are most likely to stay and why. That distinction matters because it gives employers, educators, and community leaders something more useful than a broad impression. It’s a starting point for action.

At first glance, the numbers are reassuring. About 42% of IU Bloomington graduates in this dataset come from Indiana, and 43% are employed in Indiana after graduation. Within the state, Indianapolis was the top destination, but Bloomington came in second, accounting for 2,552 graduates, or 31% of Indiana-based first-destination employment. In plain terms: Bloomington is not being bypassed. It is still one of the state’s strongest magnets for young talent.

But the most important part of the presentation was not the statewide snapshot. It was the local pattern hiding underneath it.

Terrell found that while the College of Arts and Sciences produces about one-third of IU Bloomington graduates, it accounts for more than half of the graduates who remain employed in Monroe County. That is a striking result. It tells us that some of Bloomington’s stickiest talent is coming from places that do not always dominate the public conversation.

The majors with some of the strongest local staying power included Liberal Studies, elementary education, psychology, secondary education, exercise science, computer science, media, sports marketing and management, and informatics. In other words, the retention story is not just about one discipline or one school. It is broader, more practical, and more actionable.
Terrell also delivered one of the clearest takeaways for employers: internships work. As he told the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation, a graduate’s “previous internship provider is the number one” source of employment after graduation, and “it’s not even close.”

This data gives the community an immediate lane and a longer game. Right now, local employers can strengthen ties with degree programs that already produce graduates more likely to stay. At the same time, Bloomington should build a smarter strategy for the students who are more likely to leave. What jobs are they chasing? What signals are they following? What would make them choose Bloomington instead?

That is the opportunity in front of us. Use the data to reinforce the pipelines already in place, then use it to compete harder for the talent who still walk away. A college town does not win by admiring its talent. It wins by giving that talent a reason to stay.