The report, Knocking at the College Door, details shifts in graduation rates state by state, placing Michigan in the dwindling product category, saying the state is expected to lose 15 percent or more high school graduates in the near future.

However, Jim Cotter, director of admissions at MSU, said the university has tracked these developments since 2000, working to adjust in the face of shifting demographics.

Even as 2012-13 saw a 2-3 percent decline in graduation, Cotter said the university received roughly the same number of applications as the previous year. He also said the university has stepped up efforts to attract prospective students, both in fertile out-of-state recruiting grounds like California and at community colleges within the state.

“We’re as transfer-friendly as any school in the Big Ten,” Cotter said, noting the 1,500 transfer students expected in 2013.

David Byelich, the assistant vice president and director within the Office of Planning and Budgets, said even with these projections, MSU will build itself with in-state students in mind.

“The simple straightforward answer is that right now our entering class is about a quarter nonresidence of various types and I would expect that for all of our undergraduates we’re going to be in the range of 25 percent of the overall population,” Byelich said.

Illustrating his point, Byelich noted MSU’s nonresident rate is significantly lower than most Big Ten institutions, the average of which stands close to 39 percent.

Growing up in Chicago, MSU alumnus and former MSU football player Dan Conroy bled green and white growing up and looked forward to new experiences in East Lansing. Conroy said he was anxious to arrive on campus, all while avoiding the common pitfalls of students living far from home.

“I didn’t miss home all that much,” Conroy said. “I got to see my parents every weekend in the fall when they came up for games.”