“That ‘up-ness’ in applications doesn’t reflect a greater number of students in the applicant pool,” Cotter said. “It does represent an increase in MSU’s market share of the existing pool.”

In-state students are not the only ones sending more applications to MSU. Cotter said there has been a 10.5 percent increase in out-of-state student applications, one of the groups MSU targeted through a $478,000 advertising campaign that began in 2010.

“I think that an image, a brand, is indeed an important component in this,” Cotter said.

“I think it says something about this generation of students. They’re looking at how they can make a difference, how they can change the world if you will, and MSU gives students a place to do something like that.”

Applications from international students also have increased by 13 percent from last year. Chris Bargerstock, assistant director of the Office for International Students and Scholars, said international students often come to American schools through a friend, cousin or sibling who attended an American university.
Economic reasons also are driving factors behind why some nationalities, such as the Chinese, come to America for college.

“(In China), the middle class has increased, and they (can’t afford the) cost of living,” Bargerstock said. “Here, they can afford it. (Also) there are not enough seats in Chinese institutions.”

Cotter said attracting out-of-state students was important for MSU as the number of Michigan high school graduates is expected to continue to decline until 2015, according to data from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.

Throughout the past 10 years, the pattern of applications to MSU has varied. The number of applications grew from 2000-03, declined for the next two years and has been increasing since 2006.

Frank Bernier, the college adviser at Lansing Catholic Central High School, said part of the reason for an increased number of applications was the economy limits students from being able to afford out-of-state schools.

“It can be proven that fewer kids from Michigan go out of state (for college),” Bernier said. “It’s an affordability issue.”

Sarah Rosser, a senior at Brighton High School in Brighton, Mich., who will attend MSU in the fall, said she believes the
economy prevents her peers from looking outside the Mitten.

“I think a lot of people are money conscious,” Rosser said.
“If the economy was better, (students) would get out there and explore other places a little bit more.”