For many in-state students, the University of Vermont is not their go-to college. UVM has one of the lowest percentages of in-state students for public state universities, said Beth Wiser, director of undergraduate admissions. “It’s an urban legend that UVM is trying to keep in-state students out,” Wiser said. “One-third of our undergrads are from Vermont, but 60 percent of Vermont [high school] graduates go out of state, so it’s natural [that we have a low in-state student percentage].” One way that UVM can potentially gain more Vermont students is by offering tuition incentives, she said. Every year, one valedictorian from every high school in Vermont is offered a full scholarship to the University. “The valedictorians in Vermont are offered the Green and Gold scholarship, which is a full tuition except for room and board,” sophomore Ashley Richardson said. “I definitely think the Green and Gold scholarship is the main reason I came to UVM. I was leaning more towards getting out of Vermont, but it was an incentive I couldn’t really turn do.” The average in-state student at UVM usually pays about $4,000-$6,000 per semester in tuition after financial aid assistance is applied, Wiser said. Another potential reason for the lower in-state population might be that UVM is sometimes viewed as a safety school and may seem too comparable to high school for some Vermonters. “I think people that apply and get in aren’t actually thinking about coming here because it’s rumored to be easier to get in and viewed as a safety school,” first-year Sarah Vredenburgh said. “Also, college is supposed to be a new experience so when five or ten kids from your high school go to the same college it’s hard to break out and find out who you change.” The West coast has experienced some growth in student population. In 2008 there were 195 total undergrads from the western states. That number is now 237, according to the UVM Institutional Research Website. “I think [UVM] has done a better job of reaching out by having a conference in California,” Hogan said. “But one way that could help would be to have students from farther areas go to high schools in their home state to talk to students and to try and convince them that Vermont isn’t actually so switch.”