That town is about as far removed as you can get from Montana anymore. I couldn’t believe the change the last time we had to go through there. Between the traffic and $100k vehicles and the wannabe Montanans up and down from Belgrade to the Big Sky. It literally represents everything that school used to hate and avoid representing as an agriculture and engineering school. Leaving behind a conundrum for those that are old enough to have lived through decades worth of beatdowns. Do we maintain our identity or sell our soul to out of staters for a taste of success. It’s obvious. Bozeman specifically was ranked the #12 Most Moved to City in the U.S. in 2022, with 222 residents moving into the state for every 100 residents moving out.
In 2021-2022 the breakdown of students across undergraduate and graduate programs at MSU was 53% Montana residents, 47% non-residents (including WUE). However, of note 34% (1,303) of the entering first-time students were Montana residents. Of the remaining, 65% were from other states (2,540) and less than 1% were from other countries (25). Notice the trend.
At for UM on the other hand it’s the opposite, 35.23% of all UM students come from out of state, and 1.16% come from out of the country. Leaving 64.77% in-state enrollment. Of note 53% of the entering first-time students were Montana residents while the remaining 47% were from out of state or out of country.