For the first time, Indiana received a top 10 ranking on Forbes’ Best States for Business list.
However, students may not be staying in Indiana to fill those jobs may only be staying to work in the state after graduation for certain, less well-known fields, a university researcher said.
Indiana was ranked eighth for qualities such as having a below-average cost of doing business. Michael Hicks, an economics and business professor, said this rating could spawn additional business relocation, which is good news for the state.
“You have to be in this top ranking for a long time," Hicks said. "Businesses aren’t just worried about just a snapshot. They’re worried about what it’s going to be like in 10 years as well."
Indiana’s college attainment rate is nearly 25 percent, according to Forbes.
Hicks said the majority of Ball State business students get jobs in urban areas in fields like finance, accounting, marketing and management and will be the ones more likely to stay in Indiana.
“Where we lose our biggest students is, ironically, in our best known colleges — journalism and [the College of Architecture and Planning]," Hicks said.
Students come from throughout the Midwest to be a part of the business college or chemistry program, but journalism and architecture attract students from across the world, he said.
"If you’ve come to Ball State from New York to get a degree in journalism, then the chance of you staying in Indiana is going to be a lot lower than if you came for the accounting program from another town in Indiana," Hicks said.
The problem Indiana has with retaining graduates is a lack of communities that families would want to live in, Hicks said. Not having enough “destination communities,” such as Carmel or downtown Indianapolis, may deter young professionals from staying in Indiana. Hicks said communities need a combination of good schools, reasonably priced homes and recreation options.
“[To fix this,] Indiana can promote communities thinking more about their quality of place and how good their schools are," Hicks said. "It’s really up to mayors and local government leaders to make communities that people want to live in."
Natalie Martin, a junior child development and family studies major, hasn't decided if she wants to stay in Indiana after graduation. She grew up in Indiana and is the daughter of a university employee.
“I think for my job I’d love to go down South and open a daycare, but I could also see myself staying here since my family is here,” Martin said. “It kinda depends where life takes me.”
Elizabeth Landers, a senior marketing and economics major, has lived in the Midwest for the past 14 years and knows after graduation she wants to live in a new place.
“My dad’s an economist for the state, and so I hear a lot of the background," Landers said. "[Indiana] has a good economy, but the wage growth, from what I’ve seen, hasn’t grown a ton, and I want to experience new things and not really the Midwest. A part of me really wants to move out west to Portland or Seattle.”
First-year graduate student Silvey Shamsi is currently working to earn her MBA while majoring in business. Shamsi is from Bangladesh and came to Ball State to pursue her higher degree.
“I have a plan to do my Ph.D after I finish my graduation and settle here, or I will go back to my country to serve there,” Shamsi said.
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