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Graduate students interested in an academic career after graduation day\u00a0have often been told<\/a>\u00a0they need to be open to moving somewhere they may not want to live. This advice is because of how hard it is to get a tenure-track professor position.<\/p>\n These days, this advice may be less relevant as graduate students\u00a0are increasingly pursuing and ending up in<\/a>\u00a0careers outside of academia.<\/p>\n Where graduate students want to settle post-graduation has potential consequences for communities and states across the country that\u00a0depend more and more<\/a>\u00a0on a steady stream of skilled workers to power their economies. Locations seen as undesirable may struggle to attract and retain the next generation of scientists, engineers, professors and other professions filled by today\u2019s graduate students.<\/p>\n We are<\/a>\u00a0sociologists<\/a>\u00a0who are examining<\/a>\u00a0some of the factors that influence graduate students\u2019 educational and career paths as part of a research project\u00a0supported by the National Science Foundation<\/a>. In March 2025 we distributed a survey to a sample of U.S.-based graduate students in five natural and social science disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, psychology and sociology.<\/p>\n As part of our survey, we asked students to identify states they would prefer to live in and places where they would be unwilling to go. To some extent, our findings match some\u00a0past anecdotes and evidence<\/a>\u00a0about the varying number of applications received for academic positions across different states or regions.<\/p>\n But little data has directly assessed students\u2019 preferences, and our survey also provides some evidence that some states\u2019 policies are having a negative impact on their ability to attract highly educated people.<\/p>\n For our study, we built our sample from the top 60 graduate programs for each of the five disciplines based on rankings from\u00a0U.S. News and World Report<\/a>. We received responses from nearly 2,000 students. Almost all of these students \u2013 98%, specifically \u2013 are pursuing Ph.D.s in their respective fields.<\/p>\n As part of our survey, we asked students to identify locations where they would \u201cprefer\u201d to live and also those where they would be \u201cunwilling\u201d to live after finishing their graduate program. For each of these questions, we presented students with a list of all states along with the option of \u201coutside of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n Just looking at the overall percentages, California tops the list of preferred places, with 49% of all survey-takers stating a preference to live there, followed by New York at 45% and Massachusetts with 41%.<\/p>\n Results are based on a March survey of nearly 2,000 graduate students studying physics, chemistry, biology, psychology or sociology. A little over 8% of respondents said they have no preference. On the other hand, Alabama was selected most often as a state students said they\u2019d be unwilling to move to, with 58% declaring they wouldn\u2019t want to live there. This was followed by Mississippi and Arkansas, both with just above 50% saying they\u2019d be unwilling to move to either state.<\/p>\n Results are based on a March survey of nearly 2,000 graduate students studying physics, chemistry, biology, psychology or sociology. About 22% of resopndents said there is no location they’d be unwilling to move to. While the two lists in many respects appear like inversions of one another, there are some exceptions to that. Looking beyond the overall percentages for each survey question, we used statistical analysis to identify underlying groups or clusters of states that are more similar to each other across both the \u201cprefer\u201d and \u201cunwilling\u201d questions.<\/p>\n One cluster, represented by California, New York and Massachusetts, is characterized by a very high level of preference and a low level of unwillingness. About 35% to 50% of students expressed a preference for living in these places, while only 5% to 10% said they would be unwilling to live in them. The response of \u201coutside of the United States\u201d is also in this category, which is noteworthy\u00a0given recent concerns<\/a>\u00a0about the current generation of Ph.D. students looking to leave the country and\u00a0efforts by other nations to recruit them<\/a>.<\/p>\n Results are based on a March survey of nearly 2,000 graduate students studying physics, chemistry, biology, psychology or sociology. A second cluster represents states where the preference levels are a bit lower, 20% to 30%, and the unwillingness levels are a bit higher, 7% to 15%. Still, these are states for which graduate students hold generally favorable opinions about living in after finishing their programs. This cluster includes states such as Colorado, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey.<\/p>\n A third group of states represents locations for which the rate of preference is similar to the rate of unwillingness, in the range of 10% to 20%. This cluster includes states such as Minnesota, Delaware and Virginia.<\/p>\n The fourth and fifth clusters consist of states where the rate of unwillingness exceeds the rate of preference, with the size of the gap distinguishing the two clusters. In the fourth cluster, at least some students \u2013 5% to 10% \u2013 express a preference for living in them, while around 30% to 40% say they are unwilling to live in them. This cluster includes Florida, Montana, South Carolina and Utah.<\/p>\n Almost no students express a preference for living in the states contained in the fifth cluster, while the highest percentages \u2013 40% to 60% \u2013 express an unwillingness to live in them. This cluster includes Alabama, Kansas, Oklahoma and South Dakota.<\/p>\n Many factors influence our preferences for where we want to live, including\u00a0family<\/a>,\u00a0weather<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0how urban, rural or suburban it is<\/a>. The politics of a community\u00a0can also influence our perceptions of a place\u2019s desirability<\/a>.<\/p>\n Indeed, political factors may be of particular concern to graduate students. In recent years, some states have\u00a0taken a more hostile stance<\/a>\u00a0toward specific academic disciplines, institutions of higher education in general, or professions that are of interest to graduate students. While states such as\u00a0Florida<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Texas<\/a>\u00a0have been leading such efforts,\u00a0many others<\/a>\u00a0have followed.<\/p>\n Interestingly, our statistical grouping of states finds that students\u2019 unwillingness to live in states such as Texas, Florida, Georgia and Ohio is higher than we would expect given those states\u2019 corresponding preference levels. For example, about 10% of students selected Texas as a place they would prefer to live in after graduation. Looking at other states with similar preference levels, we would expect about 10% to 20% of students to say they are unwilling to live in Texas. Instead, this percentage is actually 37%. Similarly, 5% of students say they would prefer to live in Florida. Other states with this preference rate have an unwillingness rate of around 35%, but Florida\u2019s is 45%.<\/p>\n Although our data does not tell us for sure, these gaps could be a function of these states\u2019\u00a0own policies<\/a>\u00a0or alignment\u00a0with federal policies<\/a>\u00a0seen as hostile to graduate students and their future employers.<\/p>\n These findings suggest that communities and employers in some states might\u00a0continue to face<\/a>\u00a0particularly steep hurdles in recruiting graduate students for employment once they finish their degrees.<\/p>\nMost preferred, most unwilling<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GradChoices.png\")
Map: Source: Family, Place, and Career Survey of Graduate Students (Christopher Scheitle and Katie Corcoran, Principal Investigators<\/p><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Graddont.png\")
Map:<\/p><\/div>\nClusters of preference<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Desirable.png\")
Map Source: Family, Place, and Career Survey of Graduate Students (Christopher Scheitle and Katie Corcoran, Principal Investigators<\/p><\/div>\nSigns of current politics<\/strong><\/h4>\n