This story originally appeared in the March 1, 2024 edition of the LINK Reader. To subscribe and get stories like this first, click here.
Logan Pendleton was shocked, when she first started at NKU as the director of admissions, at how supportive everyone at the university was.
“One of the things that stood out to me in my time here is the amount of people that said, ‘We’re so glad you’re here,’” Pendleton said. “We love admissions, and we can’t wait to help NKU be better. That is not always the attitude that admissions gets at different universities. You don’t always get people that are just ready to help and so excited about helping and so excited to welcome leadership change.”
Campus culture is also something that NKU’s associate director of outreach and recruitment, Hannah Schummer, said draws people to the university from all over the country — and the world.
Just about one-third of total students enrolled as of the 2023-2024 school year (5,118 out of 14,985) were from out of state or out of the country, according to NKU Institutional Research.
What is it about NKU that is drawing students from so far out of the region?
For Faith Meghrian, it was the nursing program.
Hailing from Illinois, Meghrian is a first-year nursing student. The quality and the perks of the nursing program are what beckoned her to travel south for college.
Many nursing schools require prospective students to declare pre-nursing as their major, prompting them to apply for the nursing program after completing their foundational courses. NKU’s nursing program matriculates students in this fashion, but it also offers a direct-admit program called Norse Nurse Scholar. It gives incoming freshmen who meet a list of academic and application requirements an opportunity to be preselected for a guaranteed spot in the nursing program.
Meghrian, who successfully applied to be a Norse Nurse Scholar, said knowing that her spot in the program is reserved gives her peace of mind.
“You don’t have to worry about if you’re going to get it or not,” she said.
When searching for schools, Meghrian was intentional about applying to schools with direct-admit nursing programs. She learned of NKU while combing through a list of institutions that offer such a program.
Scholarships at NKU
Merit-based scholarships are another attractive aspect of NKU’s admissions process for out-of-state students. Alanna Pittman, a senior elementary education major from Texas, came to NKU for a few reasons, but she said there is one that trumps them all: fully covered tuition.
Students who apply to NKU before a specified deadline are automatically considered for merit-based scholarships. One of these scholarships is the presidential scholarship, which awards students full tuition and a $6,000 on-campus housing stipend.
Pittman earned the presidential scholarship and decided NKU was the right place for her after visiting the campus.
She had been offered full rides at other schools but said she liked the balance she noticed at NKU. The student population is big, but not too big; Highland Heights is quiet and easygoing, but it’s a short trip on I-471 away from Cincinnati’s buzzing downtown, Pittman said. Meghrian also liked the idea of being close to a large city.
Tista Nazrul is a junior at NKU, studying criminal justice. Like many students, Nazrul researched a handful of schools before deciding to attend NKU. Being an international student, she had a list of specific characteristics she looked for at each of these schools: the environment of the school’s location, the diversity of the student population and the cost.
Nazrul’s search for the best school for her started with looking for schools with tuition rates on the lower end. With this in mind, her counselor at the time suggested that she research NKU.
“When I did a little bit of research about the university, I got to know it is in a suburban setting, which seemed interesting to me,” Nazrul said.
According to Francois Le Roy, Ph.D., executive director of the Center for Global Engagement at NKU, international students are often choosing from among thousands of universities.
“The fact that NKU is, year after year, ranked as one of the safest campuses in the United States matters a great deal when I travel to various parts of the world and I meet with students and parents,” Le Roy said.
NKU’s location
NKU, while neighboring Cincinnati, isn’t fully immersed in the urban setting, often appealing to international students and their families, according to those LINK nky spoke with. Its location also gives it an edge in the form of several degree programs that take advantage of local economic demands.
The Global Supply Chain Management program responds to logistics, said Mark Thackeray, assistant professor of practice in the Department of Management. Over the years the talent pool, land availability and low cost of living have attracted companies here, spurring the growth of construction, order fulfillment, manufacturing, and various industrial and commercial operations.
The major notably features a cohort program, where students with the PSG Institute of Advanced Studies in India take classes at the Highland Heights campus for up to a year. Franklin Prabhakar is one such PSG cohort student who has been studying at NKU for seven months. Prabhakar had no interest in supply chain management at first — his bachelor’s degree is in computer applications — but he pursued his goal of coming to the U.S. Now, the program has really grown on him, he said.
NKU’s geographical location similarly draws students to Health Communications. Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Whittney Darnell pointed out that Greater Cincinnati is a hub of hospitals and health care providers, an exciting place for students to apply their knowledge and tackle practical issues around health-related information.
Twenty-four percent of Health Communications students live outside of a 30-mile radius of campus, and 6% are international students, according to demographic data provided by School of Media and Communications Director Stephen Yungbluth.
School of Computing and Analytics Director Traian Marius Truta said that one-fifth of graduates from the Data Science program have been international students, the remainder coming mainly from the Tri-State area. Data Science also responds to an evolving field: Companies and organizations collect a huge amount of data, which needs to be analyzed by qualified graduates.
Another degree program, Construction Management, has drawn students from Europe — Haile College of Business Senior Associate Dean Sean Foley, Ph.D., remembered a Ukrainian student who now works in virtual construction on the West Coast — as well as Africa, Asia and South America.
Amid the majority from Greater Cincinnati, one current student came from Nebraska, Foley said. More than 80% of Construction Management graduates stay in the area due to the strong demand for qualified managers in local construction projects, large and small.
As for Schummer, who has been at NKU both as a student and now a staff member, she has a deep admiration for campus culture.
“Our faculty, they are here because they want to teach and they want to help you learn,” Schummer said. “They want to help you become the best version of yourself. I think you can see that in the way that faculty and students interact and the way that people interact with each other around campus. Everyone is happy that they get to be here.”
