How bad is the brain drain?

[crossroad]

--- It seems our neighbor Maine has found a way to curb the exodus of young graduates... What do you think RI should do to make our economy and business community sustainable? Below is a very interesting article - comments??

http://www.projo.com/business/content/JK07...F5.3312030.html

Curbing exodus of graduates

[runawayjim]

i assume you're a student at UNLV? make sure you come back to RI.

this is something both the city and state need to work on together. the city because there's 5 colleges here within the city's boundaries (not including other college's that have small campuses here, like URI and RWU) that have students graduate and leave for boston or new york or elsewhere. the city needs to work to keep those students here. the state has several other colleges that need to work on keeping their graduates in the state.

perhaps there should be some sort of program with the local corporations that they try to hire students from the state. for example, fidelity, one of the country's largest investment firms, should be hiring business students from bryant and PC or at least very actively recruiting at those schools. the banks should be looking to hire more students that go here. one of the issues is that there is only one law school in the state. i know a lot of students at PC go on to law school, but don't really look at roger williams.

[DavidSegal]

Is there a metro area the size of Providence's, with a central city the size of Providence, that doesn't see a net loss of young people/college grads? It strikes me as a problem that's likely much worse in every single other city of our size on the coast than it is here -- Norfolk, Newport News, Richmond, Harrisburg, Scranton, Lowell, Worcester, Trenton, Albany, Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Springfield, Manchester, Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, and on and on.

Especially as somebody who's somehow still in his twenties, it stinks to see a bunch of friends and peers leave each May. Certainly there are ways to make Providence and Rhode Island a more or less attractive place to live. But a city of our size has a fundamental disadvantage when it comes to retaining mobile and ambitious people -- it's simply that we're a city of our size.

[CtownMikey]

I think making sure that we not only have the jobs to keep them here... but to make rhode island a place that people want to live in. The majority of people that I know who have moved went to Florida, California, or New York to bigger cities with more things to do. It's not like they are leaving to other comparable cities our size.

Improving the visual beauty of the state and creating more things to do YEAR round is my idea to make people stay.

[webbage]

i assume you're a student at UNLV? make sure you come back to RI.

this is something both the city and state need to work on together. the city because there's 5 colleges here within the city's boundaries (not including other college's that have small campuses here, like URI and RWU) that have students graduate and leave for boston or new york or elsewhere. the city needs to work to keep those students here. the state has several other colleges that need to work on keeping their graduates in the state.

perhaps there should be some sort of program with the local corporations that they try to hire students from the state. for example, fidelity, one of the country's largest investment firms, should be hiring business students from bryant and PC or at least very actively recruiting at those schools. the banks should be looking to hire more students that go here. one of the issues is that there is only one law school in the state. i know a lot of students at PC go on to law school, but don't really look at roger williams.

[runawayjim]

Is there a metro area the size of Providence's, with a central city the size of Providence, that doesn't see a net loss of young people/college grads? It strikes me as a problem that's likely much worse in every single other city of our size on the coast than it is here -- Norfolk, Newport News, Richmond, Harrisburg, Scranton, Lowell, Worcester, Trenton, Albany, Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Springfield, Manchester, Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, and on and on.

Especially as somebody who's somehow still in his twenties, it stinks to see a bunch of friends and peers leave each May. Certainly there are ways to make Providence and Rhode Island a more or less attractive place to live. But a city of our size has a fundamental disadvantage when it comes to retaining mobile and ambitious people -- it's simply that we're a city of our size.

[Lone Ranger]

brown is getting into the biotech world. perhaps we should be looking to amgen and some other biotech firms to expand in RI. URI has a fantastic school of pharmacy. why not work to get some pharmaceuticals here?

[runawayjim]

You're a few steps slow here, I believe, Jim.

[DavidSegal]

well, yeah, i know... but it seems like we've given up. and from the answer that a state rep gave, it sounds like the state is just making excuses.

[runawayjim]

if only i were "the state"

[misterchlo]

Is there a metro area the size of Providence's, with a central city the size of Providence, that doesn't see a net loss of young people/college grads? It strikes me as a problem that's likely much worse in every single other city of our size on the coast than it is here -- Norfolk, Newport News, Richmond, Harrisburg, Scranton, Lowell, Worcester, Trenton, Albany, Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Springfield, Manchester, Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, and on and on.

Especially as somebody who's somehow still in his twenties, it stinks to see a bunch of friends and peers leave each May. Certainly there are ways to make Providence and Rhode Island a more or less attractive place to live. But a city of our size has a fundamental disadvantage when it comes to retaining mobile and ambitious people -- it's simply that we're a city of our size.

[Mothra]

i agree that the size of the city is a factor along with all the other cities mentioned. and the fact that we will also follow the typical trends of slow growth being in the northeast. cities of similar size in other parts of the country will grow much larger. But RI seems to make things worse for itself for several reasons. a few that come to mind right away: an ineffective government that does really nothing groundbreaking in job development, a culture of "who you know" and not "what you know", a provincial attitude (think that tarbox "big lot" commercial that inundates the radio waves.."Its so big, its bigger than that big blue bug!" this commercial says to me, "we are so not wordly, the biggest thing we know is that big blue bug??!" and unfortunately I'm sure it connects with a lot of people)

as someone whose new to his 30's and not a RI native, i am ready to head out. RI is a charming place to live for a while b/c it is pretty and quirky, but those charms eventually wear off when you look around at the stagnancy of it all. I find it largely depressing to go day to day and not see other people my age who look to be successful and doing interesting things. The ones who are I've already made friends with or met! young people in their 20's may seek the big cities for the excitement, but i have read that the biggest demographic being lost here is actually people in their 30's. and thats def due to jobs and not entirely the "excitement" factor.

i will root for RI to become that vibrant dynamic place that it should be, but you start to realize that your own life is too short to wait around to watch it happen...

[JimmyGreaves]

I feel better about stopping the brain drain as long these and other "Geeks" are on the case (and I mean that in all seriousness BTW).

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