College graduates often face the challenge of finding a job upon walking across the stage at commencement. But are recent SUNY graduates staying in New York to begin their careers?

There are many career fields with a variety of opportunities that college students explore, but one important factor to be considered when applying for jobs is the location.

“It’s up to them where they want to live, but honestly, the students that we work with, very rarely do I get a student who is solely focused on relocating,” said Mark McFadden, director of the Career Resource Center at SUNY New Paltz.

Research shows that approximately 80% to 85% of graduates from the state university system stay in New York for work.

“Many of the students stay in the community where they graduated, or they return back to where their home base in New York state, so they become taxpayers who are able to obtain great positions,” said SUNY Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Financial Aid Services Patti Thompson.

Xander Covert, a 2021 University at Buffalo graduate, did a combination of both, as a family friend told him to apply for his current job and a professor was connected with his interviewer.

“Having those local connections, people in the industry in the area that I went to school in, was super valuable,” Covert said.

McFadden said networking with area connections, as well as alumni, plays a factor in why recent graduates are choosing to remain in the Empire State.

“It’s the financial capital of the world, right? New York City with Wall Street. We have tens of thousands of non-profits. We have manufacturing. We have arts. Just a broad spectrum of our employers,” McFadden said.

SUNY also encourages New York residents to take advantage of its Excelsior Scholarship, which covers full tuition for full-time students in two- or four-year programs.

“When they actually apply for the scholarship, they are also signing an agreement that lets New York state say that they’re going to stay in the state,” Patti Thompson said.

But not all SUNY alumni choose to stay put. Life-long New Yorker Erick Thompson completed his bachelor’s degree at SUNY New Paltz last year and plans to move to North Carolina when he finishes his master’s program in December.

“You shouldn’t just look within your state. There’s a lot of remote opportunities, so there’s just no really to stay within a specific state for a job anymore,” Erick Thompson said.