Ryan McFadden plans to receive his master’s degree in 2008 from Northern Arizona University, instead of NIU, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in 2006.

McFadden, an educational leadership major, is not the only student to pursue his master’s degree elsewhere, according to NIU tenth-day enrollment figures.

From fall 1975 to fall 2005, the total headcount of graduate student enrollment at NIU dropped from 8,776 students in 1975 to 6,408 in 2005. However, from 2000 to 2005, the number of NIU grad students increased from 5,800 in 2000 to 6,408 in 2005.

McFadden said he was advised to attend grad school elsewhere when he attended Osh Kosh Placement Exchange at University of Wisconsin-Osh Kosh in search of a graduate assistantship in student affairs/higher education.

“When it came to student affairs/higher education, I knew, and was told by my advisors, to attend a different school than the one I completed my bachelor’s at,” he said.

McFadden said his reasons for changing schools were to learn more about diversity and culture, different leadership styles, the structure of higher education and to expand his personal growth.

Others share similar attitude

Like McFadden, Lindsay Joos received her Bachelor of Arts in 2006, but is now a grad student at Western Illinois University.

Joos, a school psychology major, said she applied to NIU’s school psychology program but was not accepted. Though Joos said school psychology programs are difficult to get into, if she had been accepted at NIU, she said she most likely would have stayed.

“NIU was a decent school,” Joos said. “I thought the Psych department offered me a very good education in psychology.”

Alyson Roy, an NIU grad student and history major, received her bachelor’s degree in history at Central Washington University in 2006. Roy said she really liked the atmosphere of NIU’s history department and liked that it offered the opportunity to study four different languages.

“I am really enjoying NIU so far,” Roy said. “The program is living up to expectations. I really enjoy the environment and like having the opportunity to work closely with professors and other graduate students.”