NORMAL - An alarming number of Illinois' best high school students head out of state for college, and that "brain drain" costs the state economy hundreds of millions of dollars, Illinois State University researchers said Friday.

The state needs to change that, in part, by offering more competitive tuition rates and better financial aid for high-achieving students, they said.

"We are among the top exporters and one of the lower importers" of college students, said Diane Dean, a lead researcher on the ISU Center for the Study of Educational Policy report.

From 1992 to 2002, Illinois exported 66,000 more students than it imported, the study conducted for the Illinois Board of Higher Education found. Illinois ranks second only to New Jersey in such student departures, she said.

And of those leaving, many are the state's brightest. For example, among the top 10 out-of-state universities that drew Illinoisans in the center's data from 2004, only one had an average ACT score lower than 27.

Half of the students who study out of state never return to settle in Illinois, and that brain drain is a major economic loss for the state, said university researcher Erica Hunt.

"Somewhere between $600 million and $800 million is lost" over the lifetime of a class of student migrants, the researchers said. The figure is based on the loss of income tax revenues and business capital that would have stayed in Illinois.

On Friday, the professors discussed their findings.

So what can be done to change the pattern?

The educational policy center's report calls on the state to:

n Improve marketing of Illinois universities' selling points.

n Improve financial aid packages and other incentives offered to high-achieving students.

n Analyze the competitiveness of in-state tuition rates.

n Personalize recruitment efforts.

n Examine capacity issues at the state's universities to ensure there are enough classroom seats for the state's residents.

n Host a symposium on student migration.

Center director Ross Hodel explained some of what researchers examined during their project. They looked at what matters to Illinois students and their families; why so many of the state's students choose non-Illinois universities, where they choose to study; and what possible avenues for change are available to the state's policymakers.

The Illinois Board of Higher Education commissioned the university's center to conduct the study.

Hunt said the researchers analyzed statistics but also conducted interviews to examine the problem.

They talked to high school students and their parents, guidance counselors, Illinois college students who chose to study in Illinois and others who went out-of-state.

They found most of the Illinois college freshmen who did leave the state:

n Did not stray far. More than half attend universities in states bordering Illinois.

n Preferred large, research-based institutions that boast Big Ten cultures.

n Decided to leave, in part, because of better financial-aid packages.

n Did so because of perceptions the out-of-state school was more prestigious.

Michele Steinbacher can be reached at msteinbacher@ pantagraph.com.