Southeast ranks seventh in number of alumni living at St. Louis

More than 16,000 alumni of Southeast Missouri State University live in the St. Louis area, ranking the Cape Girardeau school seventh among the largest college and university alumni groups in the metropolitan area.

The St. Louis Business Journal recently ranked the top 25 colleges in terms of alumni living in the St. Louis area.

The University of Missouri-St. Louis ranked first with 50,511 alumni. Others, in order, finishing ahead of Southeast were St. Louis University, University of Missouri-Columbia, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Washington University and Webster University.

Southeast and the University of Missouri-Columbia were the only two non-St. Louis area schools to rank in the top seven, the journal reported.

Southeast officials said they weren't surprised by their school's high ranking. "A large percentage of our students come from that area," said Karen Grebing, director of marketing and development with the university foundation.

Jane Stacy, director of alumni services, said the university typically graduates about 1,500 students each year. At least a fourth of them are from St. Louis, she said.

Cost and proximity have helped draw St. Louis area students, Stacy said. Southeast is about a two-hour drive from St. Louis via Interstate 55.

Stacy said Southeast also draws students because of small class sizes and the "safe environment" of the local community.

Word of mouth is important too, she said. "I think that many of our students that come from St. Louis are influenced by other alums who live there," Stacy said.

The business journal reported that Southeast has 16,200 alumni living in the St. Louis area. But Stacy said that the university has an even bigger presence than that figure shows.

"There are a lot of former students up there who would not be in that category," she said. The ranking, she said, doesn't include former students who didn't graduate from the school.

"There are a lot of people who went a year or two," she said. "They consider this their college home."