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Generations of Ben Beland’s family graduated from the University of Arkansas. TCU sophomore Beland broke family tradition when he decided to come to TCU. (Shomial Ahmad | Fort Worth Report)
” data-medium-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Ben-Beland-TCU-out-of-state-scaled.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Ben-Beland-TCU-out-of-state-scaled.jpg?fit=780%2C585&ssl=1″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button”>It’s practically in Ben Beland’s genes to be a Razorback. His parents, both sets of grandparents, all of his great-grandparents and sister went to the University of Arkansas. His brother-in-law even played tight end for Arkansas. Since he was 5 years old, Beland thought he would follow in his family’s footsteps. When college decision time came more than a year ago, though, Beland chose TCU.“It’s so funny how fast purple became their favorite color,” said Beland, talking about how his parents embraced his decision to go to TCU after they visited the campus on spring break. “The second I committed to come to the school, they started buying TCU shirts, TCU stickers and a wardrobe. It went from Razorback Red to Horned Frog Purple pretty fast.”Beland, a sophomore from Fort Smith, Arkansas, isn’t in the minority, at least when the population is defined by out-of-state enrollment. TCU, which has long been a Fort Worth institution with a proud and deep alumni base in the city, has been growing its out-of-state enrollment. Beginning in 2018, the percentage of out-of-state students going to TCU eclipsed the percentage of in-state students, and enrollment hasn’t looked back since. In 2023, the percentage of out-of-state students attending the private university was 52%, according to institutional data on TCU’s website.!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r