enlarge Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Chad Dudley, who moved back to Maine from Washington, D.C., and now lives in Gorham, will get his degree in accounting today from USM and has a job lined up in Portland.

GRADUATION SCHEDULE

TODAY: University of Southern Maine, Portland; University of Maine, Orono; University of Maine at Augusta; University of Maine at Fort Kent; University of Maine at Machias; University of Maine at Presque Isle; University of New England, Biddeford; St. Joseph's College of Maine, Standish; Thomas College, Waterville; Unity College, Unity.

SUNDAY: Maine College of Art, Portland.

FRIDAY: Washington County Community College, Calais.

MAY 17: University of Maine at Farmington; Kennebec Valley Community College, Fairfield; Northern Maine Community College, Presque Isle; York County Community College, Wells; Southern Maine Community College, South Portland; Eastern Maine Community College, Bangor.

MAY 24: Bowdoin College, Brunswick.

MAY 25: Colby College, Waterville; Bates College, Lewiston.

Falmouth native Chad Dudley worked as an athletic trainer in Washington, D.C., for six years after graduating from Penn State. But his heart was in Maine.

So after his wedding five years ago, he and his wife quit their jobs and moved back to his home state. Today he will receive another degree, this time in accounting from the University of Southern Maine, and he's headed for a job at a Portland accounting firm. Dudley said he is just where he wants to be.

"We love Maine," he said.

Dudley is one of thousands of college students putting down roots in Maine after graduation over the next month. They say big-city lights and high salaries are not enough to lure them away from a state where traffic congestion, real estate prices and sprawl are still relatively tame.

These graduates' plans suggest that there might be some truth in what education researchers have been saying in the past couple of years: The reports of a brain drain in Maine could have been exaggerated.

Nearly half of the members of Maine's college class of 2008 can be expected to work and live in the state, say education researchers. Those who stay are drawn by friends and family ties, recreational activities, and cultural and social reasons.

For years, the brain drain has been the subject of hand-wringing and debate in Maine. Politicians and others worried that the state was losing most of its young, college-educated adults to other regions with more career opportunities.

"The overall perception was incorrect," said David Silvernail, director of the Center for Education Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation at the University of Maine.

Compared to residents of other New England states, Mainers tend to stay in-state for their college educations. In 2006, the latest year available from the New England Board of Higher Education, 64 percent of Maine college freshmen were from Maine, second only to Massachusetts, where 65 percent of the freshmen were from the state.

Vermont had the lowest rate, at 43 percent.

UMaine's Office of Institutional Studies reports that in 2006, 68 percent of UMaine graduates found full-time jobs in Maine.

Among the UMaine graduates staying put this year is Megan Worcester, a Winterport native who will receive her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. She has been hired by New Page Corp. to work at its Rumford plant.

"I am nervous and excited," she said.

Although she interviewed with out-of-state companies, her decision to stay in Maine was easy, she said. There are few city jobs for pulp-and-paper engineers, and she couldn't see any strong reason to move out of state to another rural area if she could stay in Maine and be able to drive a couple of hours to see her family.

She also was pleased to discover that rents in Rumford are cheaper than in Bangor, where she has been living.

Carrie Patch of South Berwick intends to stay on after receiving a bachelor's degree in marketing and international business today from St. Joseph's College of Maine in Standish. She said she never saw the point of moving away.

"Everyone I know who leaves ends up coming back," she said.

Although she plans to live in Maine, that does not mean she will never leave. She is spending the summer as a volunteer for a program in South Africa before returning to Portland and a job in the marketing department at Martin's Point Health Care.

Some out-of-staters who attended a Maine college will also stay on, although just how many is not clear. The Office of Institutional Studies determined that 19 percent of the university's out-of-staters remain in Maine to work.

Steven Lord, 21, of Wilmington, Del., an environmental studies major at the University of New England, plans to live in Biddeford Pool and find a job in his field after graduation. He said he would like to live in Maine for the rest of his life.

"There is a lot more opportunity...