With over 14,000 students from 50 different countries, students may cite different reasons for attending the university.

The campus environment brought William DeMoss, a freshman informational technology major, from Clinton to the university.

“It seems to be a nicer school than any of the other ones that are around here,” shared DeMoss. “It’s slightly bigger than most community colleges, and it’s small enough to where the professors can actually talk to you one on one.”

DeMoss, who values an in-state education, considered attending Louisiana State University until he toured the campus.

DeMoss explained, “I visited LSU with one of my cousins a very long time ago, and I basically was able to go into a lecture hall and just sit, and a dude just stood up there, regurgitated what was on the slide, and then walked out the room. The people were meaner. They had lots of places to be. It wasn’t like a walking campus like this. It was like, ‘get up and go or you have paid all your money for nothing.’ So, it just seemed a lot faster paced, and it was not friendly.”

Sarah Medine, a freshman biological sciences major from Galvez, discussed how she reached her decision.

“I chose to come to Southeastern because I like the tight-knit community, and I felt like a bigger campus like LSU was kind of too scary,” said Medine.

Although Medine does not regret her decision, her choice of higher education was not clear at first.

“I just had to figure out what I wanted, and I had friends going to UL,” explained Medine. “I had friends going to LSU, friends going to Nicholls. So, I didn’t really follow where my friends went. It was just what felt like home to me.”

Putri Insani, a freshman accounting major, started her journey from Indonesia to Hammond after being contacted by Jason Hayes, head coach of tennis.

“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to come here yet because another school had given me an offer as well,” shared Insani. “I had a lot of offers. The turning point was the fact that coach Jason was the one who would keep in touch with me, saying, ‘I really want you to be here.’ I could tell that he would really appreciate me and respect me, and then when I came here, I found that was the case, and I found almost a family with the girls I play with.”

Even though Insani feels homesick at times, she would not trade her experience at the university for anything.

“Everything is good here,” stated Insani. “I really like it. Sometimes it’s hard, catching classes and maintaining grades, but I really like it here. Everything is like a gift for me, so I need to keep it like that.”