<p>It’s all I had. </p>
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<p>I think you are overthinking that one. Having been in the south for the last year, I can assure you that most of these kids don’t want to live in the north even just to go to school. They want to go to school down here, with their friends and their traditions and above all, and this is very significant, with their weather.</p>
<p>Southerners are horrified by northern weather, with good reason.</p>
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<p>And again, part of that with Cornell is because some parts of it do effectively function as a state-university by providing discounted tuition to NYS residents because it was founded on a land-grant basis. Cornell’s Ag school is one of those parts. </p>
<p>Maybe, in weighting eliteness vs warmth, warmth wins out!</p>
<p>Not just Southerners are horrified by the weather. It’s a concern for many a short wearing, flip flop addicted, surfing during Christmas break…bring out the parka it’s 38 degrees- arghhhhhh Californian. :)</p>
<p>Personally I find the study interesting. I sometimes feel like “new” parents think there is a need to launch a national search and outside of the reasons given by many on this thread there are really only a couple of legitimate reasons to look nationally and to travel a couple thousand miles to find a college. Geographic diversity is interesting but more as a marketing point from a college or uni than anything. I recall my older son’s college making a huge deal out of the fact that they had at least one student from every single state including Hawaii and Alaska in his freshman class, but you better believe the largest percentage of kids in that freshman class were from that state. But really with the global connected environment we live in now, kids are kids and geographic diversity has little meaning other than a novelty of having a roommate from another region of the country. </p>
<p>If any ‘good’ comes of this thread, it is to say to stressed out parents that they can take a deep breath and narrow the search without harming their loved Ss and Ds and perhaps assure our NEastern friends that have never lived anywhere else that there is intellectual life outside the geographically small states. </p>
<p>It’s funny that 18 year olds are being encourage to go far from home. The medical school advice forums all stress that stress (pun intended) in med school is high. So if the applicant has a chance he/she should attend medical school close to his/her support system of family and friends. Wouldn’t this be even more important for someone 4 or more years younger?</p>
<p>To expand upon post #282:</p>
<p>Cornell has an unusual two-tier price schedule which influences its geographic enrollment patterns. Its colleges are divided into the “contract division” (40% of all undergrads), where New York State residents pay significantly lower tuition, and the “endowed division” (60% of all undergrads) , where they don’t. </p>
<p>The university’s published geographic enrollment as of Fall 2011, for all undergraduates, was as follows:
contract endowed
New York 49.40% 21.20%
Middle States 14.10% 21.60%
New England 7.80% 10.90%
Midwest 5.90% 7.40%
West 8.90% 14.00%
South 5.90% 8.80%
Southwest 2.50% 3.40%
Foreign and US Territories 5.50% 12.60%</p>
<p>I know that 30ish years ago, I met a couple people in Texas who were proud of the fact that they had never left the state. Seemed very odd to me.</p>
<p>I think I’ve met people in Boston who’re proud to have never left the greater Boston area for any level of schooling.</p>
<p>Interesting. Might this suggest that students think that going to a college in (Region X) means that you’re going to wind up with a job in that region? What would drive that perception – one would think that a “national reach” college would be able to convey “we have strength all over the country (job opps, etc.) – not just in our own backyard.”</p>
<p>Painting with a very, very, very broad brush to describe long time residents of my southern home state: The national reputation means zero to them. It will not help them with employment in most cases. As poetgrl alluded on another thread, it may even be a detriment. For one thing, you lose your access to the possibility of life time season tickets. ; ) But seriously, the people you go to college with will be your local friends and business associates for the rest of your life. And you may be doing business with folks who did business with your grandaddy. I agree with JHS that certain classes will always see the value in an elite education and may pursue it because they value education. But if they intend to stay “home” afterwards, they may not advertise it. Most won’t be impressed and some will be suspicious. That doesn’t mean they won’t go to NYC a couple of times a year for some NE culture. And restaurants. And shopping. They like to visit Paris and London, too, but would never consider living there any more than NYC.</p>
<p>At a family reunion, a cousin asked me where my kids were going to college. When I answered, she blurted out, “why?” before remembering her manners and saying something nice about the schools. She didn’t get it. It made zero sense to her. All her kids are lawyers or doctors, married to doctors and lawyers. None live out of state. Even though I had been living away for 25 years, it had obviously never occurred to her my kids wouldn’t come back “home” for college. Her question had really been whether they were going to go to the flagship or a satellite. </p>
<p>So, at least in my extended family, the NE isn’t defining elite colleges. And they definitely aren’t reading this board. And I doubt anyone would call them provincial because they honestly don’t give a damn about elite college admissions.</p>
<p>@Pizzagirl,</p>
<p>“Interesting. Might this suggest that students think that going to a college in (Region X) means that you’re going to wind up with a job in that region?”</p>
<p>Certainly. That would be the path of least resistance. Where my kids go to school, they’re surrounded by part-time jobs, many of which could blossom into careers, they have plenty of opportunities for internships, they’re involved on campus in activities that are career-building, and so on. It would be quite easy to hang around after graduation, while moving back would require a bit more effort, even if it’s just to drive the moving truck four hundred or so miles.</p>
<p>“What would drive that perception – one would think that a ‘national reach’ college would be able to convey ‘we have strength all over the country (job opps, etc.) – not just in our own backyard’.”</p>
<p>I think that’s backwards. I don’t think anyone in my area things the “national schools” don’t have the reach nationally, even into folks’ backyard, but rather that the local schools ARE regional, ARE provincial, ARE connected in ways that AREN’T national.</p>
<p>Many of the young men who graduate from my sons’ high school are the sons of local business owners, politicians, lawyers, and other folks who rely heavily on their local and regional ties. As well, many of the folks with whom I grew up and went to school are all interconnected by family relationships. My family moved to where I live when I was just starting school, and after nearly five decades, I’m still an outsider, because I don’t have uncles and cousins and aunts popping up all over the place. I’m in my mid-50s, and still discovering some of these familial relationships. It doesn’t matter how great the “reach” is of a “national school,” it doesn’t beat the provincial, even familial connections of going to our state flagship.</p>
<p>If you know you want to stay put, the national reach of a “national” college or university is irrelevant to you. The localism of the local state school is not.</p>
<p>“Southerners are horrified by northern weather, with good reason.”</p>
<p>There is that, too.</p>
<p>^yes</p>
<p>excellent explanation</p>
<p>Well, my husband’s family is from here and he went to school here and his family did, as well, all of them. Even though he lived up in Chicago or the NE for his entire adult life, coming back here he was considered to be coming home. By everyone.</p>
<p>Where I went to school isn’t particularly important cuz I’m not “from here.” But they let me in. I feel really lucky that they seem to let me in so easily. The food thing is astonishing down here. People up north do not get how incredible the food is down here, just the best kept secret in this country. And I’ve eaten everywhere in the world, almost.</p>
<p>Trust me, many of us in the mid-atlantic states (we are NOT part of the Northeast, dammit) are also horrified by the weather in New England and the Midwest.</p>
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<p>Been perusing the premed boards for a long time, and have never seen that recommendation. </p>
<p>Plus it doesn’t make much sense to me. There are what, ~130 allopathic med schools, i.e., less than a handful in most states? California has a few more than a handful, but four of them are extremely highly ranked, with admission standards to match.</p>
<p>In many/most cases, its kinda impossible to assume acceptance to an instate med school, much less one “close to home”. </p>
<p>^all my southern cousins went instate for med school, and law school. Some had to go away for residencies.</p>
<p>It’s not you southerners who needed the convincing that “fancy NE schools” weren’t necessarily jaw-droppingly prestigious in your area. You already knew that. It’s the people who think that they ARE jaw-droppingly prestigious everywhere who could benefit from the education. </p>
<p>I like the fact a few of my former northeastern neighbors think their schools are jaw-droppingly prestigious just as much as I enjoy my southern cousins’ disbelief anyone would see the point to attending them. Neither group negatively impacts the other. Each group is happy. imho</p>