<p>“Northwesty, would it be correct to synthesize your post as the NE schools offer more sets to better quality education than the S and MW schools, hence people in the S for whom best education is a priority over being local will naturally go to the NE. By that same token, NE folks for whom best education is a priority will stay in the NE, or perhaps go to the S, as there simply are not enough options in the S/MW.”</p>
<p>Why can’t it just be - people who are interested in elite schools go look at elite schools? Why do they have to “pre categorize” them into NE/M/S/W, select their “favorite” region and pick from only there? It’s just so odd. </p>
<p>“Northwesty, would it be correct to synthesize your post as the NE schools offer more sets to better quality education than the S and MW schools, hence people in the S for whom best education is a priority over being local will naturally go to the NE. By that same token, NE folks for whom best education is a priority will stay in the NE, or perhaps go to the S, as there simply are not enough options in the S/MW.”</p>
<p>Seriously?</p>
<p>The Ivy League schools used to be much more regional than they are today. The market for undergraduate education is MUCH MUCH MUCH more national and international than it used to be. Because of things like cheap airplane travel and the internet. While there’s generally a bit of a preference for kids to attend a school within driving distance, that’s one of dozens of factors entering into college choice.</p>
<p>If you are a very smart ambitious student, you will target schools in the top 20. So regardless of where you grow up, odds are that you will attend school in the places where those 20 schools are. Which is in the east because, DUH, elite schools tend to be old schools Unless the school got financial backing from a Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Duke or Stanford plutocrat. </p>
<p>Since those schools are clustered in the NE, there’s little reason for kids to pick schools very far away. It is easier to drive to Princeton than fly to Stanford. </p>
<p>“If you are a very smart ambitious student, you will target schools in the top 20. So regardless of where you grow up, odds are that you will attend school in the places where those 20 schools are. Which is in the east…” </p>
<p>Pizzagirl’s data does not support this (please read my post # 776, #797, #799, #800). If a student lives in the south it is likely they will go to school in the south, if they live in the west they will go to school in the west. HYPSMC will tend to draw more of a national audience (HYPSMC index factor of -59) but they all still draw most of their students from their home geographic region. Note that PIzzagirl’s data only includes admitted students and that Stanford currently has the lowest admission rate in the US. </p>
<p>You’re assuming that the pool of students in the 13 universities you cherry picked out of the 22 I provided is project able to the entire sample of elite-school-worthy kids. Not only have you excluded the LACs, you aren’t REALLY answering the question “what do smart students in each region do,” since we aren’t tracking the smart kids who wind up at Michigan, Berkeley, etc. I made this point earlier. </p>
<p>This is to try to encourage kids to apply by flying in a targeted demographic. Yield has no role if they have not even applied.</p>
<p>They do pay for trips based on noted need in their applications and fly them in for admitted days on Caltech dime too. That has to do with yield.</p>
<p>However, those I have alluded to are flown in strictly because they are a targeted demographic and income does not play a role in whether they buy a ticket.</p>
<p>Perhaps they are thinking the way marketing folks do, to show enthusiasm to a targeted group which historically has low share. The more kids are interested, the more they apply, and the more qualified kids apply, and more offers can be made to this targeted demographic group, and, hopefully, remembering the past enthusiasm, they accept in higher numbers as they otherwise would have done. </p>
<p>Northwesty, I suspect we are talking past each other. Would you support this conjecture: schools in the S/MW are not as elite as the schools in the NE because of age? (In other words, a school is like a fine wine.) </p>
<p>If you do, then we can simplify it to: schools in the S/MW (WashU) are not as elite as the schools in the NE (UPenn), and conclude this discussion.</p>