<p>As a life long New Englander I thought I should jump in a comment. I believe that New Englanders in general are happy where they live and see no need to go elsewhere. Personally I think that there is no better place to live between April 1 and January 1 . . . January 1 to March 31 is a bit difficult but that is when we travel to skiing or Florida, etc.</p>
<p>Here is some anecdotal evidence, which is evidence but insufficient to draw a conclusion, about my childeren's high school. I live in the smallest state in the union, Rhode Island, that also officially has the longest name. I believe that we are an exagerated version of the other New England states. Their private HS graduates a pretty good number of students each year, however, a large contingent stay close to home. </p>
<p>By that I mean that they do not even leave RI. They go to Brown, PC, Bryant, RISD, URI, Roger Williams, CCRI, Johnson & Wales, etc. There is nowhere in the state that you can not get into CT or MA within 1/2 hour yet over half of these students go to school in RI.</p>
<p>My oldest applied to a few schools 'close' to home by my estimation but far by RI standards. He also applied to a number of schools across the US. His results were quite good in general but he is one of about 5%-10% of his HS class to go to school outside New England.</p>
<p>On the plus side for us Rhode Islanders is that those that do choose to go out of region probably have more choices because so few do it. In my oldest son's college freshman class he was the only Rhode Islander.</p>
<p>The other side of this is that for a number of students who apply locally they get the legacy benefit. Thier parents went to school here in New England and decided to stay. A good number of schools here provide a legacy benefit so I guess it all balances out . . . unless you want to go to one of the schools where you are not a legacy, i.e. Harvard to Brown, etc.</p>
<p>With that all said I do not think it is a uniquely New England phenomenon. Many in the south would choose to go to school there than elsewhere. Similarly, for the midwest, etc.</p>