I live in TX and the top kids around here know about Ivies, Stanford, MIT, U Chicago, SLAC, and other Top 20 schools, just like every other place.
Around here it comes down to cost and most are not willing to pay more for a private school when there are great public options here. Our kids that choose private schools only do so if they are cheaper due to FA or scholarships.
@Rivert2000 Except for for-profit schools.
Clearly, they are evil…
Just checked in on this thread, so I’m a little late to reply
You’re very right, this made me laugh. It was more similar to NorCal than I expected to be when I actually got here, but that is probably a consequence of living in a college bubble within the bubble of a major city.
TCU definitely became big after its Rose Bowl win in 2011. Something interesting is the university itself really tries to downplay the religious aspect. If you may notice, I and pretty much everyone calls it TCU and not “Texas Christian University.” I don’t intentional do this, but the school has in their brand standards references that the full name should hardly ever be used, if at all in official literature. I guarantee if you take a campus tour, at some time your guide will say “You can make the C in TCU as big or small as you want it to be.”
Very true, most tend to stay on the West Coast. If I look at my SnapMap right now, there are 2 people on the East Coast. There’s many many times that on the other ocean. A fair amount in the ski slopes of Utah and Colorado as well. TCU’s largest out of state contributor is CA, but probably 80% of those are SoCal by my estimates. I considered some other southern state schools when thinking about financials, but ended up mostly applying in Texas. I’m truly so happy with my choice, I love this community, and people back home see how much I love it and support me. I have a lot to be thankful for!
For a similar West Coast anecdote to @SuperfrogFan (except I’m not from CA,) the majority of my school’s students stay in the Pacific Northwest, next highest to CA, and after that it’s Arizona schools and then probably BYU with other schools in smaller amounts.
Regional preference is definitely common amongst colleges----USC has ~50% of its class from CA while Rice has ~40-50% from TX—these are both national universities that admit students from all over, yet, sometimes students want to be in a familiar environment, especially if they love their home city/state.
It’s not just a numbers game, though. The Ivies have long had an outsized impact on American politics, literature, etc.
To cite a couple of examples from politics, 8 of the 9 current Supreme Court Justices attended Ivies, as did all 5 of the most recent presidents.
We sure have a lot of Texans on this thread! And we haven’t even fought over the schools! I can imagine how a Texas guidance counselor would not tend to come up with Kansas State. What a great story and result.
I have a good friend who is a professor at A&M and he wanted his STEM-oriented kid to go to Tech just because it is not as huge and is more manageable. A fair number of kids from our high school go to Stephen F Austin. It’s a nice size, beautiful area of East Texas and not quite as intense as the big flagships.
William and Mary was established when Virginia was a colony.
^ And I believe W&M started as a private school and converted to public (perhaps after UVA was founded, not sure).
You are including law/grad school and referring to older persons who graduated many decades ago, but I do agree that Ivy grads are overrepresented in national politics. I think the more important question is why that relationship exists. Are people who aspire towards national politics and/or come from well connected families more likely to attend Ivies? Or does attending an Ivy make one more likely to be elected than attending a home state public?
It’s not a general rule that you need to go into Ivies to become a high ranking politician. For example, looking at governors of Texas, I believe George W. Bush is the only Texas governor who attended an Ivy. I believe all of the Texas governors for more than 100 years have either attended a college in Texas or did not attend college at all. In fairness Bush did apply to UT for grad school, but was rejected, so he attended Harvard instead. I expect both being admitted to Ivies and being elected had a lot to do with his last name. A similar pattern exists for many other states. If you include grad school, most governors attended college within the state that they govern and did not attend an Ivy.
Similarly if you look at the Texas supreme court members, I believe only 1 attended an Ivy for undegrad. By far the most frequently attended college was UT Austin – both the most common for undergrad and the most common for law school. Again a similar pattern exists for state and local elected officials elsewhere. As a general rule of thumb, I doubt that attending a big public in your home state is going to hurt you in being elected to a state or local office. If anything, it may offer some special benefits that would not be found at an Ivy.
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As was Rutgers.
I believe the estimates are on the high side, but regional preferences certainly exist among applicants to highly selective private colleges. For example, looking at the 2019-20 class among selective colleges in CA
Harvey Mudd – 42% in state
USC – 42% in state
Caltech – 38% in state
Stanford – 33% in state
I attended HS in upstate NY and was interested in 3 of the colleges above. Literally nobody associated with my HS that I spoke with had heard of Harvey Mudd, including both students and teachers. Caltech wasn’t much better. Many people had heard of Stanford, but a good portion of the school knowledge seemed to involve sports teams, rather than academics. According to Naviance, my HS didn’t have any recent applications to Harvey Mudd or Caltech, and had very few to Stanford. In contrast, there were a huge number of applications from my upstate NY HS to the upstate NY college Cornell – more applications than to all other Ivies + Stanford combined. Like Stanford, Cornell gets ~1/3 the class from in state.
@Camasite I think you’re absolutely right! I have a good friend who went to Harvard law school and she has found it incredibly difficult to find a job in our mid-sized midwest city where the state law school is clearly preferred. There is a network that my friend is not able to penetrate, and I think there are some preconceived ideas about what kind of person she is based on the school she graduated from. It’s kind of ironic when you think about it.
Great discussions and insight.
Very aligned to my thinking as I stated here:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22632582/#Comment_22632582
The US is very decentralised with each region having its own fiefdoms, where people from non-Ivy and non-HYPSM universities can prove their worth at state level; hence giving them the credentials to move to federal level roles and compete.
The UK, on the other hand, is extremely centralised. A far smaller geography where every part in reachable, hence the aristocracy can impose themselves across the land with the excuse of “I attended Oxford/Cambridge”. Hence, only the aristocracy get the credentials to get the top jobs; limiting open competition for these jobs.
@Data10 I was admitted to USC Dornsife this year and the admitted student FAQ said that ~1/2 of the class was outside of CA, though this likely changes from year to year as you said.
Dornsife FAQ: https://dornsife.usc.edu/admitted-students-faq/#campuslife
You’re absolutely correct. And, the first rule of Fight Club is - there is no Fight Club. 
As a bonus, going local, or at least within driving distance (in an electric vehicle) from your home contributes to reducing emissions, since air travel is a significant contributor to greenhouse gases.
With COVID-19, a larger portion of students are choosing to stay within driving distance than typical this year. With the trend line listed below, USC was expected to be ~40% in state this year.
Percent In State at USC, First Time Freshman
2018 – 42%
2016 – 42%
2014 – 45%
2012 – 51%
2010 – 58%
2008 – 60%
2006 – 61%
2004 – 63%
William and Mary has been public since very early 1900’s and UVA was founded in early 1800’s. Though this does not really matter the point is on my original response that they are both public schools.
Lets not forget our President Elect Biden, I believe he went to University of Delaware and she to Howard. Neither went to graduate school.