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<p>I think you are overstating things regarding both state schools and privates. </p>
<p>While it is true most state schools will have a majority of students from within their own states, those students come from all over the state and in most states bring quite a bit of diversity. Nor will they “all” know each other from high school - they may know a few kids from their HS or scout troop or church or swim league, but out of a population of thousands or tens of thousands knowing a few is not siginificant enough to alter the dynamics of establishing relationships. I was from the Washington, DC, suburbs in Northern Virginia, went to school in Virginia (William & Mary) and initially had more in common with the kids from the Long Island, north Jersey, and Connicticut suburbs than I did with the kids from rural parts of Virginia. But guess what? The day we moved into the dorms, we were all pretty much in the same boat so where someone came from mattered not at all in extablishing relationships.</p>
<p>Also, while privates are not under any legal mandate to have a certain percentage of their enrollment from within their state, you will still find that most draw most of their students from their own geographic region/state. While the geographic diversity may be a bit greater in terms of regions or states, the socioeconomic and demographic diversity in many privates is significantly less than at state schools.</p>