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<p>well, I made the original statement here, reporting on what I had heard from my friend. I would say it’s not about prestige, but for the particular group of kids he was talking about, prestige wasn’t driving their thinking about this. These were top students who wanted to go to a good school but just weren’t terribly interested in Northwestern or Chicago, regardless of what they thought about the prestige of those schools relative to WUSTL. And I think this may be true for a lot of kids in central and southern Illinois; Chicago just isn’t that appealing to them, it’s a little too much “other,” but suburban St. Louis feels like it’s right in their backyard and if there’s a good school there, they’re interested.</p>
<p>Northwestern draws heavily from suburban Chicago for its student body. U Chicago may be a little more diverse and eclectic. But I don’t think either school draws heavily from central and southern Illinois. In contrast, that’s fertile recruiting ground for WUSTL.</p>