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<p>In California, among those who attend either Stanford, Berkeley, USC, or UCLA, it’s pretty common to have another family member who attended another one of these institutions. They’re all pretty popular schools and there are plenty of alumni living with those degrees throughout the state. There are plenty of families with a Berkeley and UCLA grad (e.g. mine) families who have people who have gone to both USC and Stanford; married couples who are from rival schools (e.g. USC and UCLA; Stanford and Cal) and so on. I know someone who went to UCLA, as did her parents, while her sister’s going to Stanford. Among Californians, all these universities have a strong relationship with each other.</p>
<p>These universities all compete with each other to get students in the state. So, if one wanted to stay in California, and go into the stem field, Berkeley and Stanford are very good options. (albeit the latter’s admissions are much more competitive than the former.) Different students might pick or not pick these schools for various reasons: for the former it might be because they have a better program; or, due to living in the bay area, they’re the less expensive option. Positions for the latter might include fit, living expenses, freedom from parents (applies to both sides) and so on. All these schools compete with each other (although again, Stanford’s more in a league of its own.)</p>
<p>Is it like that for midwest universities too? like does one person go to Michigan whereas the other goes to Purdue, and so on? (genuinely curious since i actually have no idea.)</p>
<p>(Note: I excluded Caltech for two reasons: 1) it’s acceptance rate is very low and 2) it’s a very specialized school.)</p>