What wis75 said. It's natural for state universities to want students of that state, for all those reasons.
I also hate people saying this school (or any other competitive school) is a safety for them, no matter what. You never know what will happen in the admissions process, and since it is competitive (albeit not as competitive as many other schools) and not a black and white admissions process, you generally cannot say it's a safety. I mean, you can, but I personally wouldn't consider it a safety for as many people who claim it's their safety.
To OP, I don't see why you were denied right away. If you were postponed, I could understand more. But to be outright denied is a little iffy. Make sure that nothing was screwed up, especially on your high school's end. Were all your recs sent, was something wrong on your transcript, and so on.
If you're really set on going here, appeal your decision. I remember at my orientation two years ago they were telling us about a student who got denied with a 35 ACT, 3.9 GPA, and nothing iffy about his application. He transferred later, and his counselor had no idea how he was denied in the first place. It happens, whether it makes sense or not. Sometimes people slip through the cracks. Try to make sure you aren't one, and make sure nothing was amiss.
Edit:
Quote:
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There sometimes becomes a question in the admission officers' minds as to whether an exceptionally strong applicant is using a flagship school as a "safety", and then is a decision to defer in favor of a more "committed applicant" a more fair decision to the applicant pool and to a university wrestling with predicting their yield.
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I've heard this moreso for smaller, less competitive state schools than bigger, more competitive state schools. As well, I would think they would postpone before denying right away, and if I had to guess, I would say that's what they're doing to some of these applicants. By the time they get back to their application, they know more about the applicant, and they know more about whom they've already accepted. I really don't think denying strong applicants right away is part of this process (if it happens, and I think it does).