hyeonjlee

I wouldn't recommend public universities as an OOS student to my S2 (HS junior now) since I read enough posts that in many state universities, most kids stay close to other kids from the same HS (at least initially), and it can get rather isolating/lonely (at least initially) to be an OOS student

In general, I assume that private universities have a bit more diversity in terms of where the students are from. Even so, many private universities may still draw most students from nearby states and region, unless it's something like Harvard et. al with universal appeal within USA and all over the world.

S1 is a freshman at U of Chicago, and I was glad to get a report from him that he already made friends from many fly-over states. (we live in NJ)

How is it at AU? I would like S2 to also go to a school with good geographical diversity.

boysx3

I can give you a personal example:

A few weeks ago, H and I were in DC and took S and his new friends to dinner-- my S is from Ohio (although we just moved to Chicago); his roomie is from Maryland.
The other boys at the table were from Austin, Texas; San Francisco, California; Durham,North Carolina; Long Island, New York; Liverpool, UK; and Netanya, Israel. His friend from Hong Kong was unavailable that evening.

i don't think his group of friends is at all unusual.

mukraker

I was going to say, I consider AU to be relatively non-geographically diverse. It could be just perception, but it seems like at least half the people I meet are from Pennsylvania, New York, or New Jersey. That said, my freshman roommates were from the midwest and the west coast, and I'm from the southwest. We're certainly much less common than people who are from the northeast and mid-Atlantic, but we're not super rare either.

MommaJ

The freshman performance majors do a comedic show every fall in which they take the roles of newly arrived AU'er's and purport to introduce themselves one by one, stating their name and home state. In this year's version, every one of them stepped forward to announce "Hi! My name is _____, and I'm from...NEW JERSEY!" So yes, the stereotype is that an inordinate number of students come from the Garden State.

Nic89

I'm a transfer student from New York and have found friends here from all over the country. My roomie is from California and we have good friends from PA, TX, FL, etc. All 50 states are represented at AU, but off course there will be more students from nearby states