@cobrat: “Incidentally, Midwest public colleges were also doing their utmost to recruit students from the coasts just as much as their private LAC counterparts when I was a HS student/undergrad.”
Massive Midwestern unis like UW-Madison just weren’t terribly selective back then. They likely admitted WI residents who were C students with high test scores as well. In disciplines like engineering at UIUC and UW-Madison, the hard part was getting out, not getting in.