PurpleTitan, that makes sense because of the high quality of the midwest public universities that private colleges tend to be strongly regional in population. The midwest privates are competing with the excellent universities for the midwest kids but can be a financial attraction to the northeasterners who focus on private colleges. After reading these forums for over a decade there is a slight distaste about northeasterners for their public universities and more competition for their private colleges. In the midwest, the publics are highly competitive and desired. For Middlebury or Grinnell, I think I agree with most posters - the education is going to be pretty equal with some small exceptions of majors and the “name recognition” is going to be largely regional.