<p>Coming from North Carolina, where the public university system is strong (and fan loyalty equally so) and generally quite affordable, I agree with bclintonk and Purple Titan. Only a few of the very top students in the state apply to Ivy League or other highly-ranked private schools. The vast majority of these very top students choose UNC, NC State, or yes, even lower-ranked state universities, over the Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, etc. by not applying to those other schools despite being possible, sometimes very likely, admits.</p>
<p>There are people on CC who really don’t get this, but this happens all the time in North Carolina and probably in most states in the country – mainly the ones that are not located in the Northeast. Cross-admit data are worth little because they don’t account for this when they purport to measure student preferences.</p>
<p>One way to measure student preferences would be to ask every senior in the country where he/she would go to college if given the choice of any college in the country.</p>