<p>Sounds like East Coast bias from your counselor. Ignore it.</p>
<p>Yes, Stanford does attract a much higher proportion of applicants from the West Coast (or so I assume, given the breakdown of enrolled students). But here’s a news flash: East Coast students are not more talented than the ones out here. And Stanford certainly attracts tons and tons of international applicants, so on that your counselor is just plain wrong.</p>
<p>Of course, by “prestigious”, it’s possible your counselor is actually thinking something along the lines of “has more old-money preppies from the East Coast”, in which case she’s probably right.</p>