Well, we don’t necessarily “think” it’s essential - we are randomly guessing that it is logical until we can become educated in what to expect. We are a well educated couple but government is not our bailywick.
Put it this way - I majored in the geosciences as an undergrad but lived & studied in an area of the country where there was no oil or natural gas exploration, no seismic stations, no vulcanology labs, no paleontology digs, no hyrdrologic studies, nothing. By sheer luck, I ended up contacting the CEO of an independent oil company in Texas, and was brought out to intern one summer.
I met dozens of other students who got summer internships with various exploration firms in that particular city, but every single one of them went to college in Houston or Dallas or College Station or Austin. Every professional and every intern I met at the local luncheons for engineers and geoscientists was gobsmacked when they heard which school I attended. When it came time to attend grad school, I did so in the same “big oil” city as where I’d interned. Making contacts that one summer, keeping in touch with the various professionals from the oil company, visitng them again before graduations gave me not just the summer experience, but a huge network of contacts. Could one contact have helped me land a job? Sure, but having a larger volume of contacts was better. George Mason University versus Eckerd College- which one would I guess has better opps for government-related internships?
So that’s my paradigm. If a kid wants to study the ties between coastal subsidence and the relative excess rise of sea level, I probably wouldn’t suggest s/he study that field in Nebraska. Could I be wrong? ABSOLUTELY… which is the entire point of my participation in this forum. We are looking for insights.
Hopefully, that makes sense. If proximity to that area of the country is worth nothing, then i truly would like to know. Thanks!