States can be populated and still lag behind other states in terms of business activity. The reality is that the economic cores of this country sit on the coasts. I’m just saying that if you want to see the biggest clients, and the full-range of services that a Big Four firm provides, you’ll find it in the Northeast before you find it anywhere else. I’ll just offer something I learned: On one of my visits to Trinity, the student that was hosting me said that the one thing he didn’t like about the school was that it had a limited job market to Texas. He wanted to work in the Northeast, but couldn’t because Trinity wasn’t as relevant. Location of the school has something to do with where you land a job, and I just thought I’d note that considering most of the other schools the OP listed were in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic area.