When I was in high school, my mom was an advocate of my going far away from home for college. Not just because most of the top schools were far from home, but also because she thought it was good to go away and grow up a bit (or maybe she was sick of me ). Regardless of her reasons, she was quite right, and it's advice I pass on to students now -- go far from home to college. You'll see why when you come home and hang out with high school friends who didn't.

Apparently, there's evidence now that getting into the very top schools is harder because more people are taking my mom's advice. That is, people used to be more likely to stay near home for college than they are now; or, rather, they're more willing to go far from home for school. I particularly find interesting the idea that this process is far from over, since most undergraduate schools have not fully opened to globalization. When that happens, there will be even more AoPSers at MIT (On a related note, one of the arguments I make when pitching the idea that middle schools shouldn't consider their students getting 100s on all the tests a success, is that they'll be measured in college against a national standard, and in their careers against an international one. I wonder how much middle and high school education will change, if at all, when that measurement against an international standard starts happening earlier?)