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Comment by vonmoltke | Hacker News Reader

> Yes you can find talent in the midwest but do you think top CS grads from CMU, UIUC, Purdue, etc. want to stay in the midwest after graduating? Think about it.. 22 years old, fresh out of college, after living in the midwest for 4 years...most of them want to come to San Francisco / Silicon Valley, the tech center of the world.

Other people have commented on other things, but this statement seems out-of-touch. You realize that large numbers of students at those universities come from Midwestern states, right? That the singular obsession with Silicon Valley is restricted to a very vocal and enthusiastic minority?

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Yeah, I both went to UIUC and did job fairs/interviews there later, and while there certainly is the "let's get out of here" mindset from some students, many students' first question was "what do you have in Chicagoland?" or occasionally the Twin Cities. This was, perhaps obviously, especially true of the students from those cities. Hearing that a coastal job was the only option was definitely not a plus to many. Things were somewhat different for grad students who tend to be more diverse geographically, but it's not like they're taking HS kids from SV, dropping them in the Midwest to get educated and then releasing them from their hell after 4 years.

Unrelated note, how did PA (CMU) get included in the Midwest. Philly is essentially on the Atlantic Ocean and the Navy used to build warships there. That's hardly any sort of degree of West.

CMU is in Pittsburgh, closer to Cleveland than the coast.

And we (Pittsburgh) pride ourselves on being part of the Midwest. It's very Midwestern.

Wha? Pennsylvania hasn't been part of the west or even middle west since the days of Natty Bumppo.

That's an interesting note I'd never heard before. Never spent more than a few days in either, but I guess I would say it's more Detroit than Philly.

Ignore this person, they don't know what they are talking about.

I realize CMU is in Pittsburgh, but that's still pretty far East as far as the US goes.

Buffalo and Rochester are also closer to Cleveland than the coast, so I'm not sure that's a great metric.

Anyway, always interesting how terms differ among people

My son included. From CMU to Cupertino pretty much direct.

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