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Comment by malvosenior | Hacker News Reader

Isn't it normal to graduate college and move to another city for a job? I've never heard of anyone wanting to stick around the same city as their college friends before. Granted the Bay Area is a tech hub so that's a reason to stay if you're in the industry but living in a new city on your own is definitely an experience most people should have.

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Only 25% of US adults have a bachelors degree. Of the 25% of those with bachelors degrees, the large majority come from regional public schools, think "Cal State Sacramento", or "Northern Illinois University". Graduates of these types of schools often grew up within 2 - 3 hours of their university, and after school the majority end up in the largest city within a 2 - 3 hour drive of their university. If you didn't get a degree, you're much more likely to live close to where you grew up.

If you went to a top school (top 25 - 50 in USNWR), then your social circle was much more "mobile" than average.

That makes sense. I don't have a degree but my social and professional circles are from top schools and the like. I was missing the view that a lot of people go to university in the same town they grew up in (although I question if that's the case for SF/the valley).

It's very possible that the parent commenter did just that. I know it's true in my case, as a CMU grad a plurality of my college friends moved to SF right after college. It was a new city for most of us, and nearly a decade later the majority of my local social network are still friends from school.

At this point I would be somewhat saddened to move away from a network I've been building for ~15 years.

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