UW has historically capped its CS program at what seems like an absurdly low number of students. When I was there, they accepted only 80 students per year (40 m

UW has historically capped its CS program at what seems like an absurdly low number of students. When I was there, they accepted only 80 students per year (40 more for computer engineering). The stated reason for this is to keep the student/faculty ratio low, and to maintain a sense of community in the department. Also, I know quite a lot of UW CS graduates who headed down to the valley to do startups. While they could have conceivably found the talent to do it in Seattle, they perceived the environment as better down South. It's not that students from other schools don't do startups, it's just that they go to the Bay area in order to do them, and the culture perpetuates itself.