[lofatdairy]

I imagine location is a big part. That said it's probably an unfair comparison to put a wealthy private school to a public school, especially when prestige is so essentially self-reinforcing. ASU is obviously a fantastic school, but it's ability to offer attractive faculty positions to top researchers will be limited compared to schools that are essentially the educational arm of a hedge fund.

You bring up Stanford, a school with a sort of comparable start historically would be Clark University (which might surprise some it's notability has somewhat waned in this century). I think Clark's trajectory would demonstrate the importance of location. Both UIUC and Stanford have enough nearby schools where it doesn't really compete heavily for resources, but also enough where you get strong collaborative efforts. There's also a technology bias in both who we're looking at as notable alumni, as well as where both schools are pretty much best known for. If we were talking about financiers, we'd probably see more UMich and UVA I'd hazard.