I was looking at it from the perspective that schools want to make sure students will finish the program and that a local student (all else being equal) might be less likely to dropout for many of the commonly cited reasons/causes for student attrition. I.e. financial stresses, lack of social support, health issues. Also a few of the schools ive applied to have a text box that say "why are you applying to this school?" this is in addition to the "which faculty research fits with your interests box"
Local students have less financial challenges (less stress), they presumably have a better social support network (more motivated, easier to find meaning in work), health issues are much more easily managed in a place with existing care.
I do know there are no shortage of applications at programs (although i don't know how many of those are actually in the race, i.e. a certain amount of applications have to be from students not even remotely qualified).
Why I was concerned about mentioning it.
That it could be interpreted as this student is just applying here because its convenient. Which while it would be true that attending locally would be convenient its certainly not the only and definitely not the main reason.
TLDR
Didn't mention it, I figure its obvious that if any student were applying to programs and there was one near his house that fit his research interests it would be weird if he didn't apply. Hence, no need to state the obvious.
