<p>Earlier this week a Brown representative came down to my region and a question was asked, which went along the lines:</p>
<p>"Different regions in the US offer many different opportunities to students, and so does the United States get split into different regions for applicants from different areas?" </p>
<p>The Brown representative responded with:</p>
<p>"Yes, Brown is aware that the US has many different programs and opportunities so we do place applicants into their regions applicant pools, such as South Texas".</p>
<p>The reason why the Brown representative used South Texas as an example was probably because that is where I'm located. I'm surprised that an applicant pool would be such a small area (I was expecting around 5 areas, but if they're all going to be that size then there are probably at least 15 applicant pools). </p>
<p>Do other Ivy League's, such as Yale, also separate applicants into these applicant pools and compare accordingly to other applicants within the same area?</p>
<p>Yale has breaks the country into regions so that a single admission officer can oversee a group of applicants. This would also allow that admissions officer to better know the feeder schools and even get a feel for certain teacher recommendations. Those areas are not necessarily contiguous so you could have an admissions officer that does IL, IN, and the US Virgin Islands and they do a lot of traveling each fall. I’m sure there is a value to saying you have matriculants from all 50 states so there may be a bonus to being a qualified applicant from Wyoming but I doubt there is any meaning to being in a regional pool of “South Texas” since Texas is not hard to have well represented at the Ivies. The alumni schools network may break it down to that level to identify alumni-applicant interview matches but that is more for the logistics of interviews and not to compare you to a tiny microcosm of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>To be honest, yes and no. If your application is exactly like a person in say, North Dakota, and they have to choice between you and North Dakota, they will most likely pick North Dakota. However, if they normally pick four students from South Texas, but six students this year are amazing, then they will accept all six and some other area will get lower than normal.</p>
<p>The good and bad thing is that there is nothing that you can do about this. If your application is so close to the cut off point that they are deciding by region, then they will also be deciding by using race, sex, parents’ background, and siblings’ background. I suggest focusing on your essays. This is the only thing that you can drastically improve right now. Be different. Find out what everyone else is writing about and do the exact opposite. Make it yourself in every way possible.</p>