<p>Some Harvard Admissions rep came to my school last week and as I am one of only three applying early and because my guidance couselor is creepy and came to find me and bring me to meet with the guy, I had a lengthy one on one. He seemed to hint that geography plays a bigger role in admission than some people think. I am not entirely sure, but he almost came out and said that he would give me preference because I live in the town he comes from (I live on Cape Cod, about an hour away from Harvard). Has anybodoy ever heard of admissions officers being biased to people who hail from their home town? I hadn't before but it makes me wonder...</p>
<p>Well, Since I bet someone from harvard admissions reads this forum and will recognize your representative , I would delete the Cape Cod reference right now. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>I think your admissions officer was being facetious. People joke like that all the time...</p>
<p>I don't think he was joking, I had never met the man in my life, he seemed like a very serious "uppity" Hahvahd man to me. And somehow I doubt he will be reading this, know it is me, and not admit me for "revealing his secrets", curmudgeon.</p>
<p>That's not the issue. If they can identify you from here (and don't think adcoms don't come here- they do) than you could reflect poorly on yourself.</p>
<p>umm there are pleeenty of schools and students on Cape Cod, Im fairly certain this isn't reflecting poorly on me, because the man doesnt even know who I am.</p>
<p>Hi Cur, nice to see you here!</p>
<p>Donemom, </p>
<p>Really, the thread title lucked me in to Harvard world. The repartee leaves a bit to be desired so far! LOL.</p>
<p>Kids here seem to be convinced that being from Massachusetts helps in admissions. I'm from out of state + have no opinion or knowledge on the topic.</p>
<p>i think i saw somewhere that harvard picks 20% of its applicants from MA. so it cant hurt if your from that area.</p>
<p>O.K. Now post 8 by me looks "funky" by itself. Let's just say the mods did some editing and things have thankfully gone missing.;)</p>
<p>"i think i saw somewhere that harvard picks 20% of its applicants from MA. so it cant hurt if your from that area."</p>
<p>Maybe. But consider the overabundance of private schools in the New England area, in general. Lots of feeder schools in the northeast.</p>
<p>That's because Massachusetts kids are so SMART!</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>Edit: I think here in Massachusetts, we're under the impression that it's detrimental to be from this state. Because there are sooooo many applicants with terrific states whom we are compared with.</p>
<p>I think the guy is right that geography can be a big factor, but it cuts both ways, and of course there isn't much you can do about it. Like many schools Harvard does take a lot of kids from its home state, but you can bet it gets a lot of Mass. applicants, too, so unless you know the acceptance rate for Mass. applicants (and you don't, those numbers are not made public) it's hard to draw any conclusions. Most people would argue that that being from an unpopulous state with fewer applicants, such as North Dakota, is where the geographical advantage comes in to play.</p>
<p>while that makes sense in general, i would disagree about harvard. harvard is considered the premier school in the country (whether it is or not actually, i dont kno. but its name holds more strength than any other college to american society). if u ignore large public schools, it wouldn't be too farfetched to say harvard gets one of the highest numbers of out-of-state applicants. </p>
<p>a majority of public high schools that are not in the middle of nowhere has at least one student applying to harvard. and prestigious private schools probably have even more harvard applicants. therefore, i wander to say that no more than 20% of harvard applicants come from massachusetts.</p>
<p>According to the Princeton Review, 84% of Harvard students are out of state. So 16% of students come from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.</p>
<p>You have to make sure you are talking about applicants, admits or matriculants.</p>
<p>Reportedly, 17% of the <strong><em>admits</em></strong> to the Class of 2009 came from New England as a whole, and not just Massachusetts.</p>
<p>The new Profile of the Class of 2009 indicates that Massachusetts is one of 17 states from which "17 to 228" members of the class are drawn.</p>
<p>Even if Massachusetts is the state with 228 matriculants, that still represents no more than about 13.5% of the class.</p>
<p>my question was actually in reference to specific admissions officers, i.e. are there things that count in the process that we aren't aware of. Now I could care less how my STATE does for admits (although I do believe I am at a slight advantage if only for the reason that I have been visiting Harvard......well since I was born), but my real question is, if you know someone who looks at your app. is from your high school will it help? You know how there is so much networking and preference given to job-seekers from the same alma mater, could the same be true of high schools?</p>
<p>would geographical location for an intel make a dif? For example, I am from Norway which has nearly 0 applicants to harvard.</p>
<p>buuuuuuuuummppp.....</p>