<p>My son lives in a school district in Wisconsin that is geographically over 800 square miles. He has applied EA to an Ivy...#1 out of 190, ACT 34, SAT 2140 and very impressive EC resume. Will our location be a liability?</p>
<p>Why are you even worried about this? </p>
<p>It will have practically no bearing on his application.</p>
<p>Definitely an advantage. Admissions counselors want students from all over their country to add to their “diversity”. Fewer applicants from a region means a higher acceptance rate, assuming your stats or on par with the Ivy.</p>
<p>There’s no definite answer.</p>
<p>We had two people tied for valedictorians last year. Neither of them got into an ivy league. It’s because, compared to the east coast schools, my school isn’t considered competitive at all.</p>
<p>I have heard that some schools eschew rural applicants for fear that after matriculating they will have a harder time fitting in…I however would like to think it would be a great advantage.</p>
<p>"I however would like to think it would be a great advantage. "
Geographic origin will never be a great advantage. It may be a small advantage if there are few qualified students applying to a particular college from the same state.</p>
<p>I agree with meloparkmom. Geographic region will probably carry the same weight as say legacy would. It will probably tip the balance in your favor if admission committees are undecided about your decision.</p>
<p>"We had two people tied for valedictorians last year. Neither of them got into an ivy league. It’s because, compared to the east coast schools, my school isn’t considered competitive at all. " </p>
<p>diana: your test sample is too small. Your assumption is it’s the schools lack of competitiveness. My assumption is the students’ lack of competitiveness. There are over 100,000 valedictorians every year…</p>
<p>timber: your son’s story and achievements may interest enough readers. Trying to stand out is one of the major goals. He may have achieved that. Good luck.</p>
<p>No, I don’t think they worry about rural kids not fitting in. There aren’t many parts of the country not reached by some degree of contemporary culture. Some rural kids have great strengths that translate well to college, including resiliance and self-motivation. If he’s the only one in your area applying, it can be a help in the geog and "school context"diversity scenarios. If his (apparent) style, personality and prep (among other things) match what the college likes, so much the better. Lots of kids (and their parents) who are rural gripe here about limited EC opportunities, distances one would have to drive, etc. If your son has mastered these and has good essays, good LoRs- plus those academic and score achievements- he’s in good shape. </p>
<p>Yes, geog diversity matters- and his accomplishments will likely make him an interesting candidate. It’s just not a guaranteed pull, because there could be other kids from WI or the upper mid-west from similar schools. (In fact, there are many parts of the country with long commutes to the regional hs.) Of course, we can’t predict for any college with low admit rates, but certainly wish him best of luck.</p>
<p>Let’s look at Brown as an example. From the common data set <a href=“Office of Institutional Research | Brown University”>Office of Institutional Research | Brown University; Section C7 you can see geographical residence is “considered”, just like volunteer work and work experience, less important than class rank, ECs, GPA, etc.</p>
<p>“diana: your test sample is too small. Your assumption is it’s the schools lack of competitiveness. My assumption is the students’ lack of competitiveness. There are over 100,000 valedictorians every year…”</p>
<p>I was only using that anecdote as an example, not a basis to prove my point that students from rural areas do not get admitted into top schools. Hence, I said “there’s no definite answer.” And no, I don’t agree with your presumption. Both those girls ended their junior year with a 4.3 and 2300+ SAT scores. My school runs by a semester system. Kids only take 6 classes a day. I know a friend who took 9 classes a day in NY. The rigor is also what is important in admissions.</p>
<p>Thanks to each of you for your comments…I find them all interesting.</p>
<p>diana: we’ll have to agree to disagree. I’ve seen like kids from less than stellar schools get accepted and rejected too. I’m sure you agree that there are many vagaries involved with elite school admissions. For whatever reason (unbeknown to both of us), those two kids weren’t accepted. I posit that their background (which they can’t control) was taken into account (i.e. not held against them as long as they did all they could) but somehow, didn’t catch the attention of the admissions officers. In the circumstance where they took the most rigorous available to them, that would be a plus. Not every ivy admit is taking 9 classes. Many come from mediocre and even poor schools.</p>
<p>@Diana, 2300+ SAT and 4.0+ GPA doesnt mean a candidate will probably be accepted. Without any sort of hook that makes her application stand out, that candidate is just like the thousands of others with 2300 SAT and high gpa and will probably be rejected.</p>
<p>outstanding stats definitely isnt a pass to all top schools. Supposedly being in a rural area shouldn’t affect the admission chance because they are supposed to be unbiased about it or it would be unfair to other students, whatever difference living in a rural area makes.</p>
<p>^ There’s nothing unfair about giving an advantage to someone who excels from a background that traditionally doesn’t yield top scholars. Why do schools expressly send recruiters to urban areas and rural areas? To find kids like timber’s son. </p>
<p>Among the thousands of qualified applicants, you can be that this application will be noticed – and that’s a good thing.</p>
<p>You obviously don’t come from a rural area but a more traditional background. Your goal is to make yourself stand out amongst 1000s of kids like yourself — a bit more difficult than timber’s son. But that’s how it is.</p>
<p>We are from an area that is socioeconomically depressed, very rural and considered appalachian. She qualifies for diversity scholarships from Ohio State and American so, I would say it can definitely be an advantage. Our school has has 2 admits to Cornell, 1 admit to Harvard and 2 waitlisted to Harvard since 2007. I think that is pretty good for our small rural, not competitive at all, high school.</p>
<p>Just an anecdote.</p>
<p>more data re: relationship between elite acceptances and scores into the Ivies</p>
<p>in general elite schools reject the overwhelming majority of applicants with stellar scores</p>
<p>example: Brown rejects 80% of applicants with an 800 CR, 83% of those with an 800 Math, 72% of those with a perfect 36 on the ACT, 81% of Valedictorians and 86% of Salutatorians</p>
<p>it’s a nice mental exercise to wonder what role geography plays in elite admissions, but . . . those schools are reaches for almost everybody, so Love Thy Safeties.</p>
<p>My take on Timberdad’s initial query: “Will our location be a liability?” It seems to me that one of the functions his essays must perform is to convert the potential liability into a asset. He could write an essay that distinguishes his application from the others by illustrating how his rural life has prepared him for success in college. The essay could distinguish his rural experiences and skills over some more (shall I say) boring, conventional experiences of kids who had every opportunity at their fingertips.</p>
<p>There are two related questions here: (1) Will a college consider the fact that a school is rural when making an admissions decision, and (2) Are students from rural areas otherwise disadvantaged.</p>
<p>As far as (1) is concerned, I don’t think anyone here is qualified to answer that question, unless they have personally sat on an admissions committee (and then would be qualified to answer only for that school), in spite of their attempts to do so.</p>
<p>For (2), I think it depends on the school. mspearl reports a poor, rural school that has an admirable record of qualifying students for highly selective colleges. The public school in our district does not, and I think I can safely say the same for the majority of small, poor, rural school districts across Illinois. Beyond the basic college prep curriculum, our school offers no academic electives - as in NO academic electives. Every student in the school takes the same four-course English sequence. Math is offered through precalc. There is one science teacher, who teaches biology, chemistry, physics, earth science, and physical science (physics and chemistry are offered alternate years). The only language offered is three years of Spanish. APs, honors courses? Nothing. Community college dual credit courses? Nada. </p>
<p>The upshot is that students are simply not academically prepared to compete for admission to highly selective colleges. Last year’s val went to Augustana (Illinois) - not a bad school, but hardly highly selective. The year before that there were co-vals; one went to community college and the other was scheduled to go to Western Illinois before she died in an accident. It’s considered a major achievement to get into a college like Illinois Wesleyan or, especially, UIUC. </p>
<p>I know that colleges say “we don’t penalize students for lack of AP courses if they take the most rigorous courses available,” and I’m sure they don’t consciously do that. But I suspect that when evaluating whether a given student is capable of succeeding at a selective institution, lack of opportunity to take advanced courses in high school definitely hurts.</p>