<p>I remember reading somewhere that 55% of Stanford's students come from CA. Does that mean that if I am a CA resident, my chances of getting in is easier than, say, someone from NY?</p>
<p>Thankss</p>
<p>I was always told that it was harder to get in if you lived in CA (esp around the area).. when none of our early applicants got in this year one of my pretty knowledgable-about-college-admissions teachers chalked it up to geography.</p>
<p>Stanford is a private university and it doesn't matter whether you're a california resident or not. The reason why such a high number of California residents are admitted is because a large number of highly qualified California residents apply.</p>
<p>no CA residents are generally smarter than the rest of America (except for TX, NY, and some other east coast states)</p>
<p>OP, think about what you're saying. California is THE most populous state in the union. In fact, according to the United States Census Bureau, in 2000, the total population of California as over 33 million, with 2,450,888 people between the ages of 15-19, and 2,122,098 enrolled in HS. In NY, the population is a little over 18 million total, has 1,287,544 people between ages 15-19, and 1,103,278 enrolled in HS. </p>
<p>This means that the proportion of students applying to college from CA is going to be around 2x as much as that from New York, the rate of students going to college in each state considered the same in this case.</p>
<p>Stanford has no choice but to accept a majority of Californians because as a factor of size, a large number of highly qualified CA residents apply, like the previous poster said, however, I would assume that the competition is generally tougher to get in from within California than from another state. To put this in perspective, the state with the most residency among Princeton students (where I go to college)....is California. </p>
<p>Prepare to enter a tough pool of students applying to Stanford, especially if you are from California.</p>
<p>I always thought it was harder</p>
<p>absolutely harder if your are in-state. Stanford's class is now ~37.5% Calif residents (down from the 50's a generation ago). Private colleges want geographic diversity, including internationals, so top students from Alaska or Wyoming have a much easier time. I would guess that Stanford receives plenty of apps from New York, a large state, with only fair public Unis, so their admission stats probably aren't a whole lot better than in-state Calif.</p>
<p>chronic: test scores ain't everything, particularly since certain folks prep maniacally in this state, much more so than laid-back midwestern states.</p>
<p>just agreeing with posts 2, 6, and 7.</p>
<p>Higher bar for CA students. Stanford, like the other elites, want geographical diversity, too. As tokyo said, combine that with massive college-age population in CA.</p>
<p>The reason so many Cali kids get in has a lot to do with Stanford's recent history of being a more regional school. There are a ton of legacies applying from CA and they heavily recruit athletes and URMs from their community.</p>
<p>"and they heavily recruit athletes and URMs from their community."</p>
<p>An important point. Some LAC's and private U's have to recruit much more from other regions to meet ethnic diversity goals, whereas CA is one of the most ethnically diverse states in the country. So for non-athletes, non-legacies, non URMs, you have to be one unusual CA applicant to get in.</p>
<p>hahaha then in this case I'm screwed.</p>
<p>I'm Asian (no way URM), California Resident, Non-athlete, Non-legacy</p>
<p>But wait a second... How come being a CA resident helps you get to UC's but not Stanford? Is it because Stanford is private and UC is public??</p>
<p>
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But wait a second... How come being a CA resident helps you get to UC's but not Stanford? Is it because Stanford is private and UC is public??
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</p>
<p>Yeah many public schools tend to put priority on in-state students.</p>
<p>no CA residents are generally smarter than the rest of America</p>
<p>meh..no..the cut off for National merit scholarship is always lower than connecticut, massachusetts and the likes of those SMART states :p not to mention CA has a pretty bad public education system.</p>
<p>this all makes me wish i was from somewhere like Wyoming, so i can get into colleges easier... :(</p>
<p>Standford is private, so state residency won't matter. You probably have a higher number of CA residents applying since CalTech/Standford are the two top schools out there, and they're really the only top 25 schools on the wes coast. If you look at the East Coast, there is Princeton, Harvard, MIT, Yale, Dartmouth, Duke, ect ect ect, so more East Coast students are likely to go to those schools. But all of the top 25 schools (except for the public schools) have a wide demographic of areas represented. Its just due to CA's size/population/location/smaller availability of great schools close by that most likely more CA student's apply. Which i guess could hurt CA students' chances of getting in, since private schools like to generally have a balanced number from all states</p>
<p>The reason why there are more CA residents is because 1) CA has more people than any other state. 2) pretty much every CA resident who is qualified to apply to stanford does. 3) stanford is close to home for CA applicants, so if they are accepted, it is not as expensive. Its really just stupid to say that CA is the smartest state in America because there is absolutely no evidence of that. It is likely that the state will have more perfect SAT scores, 4.0's, etc. but that is because of a larger population</p>
<p>Posts 13 and 15 are accurate. Generally, the public high schools in many other States are superior to those in CA, overall. An handful percentage of CA publics are competitive with OOS high schools in states with much better school systems. Some of those OOS students, however, do come into CA in their later h.s. years so as to qualify as an in-Stater for U.C. A lot of these students have a better background than the "typical" in-Stater, esp. in the areas of math & science, where CA is still weak. (Quite ironic, given the science job market in CA) That's another reason that competing for spots in the Engineering School at Berkeley, for example, is even harder than it used to be. UC applicants are getting backgrounds in better US school systems and/or better <em>overseas</em> school systems, before applying.</p>