College Comparison XVII: Geographic Diversity

College Search & Selection
1

<p>In order to assist some in their college search process, I have prepared a series of threads that will compare colleges on a variety of measurements. In making these comparisons, I have created three broad groups (private national universities, public national universities and liberal arts colleges) and provide comparisons involving 117 colleges (national universities ranked in the USNWR Top 75 and LACs ranked in the USNWR Top 40). </p>

<p>Following is a comparison of GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY on each campus. Having a student body drawn from a broad geography can lead greater diversity of thought, ideology, custom, values, etc. Frequently this student breadth can be additive to the perspective and learning experience of an undergraduate student. </p>

<p>I hope that you enjoy the thread and find some helpful information. Good luck to all in your college search process!</p>

<p>% OOS , % Non-US , Private National University</p>

<p>98% , 5% , Georgetown
98% , 5% , George Washington
96% , 7% , Dartmouth
95% , 8% , Brown
93% , 9% , Yale
92% , 3% , Notre Dame
91% , 9% , MIT
90% , 4% , Wash U
87% , 6% , Duke
85% , 6% , Johns Hopkins
84% , 10% , Harvard
84% , 10% , Princeton
83% , 10% , U Penn
83% , 3% , Vanderbilt
79% , 9% , U Chicago
77% , 15% , Carnegie Mellon
77% , 7% , Boston University
75% , 5% , Northwestern
75% , 6% , Tufts
75% , 1% , Wake Forest
75% , 3% , Lehigh
74% , 8% , Brandeis
71% , 10% , Columbia
71% , 3% , Boston College
70% , 7% , Emory
67% , 3% , Tulane
65% , 11% , Caltech
64% , 6% , NYU
64% , 1% , TOP PUBLIC (U Delaware)
63% , 8% , Cornell
62% , 2% , BYU
59% , 2% , Rensselaer
58% , 7% , Stanford
56% , 7% , Yeshiva
54% , 5% , Syracuse
50% , 7% , U Rochester
50% , 7% , U Miami
46% , 3% , Case Western
45% , 6% , Rice
45% , 6% , Pepperdine
45% , 6% , SMU
45% , 8% , Worcester
44% , 2% , Fordham
38% , 9% , USC</p>

<p>% OOS , % Non-US , State University</p>

<p>64% , 1% , U DELAWARE
39% , 7% , PURDUE
37% , 2% , U IOWA
35% , 5% , U MICHIGAN
34% , 5% , INDIANA U
32% , 2% , WILLIAM & MARY
32% , 5% , U WISCONSIN
32% , 2% , VIRGINIA TECH
29% , 1% , CLEMSON
28% , 5% , U VIRGINIA
27% , 5% , GEORGIA TECH
26% , 3% , U MINNESOTA
25% , 3% , PENN STATE
24% , 2% , U MARYLAND
23% , 1% , U CONNECTICUT
17% , 1% , U N CAROLINA
17% , 1% , U PITTSBURGH
12% , 5% , U WASHINGTON
12% , 1% , U GEORGIA
11% , 3% , OHIO STATE
8% , 5% , MICHIGAN ST
7% , 4% , UC BERKELEY
7% , 2% , RUTGERS
6% , 4% , UCLA
6% , 6% , U ILLINOIS
4% , 1% , UC S BARBARA
4% , 1% , U FLORIDA
4% , 4% , U TEXAS
3% , 4% , UC SAN DIEGO
3% , 3% , UC IRVINE
3% , 1% , TEXAS A&M
3% , 1% , UC S CRUZ
2% , 2% , UC DAVIS</p>

<p>% OOS , % Non-US , LAC</p>

<p>96% , 1% , US Naval Acad
93% , 1% , US Military Acad
92% , 7% , Wesleyan
91% , 6% , Oberlin
90% , 7% , Amherst
89% , 5% , Bates
88% , 11% , Grinnell
88% , 5% , Colby
87% , 7% , Swarthmore
87% , 3% , Bowdoin
86% , 7% , Williams
86% , 3% , Haverford
85% , 4% , W&L
84% , 8% , Wellesley
84% , 7% , Bryn Mawr
83% , 5% , U Richmond
83% , 4% , Trinity
82% , 4% , Kenyon
80% , 4% , Davidson
78% , 11% , Macalester
77% , 7% , Smith
76% , 6% , Carleton
76% , 2% , Sewanee
76% , 10% , Bard
75% , 3% , Bucknell
75% , 7% , Lafayette
74% , 3% , Colorado College
74% , 17% , Mt. Holyoke
73% , 6% , Vassar
70% , 5% , Colgate
70% , 5% , Hamilton
70% , 2% , Furman
68% , 4% , Barnard
67% , 4% , Pomona
64% , 1% , TOP PUBLIC (U Delaware)
62% , 1% , Holy Cross
59% , 1% , Scripps
58% , 3% , Whitman
55% , 2% , Occidental
54% , 6% , Claremont McK
40% , 3% , Harvey Mudd</p>

<p>na , 10% , Middlebury</p>

2

<p>One should carefully consider such statistics, however. Dartmouth is obviously in a small state. While Boston College is high on the list, over half of its students arise from a four hour drive to campus, i.e., primarily northeasterners. Caltech, a few % down, has kids from around the US (and the world).</p>

3

<p>^^ Same with University of Delaware. It’s a small state whose campus population comprises of students from the Northeast (including MD, VA, and DC). Michigan without a doubt is the most diverse top-5 public university.</p>

4

<p>most public schools have a low percentage of international students because the college is primarily there to serve the residents of the state. I’ll have to say that there are a lot of out of state students at Clemson surprisingly. Also, even though we don’t have a lot of undergraduate international students, we have a lot more graduate international students and you’ll see them walking around on campus.</p>

5

<p>95%, 10%, Middlebury</p>

<p>[Class</a> Profile](<a href=“Apply to Middlebury College | Middlebury College”>Apply to Middlebury College | Middlebury College)</p>

6

<p>Delaware only graduates so many high school students each year, and many are drawn to nearby states to “get away from home.” Remember that ~90% of Delaware’s population lives in the northernmost county, where one is never more than 30 minutes away from the flagship U.</p>

7

<p>Can anyone explain to me why all the schools we’ve looked at in NY (Cornell, Hamilton, Colgate, URochester) seem to have such a high percentage of in-state students? Is there some financial incentive or scholarship opportunity the state of NY offers for students to stay in NY?</p>

8

<p>^If you were to compare OOS % on a per capita basis, you will find that Cornell is more diverse than Harvard, Yale, Brown & Dartmouth, on par with Princeton and only less diverse than Penn.</p>

<p>Same thing with LACs. Colgate and Hamilton with 30% instate, are as diverse as Amherst with 10% instate since NY has nearly exactly 3 times the Massachusetts population. </p>

<p>Colleges in higher populated states will always have larger percentages of instate students… California, NY, Florida, Texas…</p>

9

<p>hohum:</p>

<p>New York residents do get a huge discount at several of the Cornell colleges, but not Arts & Sciences. At those colleges, ~half of the students are New Yorkers.</p>

10

<p>Elon University 76% OOS / 5% international</p>

11

<p>

</p>

<p>There could be any number of reasons:</p>

<p>Some NYS residents may be receiving TAP (tuition assistance program) awards up to $5,000 based on need and income guidelines. </p>

<p>All of the schools you mentioned will accept low income students from NYS through HEOP. </p>

<p>There could be parents working at the university could be a major incentive for students to attend.</p>

<p>Cornell has 3 land grant schools (Agriculture and Life Sciences; Human Ecology; Industrial and Labor Relations), where the tution for NYS residents $21,610 vs. $37,750 (OOS).</p>

<p>[DFA:</a> Tuition Rates and Fees](<a href=“http://www.dfa.cornell.edu/dfa/treasurer/bursar/studentsparents/tuition/]DFA:”>Tuition Rates and Fees | Office of the Bursar)</p>

12

<p>Rice is now 13% international at the undergraduate level (19% including graduate).
[Rice</a> University | News & Media](<a href=“http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=13171]Rice”>http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=13171)</p>

13

<p>About why New York colleges seem to have a big in-state population:
a)many kids want to stay close to home
b)new york is a very big state geographically and in terms of population
c)top colleges tend to have a large new york population, regardless of where they are. the new york metropolitan area, including the wealthy suburbs in connecticut and northern new jersey, produces a lot of top applicants. The specialized high schools alone send hundreds of kids to ivies each year.</p>

14

<p>This list is biased toward schools located in smaller states, such as MA, CT, MD, RI, etc. These schools have a higher OOS percentage than schools located in CA, TX, and NY. There are less high school students located in these states, so of course such schools will have less applicants from their states than peer schools in the big states. Therefore, the schools in the small states will have less students from their state in their school than schools located in big states.</p>

15

<p>Hawkette, you should break it down by region rather than by state. For example, although only 2% of Georgetown undergrads come from the District of Columbia, you can be sure that close to 50% come from the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. That’s just one case (and Georgetown is pretty extreme given its location and academic focus), but I am sure that if you look at Duke, well over 50% of its students come from the East Coast (from NYC to Florida). </p>

<p><a href=“http://explore.georgetown.edu/documents/?DocumentID=742[/url]”>http://explore.georgetown.edu/documents/?DocumentID=742&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The problem with looking purely at in-state figures is that Schools like Rice, Stanford and Cornell will naturally be at a disadvantage because they are located in highly populated states. Furthermore, whatis the difference between residents of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio etc…? Or between residents from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virgina, Georgia and Florida? </p>

<p>To me, Geographic diversity means coming from a highly different culture. In other words, the percentage (or number) of students coming from foreign countries and opposite parts of the country. At Michigan for example, although 65% of undergrads are residents, over 20% come from either the East Coast, West Coast or from foriegn countries. Honestly, I would be very surprised if true geographic diversity exceeded 50% at any university and in general, it would hover at 25%-40% at most elite private universities and between 15% and 30% at most elite public universities (save the UCs and UT-Austin, where that figure is closer to 5%). In other words, true diversity is pretty much a constant at most universities.</p>

16

<p>middlebury is 97% OOS</p>

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<p>But how many of the remaining 97% come from the Mid Atlantic and Northeast? 60%?</p>

18

<p>Alex,
I think your argument trying to equate the geographic diversity of your school with top privates by claiming that it is “pretty much a constant at most universities” is not supported by the facts (collected from various sources).</p>

<p>Duke Geographic Profile</p>

<p>36% Southeast (includes 15% from NC)
17% Mid-Atlantic
14% Northeast
10% Midwest
13% West</p>

<p>Georgetown Geographic Profile</p>

<p>30% Mid-Atlantic
11% Northeast
11% Midwest
15% Southeast
5% Southwest
15% West
13% Non-US</p>

<p>U Michigan Geographic Profile</p>

<p>78% Midwest (includes 66% from MI)
9% Northeast
7% Mid-Atlantic
3% South
4% West</p>

<p>I believe that any objective observer would have difficulty concluding that the geographic diversity at Duke/Georgetown is similar to the large regional concentration at U Michigan. </p>

<p>Beyond the factual inaccuracy, I think that your subjective assessment that the culture is the same all along the East Coast from NYC to Florida is also off target. While intra-regional differences, such as in the Midwest, can be modest to non-existent, this is far from universal (compare NH/VT to MA or AL/MS to NC or CA to OR or TX to NM/AZ). </p>

<p>Much more emphatically than state differences, the USA differs a lot from region to region. Americans may share a common language (for the most part) and a national government, but regional personality differences are often quite sharp, eg, equating New Yorkers to Georgians would IMO be very, very inaccurate. </p>

<p>As for your observation that schools (public and private) in high population states will have high concentrations from their states/regions, I concur. Rice is a perfect example of this with nearly 50% of its students hailing from the great state of Texas.</p>

19

<p>I don’t find the midwest to be a uniform place. Chicago, seems different than Detroit to me. Urban seems different than rural to me.</p>

<p>Just my subjectve opinion. (Is Detroit really in the midwest?)</p>

<p>Anyway, using percentages without using absolute numbers seems comical to me too. </p>

<p>Looking at the percentages, it is hard to argue that Michigan isn’t more “midwest” than Duke, whatever that means.</p>

<p>I wonder…</p>

<p>Two schools …</p>

<p>one with 10,000 students…</p>

<p>one with 1,000…</p>

<p>The school with 10,000 students has 5,000 students from the midwest…1,000 from the south, 1,000 from the midatlantic, 1,000 from the west coast and 1,000 from the east coast.</p>

<p>The school with 1,000 students has 200 students from each of these regions. </p>

<p>Is the school with 1,000 students really more geographically diverse?</p>

<p>Maybe it is. I don’t know. </p>

<p>Just for the record…4% of undergrads from the west is what, 1,000 students at Michigan? And 13% from the west at Duke is ???</p>

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<p>^ I, personally, consider percentages a better measure of diversity than absolute numbers. 4% of Michigan undergrads is 1,000 students–so think of how many students 66% of Michiganers would be. Percentages are a better measure of domination, although I do agree that numbers for schools like Middlebury are skewed by small states / populations.</p>