Columbia Doesn't represent all of the U.S.?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
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<p>So, today, I received an e-mail from the director of undergrad. admissions as one of Columbia's attempts to keep us in the loop.</p>

<p>Everything was pretty standard until I read this interesting tidbit:</p>

<p>"Among the Class of 2013 are students from forty-seven out of the fifty states; students from over sixty countries outside of the United States..."</p>

<p>I found it very interesting that Columbia is lacking students from three states. It's trifling, I know, but at the end of her letter, I had the urge to call Columbia and ask which states aren't represented...</p>

<p>I can't imagine that a state couldn't be represented at all... perhaps Alaska?</p>

<p>I have no clue, but thought it was interesting.</p>

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<p>The usual suspects – especially for East Coast schools – are Alaska, Wyoming, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho and South Dakota, simply because there are so few graduating high school seniors in those states to begin with. Also, most students tend to stay close to home.</p>

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<p>It shouldn’t be too surprising. A school like Columbia will not accept an applicant from, say, Alaska just because he’s from Alaska and the adcom needs to fill their quota. No, it does not work that way. Because the states mentioned by worried_mom tend to have less stellar applicants, there would be years when nobody from a particular state gets in. But the entire university (all four undergraduate classes) is still diverse and contains students from all states and many countries.</p>

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<p>I know at least one person in the Class of 2013 is from Alaska</p>

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<p>Epamindonas, you have just offended the residents of six different states with your very condescending remark that these states tend to have “less stellar applicants.” What actual facts can you provide to support your opinion? How many college applications from those states have you personally reviewed?</p>

<p>Perhaps only one or two students from each of the missing states even bothered to apply to Columbia. Not everyone wants to go there.</p>

<p>(btw, I don’t live in any of those states.)</p>

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<p>to worried_mom, I don’t think Epamindonas meant to offend the states at all. he is just representing a fact. Those states are HIGHLY unrepresented in Northeastern, elite universities. This can sometimes be a hook for students from the state, but like Epamindonas said, no college has a quota. I don’t really think Epa was trying to demean the states, he was merely saying that they do not have nearly as many people at an Ivy League than say New York, California, or Massachusetts.</p>

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<p>^First of all, I did not mean to offend anyone.</p>

<p>What I meant was that those states tend to have less “competitive” students than NY or NJ, for example. Like you said, less would apply to Ivy League institutions from those places.</p>

<p>And I do not think it is far-fetched that the average applicant from those underrepresented states would achieve at a level below the more “competitive” states. Notice how I put less stellar in quotation marks.</p>

<p>Lastly, I come from a place where hardly anyone has heard of Columbia, so I think I can conjecture life in Alaska or Oklahoma.</p>

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<p>Thank you, dreamsofivy. You said perfectly what I meant to express. The text on online fora can be misinterpreted in so many ways.</p>

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<p>^^^ I am from Kansas. We have less stellar applicants. Sorry, it’s just our Midwestern culture. So don’t pretend to be offended when someone says that. Especially if you are not speaking AS someone from the underrepresented states. As if you need to protect those cute little kids whose self esteem is already so low from growing up in lame states. </p>

<p>Anyways… No seriously the average kid here is much less interested in top tier schools and more the natural cycle of high school - public college - move back to hometown - have kids. </p>

<p>It helps that we have pretty good public schools, GO Jayhawks woo!!, that are forced to accept you if you meet very low standards.</p>

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<p>In 2011, we only had one state not represented, North Dakota.</p>

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<p>

California has 20 million residents while Vermont has just about 1 million … I would guess California has 20 times as many stellar students as Vermont … exactly the same percentage as Vermont but 20 times as many in raw numbers. Any little state has less stellar students because there are less kids.</p>

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<p>May I suggest use of the word “fewer” rather than “less”? When one says Kansas or Vermont has “less qualified students” or “less stellar students” or “less [insert adjective] students,” the word “less” is modifying the subsequent adjective. Kansas may have fewer stellar students than California, but Kansas students are no less stellar than California students.</p>

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<p>^Seriously…?</p>

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<p>Haha, I love it.</p>

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<p>No, this has to do with good Ivy league kids not accepting anything less than new york, boston, chicago and in some cases anything less than new york. People on the east coast recognize stanford to be up there and people on the west coast recognize ivys more so than the UCs at least for undregrad, UCB might be the only exception. Schools like Vanderbilt and Emory are barely recognized in the north east, that doesn’t mean the ivy league is unrecognized in the south, even if it is less recognized than it is in the N.E.</p>

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<p>A lot more top students in the MidWest and South go to their flagships schools which are much more respected in their states than flagships in the northeast. Most people’s goal I know is to get into Madison, or sometimes Notre Dame. Ivy league never even crosses the mind of most top students here, even if they have competitive stats</p>

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<p>@ Fastfood15 ^_^</p>

<p>im from kansas too! what part are you from?</p>

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<p>"No, this has to do with good Ivy league kids not accepting anything less than new york, boston, chicago and in some cases anything less than new york. "</p>

<p>I tried to get my midwest employer to recruit in the Northeast and was turned down. We went to U Texas and U Illinois instead,as well as the most local state universities, and indeed we got great people. They preferred to hire people with roots in the region, and did not feel that they needed to pay above regional compensation norms to attract talented employees. I suspect they are not alone, so whereas the ivy league kids may indeed have their preferences this perhaps works two ways in at least some cases.</p>

<p>“A lot more top students in the MidWest and South go to their flagships schools which are much more respected in their states than flagships in the northeast.”</p>

<p>Yes. Which means regional employers feel they can get great talent from these schools. Talent that is more likely to have midwest roots, which promotes retention.</p>

<p>I attended commencement exercises at the top private school in a midwestern city for two consecutive years, and in both of them the valedictorian was headed to the local flagship state u, over Ivy League acceptances. (indeeed, go Jayhawks ! or equivalent…) . There are fewer applicants from some of these places because: i) fewer can afford it, due to regional pay differentials; ii) generally, most people everyplace tend to prefer to attend college within 4 hours or so of home; and iii) fewer people there feel they need to pay 5x tuition to accomplish their objectives, because the local schools are considered “good enough” by essentially everyone there.</p>

<p>Actually, where I lived a degree from the local flagship U was possibly more beneficial than an Ivy league degree, in my opinion. Huge alumni network, degree (with high performance) held in high regard, virtually all co-workers themselves grads of these schools.</p>

<p>Regarding state academic capabilities, perhaps the various National Merit semi-finalist cutoffs are useful indicators, as they denote the top 1-3/4% or so of PSAT scorers in each state.</p>