<p>I know in-state applicants have an advantage for state schools, but what about private schools. I would prefer to go to a Jesuit school because I go to a Jesuit High School, so would an applicant from PA (me) have an advantage going to a school in CA or some other state that is a good distance away have an advantage?</p>
<p>Yes, since most applicants apply within 400 miles from home, applying to any private school further from home, especially if you apply to the Midwest and South and, to a lesser extent, to the Pacific Northwest and Southwest, will boost your application (and may result in preferential packaging). It especially works if the school is trying to boost or stabilize its national profile or is trying to find new markets in the region you’re from, much less so if the school already receives tons of applications from your area.</p>
<p>Some schools may see some slight PR use for bragging that they attract kids from afar. But I wouldn’t assume it’s much or even exists with the vast vast majority of private schools.</p>
<p>Your GPA and test scores are immensely more correlated to your being accepted than your zip code.</p>
<p>^ Thanks for this voice of sanity.</p>
<p>Obviously, this is not the primary criterion, but between two equally qualified applicants, yes geographical diversity IS a hook that’s factored in. 
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<p>OP: look at the averages for admitted applicants - if you’re above the average, then apply to all schools you find interesting keeping in mind you’ll get a boost from being from far away. Don’t expect to magically get admitted to a school just because it’s far away (and not really for CA), as T said, the primary factors are GPA, curriculum rigor, and, depending on the school, achievements/test scores in various combinations and weights. Then all kinds of criteria come into play: are you a tuba player and they need one? Are you interested in a fairly rare major and have the background to back it up? do you play defense for a team that could use your skills? are you likely to help with the college paper and they need a few of those? Geographical diversity comes in at this level and can help both with admission and with preferential packaging. It all depends also whether you’re talking Georgetown or Santa Clara and USF (at Georgetown, that really doesn’t come into play all that much, and being full pay would help you more.)</p>
<p>The three CA Jesuit colleges of Loyola Marymount, USF and Santa Clara don’t have crazy reject rates. I can’t imagine this will be a factor whatsoever. If you meet their criteria, you’ll be offered admission</p>
<p>It will depends on the school. Top schools have no problem attracting applicants from all 50 states as well as abroad, so applying from a sparsely populated area won’t necessarily make your chances higher. Some schools trying to increase their profile may appreciate applicants from more “exotic” states - but I would imagine that some of the better Jesuit colleges will have no shortage of applicants from Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>Actually, they do. They really like to have applicants that come from other regions and bring geographical diversity. And it’s not just a little boost for admissions, too, it can help for preferential packaging. Very few students apply from far away. It helps a little less for CA since more people are interested in going there, so OP should look at the other Jesuit schools in the US, especially in the South and Midwest.
Of course, once again, it’s all things being equal (ie, it’s not a magic bullet, the students need to be competitive for the school.)</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. Obviously grades and tests are the primary criterion.</p>
<p>You can look for the particular school that interests you and see whether they publish a Common Data Set on the web. (Many colleges do.) If you find that document, in section C7 it will show how much (if any) weight is given in admissions to geographical or state residency as compared to other factors. </p>
<p>Here is one from St. Olaf provided just as an example of what to look for: <a href=“http://wp.stolaf.edu/ir-e/files/2013/07/13cds-c.admissions.pdf[/url]”>http://wp.stolaf.edu/ir-e/files/2013/07/13cds-c.admissions.pdf</a></p>