In short: Does a person get an advantage if he/she lives in the state in which there aren’t many students who apply to Harvard?
For example, how does applying from California or Massachusetts compare to applying from, say, Nevada or Wyoming or something like that?
Just curious, as I live in California where there obviously are a huge number of students applying to the Ivies.
Sure there’s a bump to grabbing the lone admit from Wyoming if all other attributes are equal. But this is inconsequential – maybe an aggregate of 10-15 students per year. You’ve got bigger statistical challenges (like the overall admit rate) than those oddball situations.