My friends told me that being local applicant helps with admission chance. Is that true? I am talking about competitive college that are top 15-25.
actually, I think it might hinder some people–it makes sense for a lot of applicants to come from around the college, and they want to build a diverse student body, so someone from, say, west virginia or alaska would be much more desireable than someone right at home
It would depend on public/private. OOS/In-state.
Depends on the college. Public schools may differentiate between residents and others. Some like CSUs in California have local area preferences.
In many cases being local equates to increased competition. For example Princeton gets tons of NJ applicants, Stanford receives a lot of CA applications, etc.
It depends:
(1) If you’re talking about a state school, then typically in-state students have an advantage in admissions (and they also pay lower tuition). Some state schools have local preferences in admissions as well. San Francisco State, for example, favors applicants from six Bay Area Counties.
(2) If you’re talking about a private school, then typically it is not an advantage to be located nearby (like within a few hundred miles). It’s typically much easier for a private school to recruit nearby students – the students within convenient driving distance are more likely to know something about the school, more likely to submit an application, more likely to visit, and more likely to attend if accepted. All of these things are less likely for students who are located a plane flight away. But top private schools typically want a national student body, so they will go to greater lengths to recruit those hard-to-get long-distance students, including higher rates of acceptance.
(3) There may be exceptions to (2) for students that are extremely local – like the same town as the university. Every school is concerned, to some extent, about the “town-gown relationship” with the local community. One way to reinforce that relationship is to give a break in admissions to local townie kids, especially if their parents are community leaders.
For example, every year, there is absolutely brutal competition among students in the northeastern US to get into top northeastern universities and liberal arts colleges. The same students would greatly enhance their chances of getting into a top school if they cast a wider geographic net. If all the top kids at your northeastern high school are fighting each other to get into Ivies, then you should apply to schools like Northwestern, USC, Emory, or Rice instead. If they are all fighting each other to get into NESCAC liberal arts colleges, then you should apply to schools like Claremont McKenna, Grinnell, Carleton, or Whitman.
I don’t actually expect anyone to take this advice, because northeastern students have the reputation as the country’s most provincial in terms of school choice. It’s still true though.
The same principle applies to students in other parts of the country – for better odds, look at schools that are outside the usual geographic comfort zone.
I personally think it hurts you because they have so many local kids applying. The best thing is for you to apply as far away as you can. Think Alaska or Hawaii.