<p>I'm looking at some colleges that say they get almost no applicants from the south(which I live in), even though they have pretty high out of state percentage. So will me being from an underrepresented area do anything for me in the admission process? I've heard it argued both ways.</p>
<p>Yes…if you are applying to a school (especially a private school) that receives few apps from your area, you have a better chance.</p>
<p>Schools like to report…WE have students from all 50 states.</p>
<p>The only time your geography can kind of hurt you is if you’re applying to a popular flagship state school. Schools like Berkeley are more likely to accept a California student over an OOS student, like a New Yorker. But, again, if you’re from a rare state, they may still want to take you so that they, too, can have someone from each state.</p>
<p>What I have heard is that it can work for you if you are from a area with few applications like let say Alaska. You can also be helped by your region if your scores are high compared to the normal scores from that area or you are distinct in some way for that area (skills, ethnicity, etc). How you can be “hurt” is by being from an area with a large application pool or very high academic standards.</p>
<p>As for all of who into these last two categories, I am unwilling to speculate. I will only repeat the comments made with respect to my daughter. Last year at this time she had an ACT that was well into the mean of those accepted to Ivys. D was sick of tests and really wanted to be done. I put out the question wondering if her ACT was adequate. The was definitely arguments on this point but the prevalent position was that, because she was from the northeast without any other extenuating circumstances like disadvantaged town, her ACT would be borderline but is she were from xxxxx it would would be acceptable. The northeast (and I am sure there are other areas) is packed with high schools, in particular private ones, there is a very large pool from here and apparently average scores from this area are higher than the mean applicant scores.</p>
<p>Hope I made sense.</p>
<p>Yes. Especially for top private schools who “build” their class. They do not want the class of 2014 to be 95%…fill in the blank: Midwest, California, East Coast, International. They want ALL types of people represented for better diversity. That’s one of many reasons their admissions processes are so hard to “pin down”. So much is taken into consideration, they are truly holistic. That said…one still has to START WITH the stats that would make them eligible to be considered for that school. Then…if it comes down to one person from NY who is “equal” in stats to another from Missouri, and that particular school doesn’t have many students from the Midwest…then the Missouri student MIGHT get the nod. </p>
<p>Most of this type school has representives for each geographic area of the country. They track which admits from which schools/areas tend to excel at their school…then they go back to that well. Yet, if there is a history of accepting students from another school…that don’t perform as well in college…they might be wary of admitting another student from that school (if all else is equal). So, each rep might well have “X” number of slots to fill. Let’s say Mr. Midwest Rep gets 50 spots. HE is the one who does the first read of the applications from that area, and gives them an “admit, defer, deny”. At least that’s something I read in an interesting book on college applications. This man then isn’t even LOOKING at apps from the NE. But, when they then go to committee…that might be where they start comparing the different areas. </p>
<p>???</p>
<p>add gender to your discussion and it REALLY becomes apparent in top privates…</p>
<p>When you say you live in the South, do you mean Mississippi or Northern Virginia? That might make a difference, too.</p>
<p>Florida(10)</p>
<p>I think geography works similar to URM. Let’s say URG - under represented geography. It’s hard to see some area of Florida being URG. Perhaps some remote swamp land or Indian reservation (is there such a thing in Florida).</p>
<p>Perhaps UF may have an affirmative action program for some regions? I know that top UCs do give additional consideration to students from under represented (backward?) counties in CA
as well as from the disadvantaged bottom tier public schools in CA.</p>
<p>I wish I lived in Alaska XD</p>