<p>I live in NJ and i plan on applying to UCLA. They say that Geographical residence is considered, but does it work against me or for me in my admissions? </p>
<p>Some clarity would help a lot.</p>
<p>Generally, from what I hear, geographical residence has a small amount of relevancy when applying to colleges… It’s sort of what they look at if they’re comparing two students or trying to find one thing to “in” or “out” you in the application process. Most schools like to be able to say that they have kids from all 50 states so a lot of the time if you’re from, for example, Alaska or Hawaii… (some place that not a lot of kids will apply to that school from), then you’re admission could be helped because they want to be able to say that they have students from Alaska, Hawaii, and etc.</p>
<p>SO, all to say, being from NJ your geographical relevancy may not help too much because a lot of people from NJ may apply to UCLA… BUT, you do have a better chance than a kid from California so to speak… Hope that helps, I’m just going by what I’ve been told being that I’m a Hawaii kid haha</p>
<p>“BUT, you do have a better chance than a kid from California so to speak” </p>
<p>That’s not true whatsoever. UCLA’s first priority is to serve CA residents. Everything afterwards is just window dressing.</p>
<p>But NJ is not a poorly represented state. It’ll have no affect on your chances. If you were from thinly populated state like Wyoming or SD, it might get someone’s attention.</p>
<p>UCLA will only admit a small percentage of OOS students, so it is going to be an uphill battle. Being from NJ is not going to affect you in any way.</p>
<p>UCLA like majority of public universities favor in state residents for admission. That is very often mandated by state law. Stats needed to be accepted as OOS are generally higher on average than those in state. Many state universities, including those in California, have been bending somewhat more favorably in the last few years toward admitting OOS students who can pay full OOS tuition to make up for budget shortfalls caused by the state not providing sufficient funding due to the state’s own financial problems. In fact UCLA last year actually admitted a higher percentage of its OOS applicants than it did of in-state applicants (as usual, it still had a low percentage of “enrolled” OOS students but the low enrollment figure does not mean it had a low admission rate; it admitted about 1/3 of its OOS applicants compared a 1/5 of in state; of course, its number of in-state applicants exceeded OOS by 5 to 1). However, they are careful as to how far they push that envelope because they also want to avoid a backlash from state legislatures accusing them of not following a mandate to favor state residents. Thus, you still need to be more impressive, stats wise, than the average state applicant that is accepted by the college.</p>
<p>Many state schools, such as UMich and UC are now taking a larger percentage of out of state residents – and charging them full fare – because state budgets have cut back on public school funding. See: [Enrollment</a> trends: Out-of-state students form 42.6 percent of University of Michigan’s freshman class](<a href=“http://www.annarbor.com/news/university-of-michigan-sees-increase-in-out-of-state-students/]Enrollment”>Enrollment trends: Out-of-state students form 42.6 percent of University of Michigan's freshman class) and [UC</a> admits more nonresidents, record number of freshman applicants - The Daily Californian](<a href=“http://www.dailycal.org/2012/04/17/uc-admits-record-number-of-freshman-students/]UC”>UC admits more nonresidents, record number of freshman applicants). So, being from out of state and able to pay full-out-of-state tuition WILL help. By how much though is anyone’s guess. I agree with BrownParent: “Being from NJ is not going to affect you in any way.” (Being from a non-populus state like Wyoming might.)</p>