Is it true that Harvard accepts a skewed number of students from Massachusetts suburbs?
It is not true.
@gibby But that does not mean that preference is given to applicants from the Boston suburbs.
IMO, it means interpret it as you please, since Harvard will certainly not answer the OP’s question without equivocation.
^^ I don’t think it’s open to interpretation given these words from William Fitzsimmons:
http://archive.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/02/24/5_questions_for_harvards_admissions_dean/
The issue isn’t zip code. Adcoms know the strengths at various hs and you still need to be the right candidate. You’ll still compete against others in your region and nationally.
There may be some favored hs, of course. But your own shot is based on you. It’s not all about stats and if you’re serious, you won’t be asking what sort of kids, on a forum. You’d be more activated.
@gibby The OP asked about preference for applicants from Massachusetts suburbs. Boston and Cambridge are not suburbs. Most private colleges give preference or dedicated scholarships to residents of their city as an in lieu of taxes gesture.
Unscientific observation from me, but here goes: I think it depends on the suburb. Comparing W towns, students from Waltham or Watertown might get a longer look than those from Weston or Wellesley … a kid from Lawrence might have an edge over a kid from Lexington. (For those who aren’t local to Metro Boston, the districts of Weston, Wellesley, and Lexington are affluent “pressure cooker” districts. The others are “not great on paper” districts that may have an edge in the eyes of a Harvard AO.)
Again, just a hunch on my part. We are all speculating here. 
I tutor in NJ, and honors classes in the nicer areas are way more advanced than those in northern VA where I grew up. In general, honors classes in small towns or the south for example are way below the level of those in fancy areas in the northeast, much less good private schools. So it is harder for students from some areas to be at the very top level.
Traditionally, top schools take a lot of local prep school students who maybe have family connections and ties to the school. It also is somewhat easier to get into the school for any local applicant. I would imagine the MA percentage at Harvard 50-100 years ago was even higher.
A lot of the alumni may have stayed in the area and their kids are given preference. Also preference is given to faculty children and probably administrators children. Similar statistics are seen around Stanford.
I’m morally certain that historically Harvard has recognized a special responsibility to take the best students from all of eastern Massachusetts, not just Boston and Cambridge, and for that matter from Massachusetts’ former colony, Maine, as well. That’s hardly unusual – there have always been a lot more students at Yale than at Harvard from grimy northwestern Connecticut factory towns, and Penn’s explicit regional financial aid preference extends beyond Philadelphia to its suburban counties.
As with everything else in elite college admissions, however, what was true 20 or 30 years ago may not be true at all today, or may be true now only in a much more restrained way. Even some sort of clear regional imbalance in class composition numbers doesn’t tell you much about the policy unless you know the regional breakdown of applications and accepted student yield, as well as the effects of the very strong faculty child preference – lots of facbrats in the Boston suburbs – the much weaker alumni legacy child preference, and recruited athletes who want their parents to be able to come to events (and are easy for coaches to scout).
After you account for all of that, maybe there’s some shred of a regional preference left, and maybe there isn’t. Even if there is, the net number of people admitted who wouldn’t have been admitted otherwise is probably very small, something you wouldn’t need all your fingers and toes to count. Even if there isn’t, there are a heck of a lot of good candidates in the Boston suburbs, and most of them probably apply, so the number of them accepted will be relatively large.
Living in a Boston suburb, I can tell you that circa 2008-2013, our local public school had a much greater than average acceptance rate at Harvard. Generally Harvard wants to educate the future local leaders. I also think it’s because of the concentration of legacies, and children of Harvard faculty, that they have to make an effort to give the locals a fighting chance to compete. It would look terrible if the only students admitted to local schools were legacies and children of faculty.
There is also a lot of pressure placed on the top students to attend, and my own D1 refused to consider applying because a) she didn’t want to attend, and b) she thought that she would be pressured to attend by her GC.
@gibby Agree. This isn’t a secret. When I went to Harvard, the college openly admitted that it sought to admit a large number of Massachusetts residents. Cambridge residents were always very well represented, but that population is skewed given the number of faculty families who live there and the large number of outstanding schools in the area. The large Boston and Cambridge representation was something Harvard was openly proud of.
Absolutely.
Most, if not all, top end Universities maintain a local/regional bias.
Maybe it keeps the state politicians appeased?
And bias it is - quick call the Feds!