One final word, there are some states like Wyoming mentioned by a poster above and North/
South Dakota(LOL this was mentioned on most of our college tours) that are so under represented in the admissions process that I am sure it is an advantage to come from these states, but I truly believe it is a waste of time to worry about things not in your control in the admissions process.
GPA/ doing well with a rigorous curriculum, Standardized testing, essays, connections with teachers and getting good recommendations, how you interview and which extracurriculars you participate in and depth of participation are under your control and those are the things you should focus on.
So yes, i agree if it comes down to picking a kid from North Dakota or Wyoming over a California kid and all things being equal I am sure the kid from the under represented state will have an advantage but whats the pt of worrying about it.
A high yield rate is just as important as low admission rate to schools who want to be identified as prestigious. Sure they all want a student from North Dakota, but I think Pomona’s high number of admitted California students is to protect yield. It may not necessarily be harder to get into Pomona if you’re from CA.
Schools love to protect yield. You hear that kind of thing over and over on this site. I just think it’s silly to look at it that way. Schools love to admit students that really want to attend that school. They want to admit smart, hard-working students that would love to be a part of that school. A higher yield is just a byproduct of admissions doing a good job picking students. A higher yield does not lead to higher prestige. Instead, in general, the more prestigious the school the higher the yield.
Our experience with CA admissions was similar to what Nostalgic Wisdom posted (whom I believe, as another suggested, is/was a student affiliated with the Admissions Dept). It was more difficult for unhooked candidates from CA to be offered admission to Pomona than it was for statistically similar unhooked students from other states.
Yield does play into this, but not for the reasons mentioned above. Many ED candidates have some hook and Pomona’s yield on ED candidates is obviously 100%. I don’t know the stats of how many ED candidates are from California, but anecdotally from talking with students on campus, it seems like the number could be potentially more than the 27% that CA represents in the general student population. That would result in a smaller percentage of admissions going to unhooked CA candidates versus candidates from other states.
Moreover, Pomona really likes to be able to say it has a statistically significant percentage of students from URMs and families who don’t speak English at home. Think about which states that describes (I’m not saying it is only CA). If you are from one of those states and that description doesn’t fit you, and you are otherwise unhooked, and your state typically has a reasonable number of students applying to Pomona, you will likely find it harder to get admitted than peers with similar stats residing in other states.
With only 1500 students it gets really hard for Admissions to composite an incoming class that represents all the characteristics they want. Having representation from CA is generally self-solving so Pomona doesn’t have to go looking for it to achieve its desired composition or yield.
I think many questions posed by different OP’s on college confidential are helpful, but I believe this OP question on this thread is really not a good use of time or helpful so why waste time in trying to debate or answer that question.
Really there is no way to hundred percent know or answer this question.
if YOU are applying to schools like Pomona with less than 10 percent admit rate than “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” and apply to many schools and look at things in your control in the application process like GPA/ doing well with a rigorous curriculum in HS, studying for and doing as well as you can on Standardized testing, writing good essays that show the “true you” , making good HS connections with teachers and getting good recommendations, interviewing well and participating in extracurriculars you feel passionate about with depth of participation .
All these things are under your control and those are the things you should focus on. worrying about whether you have an advantage or disadvantage being in state/or out of state is a time waster as it is not in your control unless you plan on moving. Similarly worrying or feeling others have “hooks” and have greater advantages is also a time waster, only to say I told both of my kids, since they didn’t have hooks(were not a minority, not a first generation, or recruitable athlete or legacy or from a State like ND that is traditionally underrepresented , that that they needed to focus on things in their control to give them the greatest chance of successful college admissions.
To debate whether there is an advantage of being in state/out of state serves no purpose other than I guess making an in state applicant feel better if they are denied.
Using Stanford as a possible template, I can state with certainty that it is tougher to get into Stanford from California than from any other state. I know someone in admissions at Stanford. The admit rate to Stanford for students in Northern California is 1.9%. Less if athletes are removed from the conversation. When my daughter was a high school senior, the college counselors at her school seemed to have this info as well. The So Cal numbers are a little better, but under 4%. I think it likely that there is a similar phenomenon with Pomona. They are inundated with California applications but want good geographic distribution among the student body. The early decision mechanism allows them to achieve a good yield among the geographically remote.
Pomona loves Californians, but they are the biggest applicant pool and so competition is stiff. When I was there every Californian was a top student from high school. It’s the same now. Not every high school gets a student in.