<p>I was on the Collegeboard website and they said that 44% of Stanford is from in state. </p>
<p>Simply put, does Stanford accept more In-state people over out of state people or is it just a correlation because more people apply from within the state? I would assume that a school like Stanford would receive a lot of applicants from out of state as well... Does anyone know what this data means?</p>
<p>I think, but don't quote me on this, that nearly 70% of all applicants to Stanford are from California. So, if candidates from every other place were equally qualified to attend Stanford as those from California, we would expect a ~70% representation at Stanford, which is not the case. However, I would argue (and probably correctly), that California's applicants to Stanford are overall the least qualified, considering Stanford's location and popularity there. As a result, Stanford will attract less serious applicants from California. Conversely, most east coasters won't send in a joke application to Stanford, when there are 8-10 other schools much closer to us for that purpose, and more serious applicants tend to be better applicants and will enjoy a stronger admit rate. I would say that Stanford probably does not favor In-state or favor Out-of State applicants over each other. This is not to say Stanford does not value geographic diversity- of course, Stanford is going to love the kid from Alaska, but hey-so will every elite institution.</p>
<p>^^ agreed for the most part. The same thing happens not by state but by region for pretty much all top schools--Harvard's going to get tons of applicants from the Northeast (many of whom are probably not very qualified), etc.</p>
<p>I asked a Stanford admissions officer whether they take geography into consideration--for quotas, preferences for states, etc.--and she gave me a firm no. They're more interested in enrolling a strong and diverse class, so geography would be the last thing they consider, and they don't give preference to Californians, nor do they discriminate against them.</p>
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I asked a Stanford admissions officer whether they take geography into consideration--for quotas, preferences for states, etc.--and she gave me a firm no.
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<p>I agree with the above points for the most part, but I would take anything an admissions officer says with a grain of salt. Often times, their job is to provide a PR-coated response to ensure the illusion of equality, e.g. no admissions officer would admit that they would favor an applicant from severely under-represented states such as Wyoming.</p>
<p>^^ true. I'm pretty sure I've gotten more than a few sugarcoated responses, but that statement coincided with my own thoughts, so I accepted it without question. :D</p>