<p>Im curious if being from South Carolina will have any effect at my chances at Stanford, Cornell, Northwestern compared to similar stats from someone in NY or Cali.</p>
<p>Not really, sorry.</p>
<p>You probably don't get an in-state benefit (like a Cali person would get at Stanford) but you do get helped at out-of-state schools like Northwestern, etc.</p>
<p>I would expect that an applicant from South Carolina would receive a slight advantage from geographical underrepresentation at the schools you mention.
Incidentally, MallomarCookie is wrong about in-state applicants receiving a benefit at Stanford. Since it is a private school, it need not show any preference to in-state applicants, and, moreover, since it wants to improve its already very strong national reputation, it is generally inclined to seek students from elsewhere.</p>
<p>Ok cool but atleast its good to know thats SC's reputation isn't gonna hurt me</p>
<p>It won't hurt but I stand by my response that it isn't as sought after as say Alaska. I am from Wisconsin and expect no advantage in admissions as a result.</p>