<p>Is it better to be from the Midwest because it is less competitive than New England or the West, or is it harder to get in because less are accepted from this region? I am looking in the ivy league.</p>
<p>Are there any maps out there that show geographic distribution of students of ivy league schools in the US? Meaning how many students are admitted from California versus Ohio versus South Dakota?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>OH...IO</p>
<p>I think it's probably easier.</p>
<p>I live in Texas. I don't have a good feeling about this one :-</p>
<p>The fact that there are fewer people at Penn from the Midwest than the other parts of the country may not mean that Midwest people have a better chance at being admitted; this could just be a reflection of from where the applications are coming. There are 452 people from PA in the class of 2009. Does this mean that the people from CA are twice more likely to be accepted than those from PA? No; of course not. The amount of students in a school from a particular state usually mirrors the number of applicants the school has from that state, with the home state gaining an advantage. Thus, most schools will have large numbers of people from their home states and the states that surround them. I would say you have an equal chance of being accepted as those from more highly-represented areas, unless the individual schools have set quotas on nationwide admissions.</p>
<p>It would definitely be an advantage to be an applicant to a northeastern college from a very under-represented state (SD, ND, WY, MT, IA, KS, NE, OK, etc.). I saw something a little while back where the dean of Admissions at Stanford was welcoming the class and boasting that they had students from 49 states and if they knew anyone from WV to let her know.</p>
<p>I don't believe it makes hardly any difference. </p>
<p>I recently moved from an "underrepresented" (in the northeast) midwestern state.</p>
<p>I was an active member of my alma mater's alumni club there. We participated in regional alumni interviews, and as such were privy to the candidates from our area and the admissions record locally. </p>
<p>The percentage of applicants from that area who were admitted to my (eastern) alma mater was virtually identical to its national average admissions percent. </p>
<p>In the book "A is for Admissions", the author,a former Dartmouth admissions officer, describes essentially the same phenomenon that I witnessed. There are few applicants from these regions, the college accepts few of them, and the percentages work out about the same.</p>