<p>Here's a secret:</p>
<p>You must be from South Dakota, Alaska, or Ethiopia to gain acceptance to any prestigious university.</p>
<p>Cali: Sorry for the delayed response. Was away from CC.<br>
Yes, it will help your consideration by the committee that you are from an atypical background (such as rural vs. suburban). That can be as important as being from an underrepresented region of the county. The context of your achievement is very important to many or most colleges. Two yrs. ago a poster on CC who was a Val from a very poorly performing h.school (he was also URM) got into every Ivy he applied to. Last yr. another poster --a non-URM from a rural area in the East-- got into one of the HYP's in the Early Round.</p>
<p>Again, a qualification: the more visible, high-profile colleges tend to follow that pattern. Some of the more "traditional" style colleges (less visible and/or less competitive for admissions) often, I've noticed, will choose "by the numbers" regardless of context. They will often choose highest GPA's & scores with a view to enhancing their incoming freshman profile. There are exceptions to this among the low-profile & less competitive colleges, but I have noticed this tendency anyway.</p>
<p>Yes, geographic diversity is important to colleges. They just LOVE to say they have students from all 50 states. One place really was so pleased to have a student from South Dakota that the coup made its way into their program for admitted students.</p>
<p>Likewise, this school (and certainly others) limit the number of local students who can attend, as they want an international reputation rather than a regional one. So a student from a podunk California town will have a better chance at a private NY school than an equally qualified NY native, assuming neither one of you has URM status over the other.</p>
<p>It seems to work oppositely for state schools, in that in-state residents seem to have an advantage...or maybe they just have more applicants from their own states!</p>
<p>I am the only applicant from my country....
How much does it helps?</p>
<p>lkf,</p>
<p>I know that the in-state applicant rule tends to hold true for UCs, but I've known people who got into more selective out of state publics without very good stats. Could it be true that adcoms are easier on out-of-staters because they want more people paying the higher tuition?</p>
<p>I know you're not asking <em>me</em>, Cali, but I'll answer part of that anyway. I do know that it's true that the Publics like the <em>internationals</em> for the very reason of the high tuition & absence or minimal amt. of aid. It is one reason, not the only reason, for a quota for internat'ls. So it stands to reason that the same would/could apply to OOS's. (Similar difficulty getting fin.aid as an OOS-er, too.) We can think of it as the Publics' version of what is termed "Enrollment Management" (budget management) among the Privates.</p>
<p>This is a long-standing practice at Publics: ensuring a certain level of high tuition income for the U.</p>
<p>A student from CA will not get diversity points at any ivy. CA is one of the most represented states at every ivy. Also, a child of an ivy grad does not get points being from any rural area. The students that do will be first generation, low income.</p>
<p>Thanks, epiphany. I didn't realize colleges had quotas like that! I thought it was illegal for colleges to discriminate based on financial need - wouldn't that count as discrimination, sort of?</p>
<p>calicollegegirl...what college do you go to? UCB?</p>
<p>Lol, sorry if the screen name is misleading. I'm a high school junior who is, of course, researching colleges heavily. I spend A LOT of time in my college counselor's office, so I'm sort of a walking encyclopedia of UC knowledge. Maybe I'll be at UCB in a couple years. How about you, BestMiler?</p>
<p>hs student...live in ny and dream and patiently and anxiously wait for my sweet oos ucb to reply to me on the evening of march 30th</p>
<p>Interesting choice, coming from NY. Mind if I ask you why UCB? I've visited and like it a lot, but it's not exactly my idea of the best college experience out there (huge classes, crazy politics, etc.). What drew you to Berkeley?</p>
<p>Huge classes? depends on what you're talking about, especially which department. Crazy politics? Oh, this place ain't nothing like it used to be. It's actually seems quite calm generally.</p>
<p>well i had two first cousins who went ucb...one who lived in ca and one who lived in ny......the one who lived in ny is like a big brother to me, since i have no big brother...i always looked up to him, took his advice, basically did all the big brother and little brother things with him....since he went to ucb and seeing how well ucb is, it had motivated me to go to ucb.......i always see him as an example...seeing his success of establishing a good career job because ucb, it inspired me to apply to ucb...but obviously ubc adcoms will never know that because there was not one place to talk about why berkeley and does not have interviews with applicants like the ivies do....and my location is stabbing me in the back continously</p>
<p>No place to talk about "why Berkeley?" How about in the "what can you bring to the UC system" essay? Also, I think Berkeley should look into doing interviews, but many schools don't interview.</p>
<p>DRab,</p>
<p>That thread entitled "top reasons to stay away from berkeley" or whatever really got to me... though there are negative things to say about any school, I guess.</p>
<p>And BestMiler, you sound really motivated. I hope you get what you're looking for in this crazy world of admissions. Try to stop stressing yourself out and hang on there until the 15th. (Easy for me to say, since I'm just a junior.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
How about in the "what can you bring to the UC system" essay
[/quote]
cant say i want in because of cousin legacy.................and plus i talked about how my hardwork of working in activites that are for donation....i even mention my yearly thing of donating blood to help save lives</p>
<p>Ther are negative things to say about any school. Granted, there are some things that Berkeley could and should do, and I hope to do many things, but there are many, many good things that the poster on that thread ignores completely.</p>
<p>I hear you, DRab. As many people have said before, take everything you read on CC with a grain of salt. I will try to follow my own advice more often in the future.</p>
<p>calicollegegirl,
I DO think that colleges have a formula for how many students they need to pay full tuition and how many can get the available amount of financial aid. They probably know how many in-state applicants are usually willing to pay the full price as well as how many OOS and internationals they need. I would have thought that the best students are admitted, but that really isn't true. And the financial considerations doesn't even touch on the diversity issue.</p>