<p>does geographic diversity actually help in admissions to a top school?</p>
<p>Yes. That is one strong factor. If you're the top kid from the top HS in S Dakota or Mississippi for instance, and you meet minimum academic requirements, you will get a STRONG lookover at even the ultra selectives.</p>
<p>I live in MICH and the UM looks very highly at some portions of the state that have been traditionally underrepresented. It's a huge state and some counties barely ever even have a single application to UM.</p>
<p>Ok, what would u say are the top underrepresented states? im from arizona and i have no idea if we are considered under or overrepresented</p>
<p>How bout Hawaii..</p>
<p>^^Me neither. I am from Tennessee, and I know for a fact that no one in my school applies to top schools...I will probably be the only one...</p>
<p>He is talking about North Dakota, South Dakota, etc. Arizona isn't going to give you any bump and neither is Tennessee...</p>
<p>Yeah- "middle of nowhere" states are going to get you a bump.
But for each individual school, it depends- check out which states are least represented (such as small lac's that only have 1 or 2 people from a certain state a year).</p>
<p>I've got to disagree with Mississippi being an underrepresented state though- it may not be, for example, like New Jersey in terms of college representation, but it's not in the same league as a state like North Dakota.</p>
<p>I live in Alabama and I'm applying to Emerson College early.</p>
<p>Would that be beneficial to my admission? I'm not a top student at my school, but I'm certainly one of the only students from Alabama applying to Emerson.</p>
<p>hmmm....is Minnesota a underrepresented state?</p>
<p>Yes, geographic diversity helps. But it won't get you admission, it will mostly work as a tip factor for marginal students.</p>
<p>Yea, Arizona is probably underrepresented at the Ivies+other top schools. However, it won't help you a lot. It may help you when you're being compared to a NJ or NY applicant with similar stats, but other than that, no.</p>