<p>So, would I have a better shot at Princeton since I live in New Jersey rather than PA? Or would it be the opposite?</p>
<p>The opposite. Princeton has a ton of hooked kids, staff kids, legacies, etc. in NJ. But it does along the whole mid Atlantic so it’s harder from any of those states.</p>
<p>but if you are not princeton material, i doubt Princeton will take you just because of your address. If a kid from Cali is more qualified and more accomplished than a kid from montana, i doubt the kid from montana will make it. Geography probably only comes in when the applicants are very similar.</p>
<p>Yes! My chance of getting into USC increased because I’m from Georgia.</p>
<p>But what if you weren’t born in the US, are a URM, and come from an OR state? Does it still work the same way?</p>
<p>Eff yes. I’m from montAna!!!</p>
<p>But is a 3.8gpa too low for schools the upper schools. I got a 2200 my first time and I think I’ll have a 2300+ when I retake it. </p>
<p>I think my ec’s are good but nothing amazing. </p>
<p>Sorry I don’t want to be chances… But it sounds like it. I just wanna know if 3.8 is too low lol</p>
<p>It’s about rank, not GPA. Depending on how top you mean, you want to be anywhere from val or sal at an average HS in Montana for HYPS, to top 2-5% for other ivies, to top 10% for other highly selective schools.</p>
<p>Lol… there is a reason why few students from “underrepresented” states go to top schools. Probably because 1). their school system sucks so they aren’t getting a decent education in the first place 2). They aren’t informed enough. </p>
<p>Either way, being in a underrepresented state is not such a good thing,</p>
<p>My thought is that any positive benefit in being from Montana is more than erased by lack of opportunity and lack of achievement culture resulting in lackluster apps.</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>Lol you know that the school doesn’t weight grades. So class rank drops significantly. </p>
<p>It’s because people don’t want to leave from here. They also don’t have the opportunity. A lot of times it’s about money (they don’t know about financial aid)</p>
<p>Our school system is pretty damn strong in my opinion.</p>
<p>I definitely don’t think we have lackluster apps. Your son will tell you that the top 5 or so kids in our school(general consensus-not gpa) are pretty dang smart and interesting people. </p>
<p>Theyre not equal to top kids from MA and CA and NY. But they aren’t dumb either. </p>
<p>But I guess the last kid we sent to havard flunked out… Well he went because of sports anyway</p>
<p>Working for admissions at an Ivy is not “owned.” She knows the inner workings of one school out of 3,000 institutions of higher learning in the country - some of which to whom, geographic location would matter, and to others, it doesn’t matter “very much so.” Also, if hmom5 had produced statistics from her time as an Ivy admissions officer, I’d be more inclined to believe her. Like I said, simply saying “I was an admissions officer at an Ivy” is as much anecdotal evidence as the rsults thread (the results thread is a convenience of a handful of applicants, and is in no way representative of the larger application pool).</p>
<p>Besides that fact, I fail to see how anything of what I said in my original post is wrong. I said that a person’s GPA, GRE scores, activities, etc. are far more important than superficial things like where you’re from. A student from Wyoming or Alaska or Montana is NOT going to get into a top school simply because she’s from Wyoming if she’s not qualified.</p>
<p>Hmom5 just said exactly what I said in my first post <em>anyway</em> - which is that an unqualified applicant will certainly not get in if because of where they’re from, but that a qualified “borderline” applicant may get an edge into the accepted pile because of hailing from an underrepresented state.</p>
<p>Zweebopp, thanks for the note - I know why colleges and unis want to have geographic diversity. It’s also not only about marketing but also about a diversity of experiences and backgrounds, which strengthen and enrich the student body.</p>
<p>Onemore: I absolutely think that top kids in MT, or anywhere for that matter, are just as smart as top kids anywhere else.</p>
<p>What I mean by lackluster apps is that for kids in MT, it’s uncommon/impossible to have the bells and whistles on their apps (like Olympiads, AP scholar, original research) that many kids from opportunity laden, achievement driven culture schools have.</p>