It’s fairly well known that colleges like printing “students from all 50 states” on their glossy brochures to make themselves seem diverse. But when it comes down to it, does this result in students from states who send few applications getting either preferential or discriminatory treatment when it comes to admissions?
Using Harvard as an example because that’s where I was able to find the most data from, they’ve identified twenty ‘sparse country states’ they consider to be underrepresented on campus. Most of these are predominantly rural states located in the Midwest. Though the classification and specifics of which states are ‘underrepresented’ in applications likely varies for each school, we can expect the list to be similar (and longer) for other schools in the Northeast.
I can see this going either way for students applying from these underrepresented states. Obviously, nobody’s going to get into Harvard unless they have stellar stats, but I imagine lesser-known schools having an even harder time attracting applicants from these states. This could mean a) schools give preferential treatment to those students who do apply because they want to increase geographic diversity, or b) truly only the best-of-the-best apply, which makes competition even fiercer. Typically, the only people who apply to top schools are those whose parents are from out of state and who have been groomed since birth. If you’ll forgive the use of empirical evidence, at my school in rural Utah, the valedictorian is a 4.0 UW GPA 35 ACT student who’s known to be a math wiz, student body president, legitimately known and liked by everyone in the school, track star, and raised $15,000 for charity over Christmas break. He will be attending USU (90% acceptance rate) come fall. Coming from an area where college counselors haven’t heard of SAT IIs, nobody has ‘dream schools,’ and nobody throws in applications to top schools ‘just to see’. Only the very, very few students who have gone out of their way to seek knowledge about the application process (most people I’ve talked to haven’t even heard of the Common App) apply to OOS schools.
All this being said, exactly how much does it benefit an applicant to come from an underrepresented state? Do colleges only accept literally the 1-5 most outstanding students in the whole state, or will they give all applicants a boost? I’ve been very curious as I often hear ‘geographic diversity’ touted as something colleges want, but I’ve never seen it referred to as a ‘hook’.
While at an info session at a highly ranked LAC on the east coast, the admissions person running the session asked expectantly if there was anyone there from South Dakota and when no one raised their hand, he shrugged and said too bad because they would have been admitted on the spot since it was the only state not represented on campus. Was he serious? Who knows but the rep for our state asked where DD was from and when she answered, the rep said it was the South Dakota of the state and she got in…
I think the big advantage is that the applicant is competing, at least initially, in a smaller pool of highly qualified applicants. So using the Utah student, if he applied to a highly selective school that cares about geographic diversity, he is more likely to stand out coming from a rural area of Utah vs a kid with the same/similar qualifications from the Bay Area. He is no less qualified than any other accepted applicant generally, but his chances of admissions may be higher. This is different than say a recruited athlete who but for their ability to throw or catch a ball at a high level, would have almost no chance to get into the same college based on academics alone.
My opinion just as a parent who has been through the OOS process with two kids is that it might give a little boost. I don’t think it’s as strong as a “hook”, although if you happen to be from a state where a college has zero students, yes, they probably really want one from that state and would give that applicant a larger boost. We were in an info session once where the presenter/Director of Admissions said if we knew anyone from South Dakota, to give them his phone number, and he was kind of joking but not joking!
But yes once they have your state covered, is it still a boost? I would venture to say yes. I think for example, all things being equal, they might accept you as a UT resident over someone from their own state or a bordering state. So a guess I would think of it as a small boost.
But your scenario “b” I don’t think rings quite true, meaning that as someone from an underrrepresented state, you are automatically competing in a higher pool from your state. There could be lots of reasons behind a student going beyond the crowd and applying to OOS/smaller/lesser known schools, not just because they are tippy top. And I would believe that when it comes to accepting students from underrepresented states, the more the better, not something like “well we already have 1 from Utah, we don’t need any more.” Plus it’s totally out of your control! Look at it as something in your favor, don’t let it stop you from reaching out and going for it, if you have found some schools that are financially viable and within your academic reach! Congrats on looking beyond the limits of what is mainstream for your area/school and what your counselors can offer.
‘Successful applicants from underrepresented states “often don’t have as strong grades or as strong scores,” said Brian Taylor, director at the admissions consultancy Ivy Coach. Those students are getting into schools, he said, that “students from New York wouldn’t have a chance on God’s green earth of getting into.”’
Looking at schools’ admissions pages, some are quite blatant about their desire to attract applicants from across the country. Take this quote from Amherst’s admissions page:
‘We search for exceptional students from across the country and around the world, including from places and populations that are historically underrepresented in higher education.’
If, say, a school didn’t have any students from Wyoming and a single student from Wyoming applied, would that student be essentially guaranteed admittance, even if their stats were far below average for that school? I’m primarily interested in how this would affect the process in general, not necessarily my own chances of admission to the schools I applied to.
Schools want geographic diversity, so if you are a top student in a state like Wyoming it can be a very big boost. Especially if you apply ED.
In Wyoming there are 4 public schools that are rated a 9 or 10 and those schools are very small. They only graduate about 80 kids a year. If you’re in the top 10% of those students you have a very good chance of admissions at a top 20 school because there are only 8 of you.
My understanding from folks who work in admissions is that step one is clearing the “this student can hack it here” hurdle. Regardless of hooks or geography, a bunch of applications will be considered no further.
But once a school is deciding between all the qualified applicants, there are a number of things that can allow you to push to the front of the line. These are institutional priorities, which can be anything from legacy to geographic diversity to first gen to xxx. Kids without those hooks will need to vie for remaining spots.
While it’s popular to think schools admit kids who would not have a prayer if they were applying from Scarsdale, they reality is they didn’t have a prayer to create the resume the kid from Scarsdale did. It’s not as if they had that opportunity and lacked the chops to make anything of it. And they had to be willing to do something pretty different than their peers.
My kid’s CC told him that if he wanted to play the geography card, he should apply to schools in the Midwest. She gave him a bunch of great options. And one of his parents (not this one!) responded to that list with “I’ve never heard of those!” So yes, I understand the challenge.
We also have Asian friends whose kids were getting diversity fly-in. ORM/URM – just depends on where.
SD? Maybe a little bit of a lift. But I suspect a kid from NJ might get the same lift at Knox, Lawrence, or Beloit.
It impacts who they accept as part of their crafting of a class. They may want things like:
2,000 new students
At worst a 48/52 gender split
10-12% International Students
50+ Countries
All sports filled
Other key EC filled (e.g. orchestra)
Minimum % by race
Split by likely area of interest
No more than x% below SAT of yyyy
Average SAT > zzz
The question is how many buckets can you help fill and how many others are there that are just like you.
If you are an African-American male, oboe player, from Wyoming, with a 1570 SAT, an interest in Classics and high level Squash player, you fill a lot of difficult buckets.
If you are a male from India with mediocre test scores and an interest in CS, you only fill a few easy buckets.
The two will have very different chances at highly selective colleges.
The lower the tier of college, the less they’re concerned about geographic diversity.
There are some great flagships known to search for the right kids from more remote areas of their own states, sometimes more than getting all 50 states.
And for higher tiers, it takes a lot more than “stellar stats.” You first need to be a full match (which comes through in the whole app, not just the resume highlights. There’s a whole, long app to complete.) There’s no saying your anecdotal top performer from the rural Utah hs would have all they look for and be an easy admit. (Unless an athletic recruit.) Add to that, adcoms would want to know the high school was quality, offered the right rigor, that this kid stretched, in various ways, and more.
There are two aspects to geo diversity: they won’t take every great qualified kid from a limited number of areas, it would throw off the balance, overall. (They don’t want to fill the stem depts with just kids from theBay Area.) And whether or not they do want all 50 states and have the right candidates from those other states.
