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I doubt 18% or whatever percent of students at Yale from CT is really representative of the US student population as a whole.
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<p>I don't have my numbers in front of me, but IIRC CT students are about 7-8% of the Yale population and about 1.2% of the U.S population. But, again, we don't know how many high quality CT applicants there were. And (probably) some CT students do get a leg up simply because of their family's current involvement with Yale.</p>
<p>Oops, yeah I checked the Common data set, you're right. Still though, CT candidates get a leg up for sure.</p>
<p>Agree with post #8 that it is difficult to interpret. More from liberal states & fewer from conservative states? north dakota does well & Ohio's numbers are scary (666).</p>
<p>er, but North Dakota has like... literally no people.</p>
<p>Sorry if that offended anyone, but the city I live in holds more people than the whole of North Dakota.</p>
<p>Peytoncline--Good luck!! I hope being from Arkansas helps too. </p>
<p>Descartesz--Haha yes the word is Arkansans.</p>
<p>And I think the family's involvement at Yale plays a big role. Many people applying from CT are probably legacies. Or have parents working at Yale..or donates a ton money there or something.</p>
<p>^ I was thinking maybe Yale thinks those in CT have a higher matriculation chance.</p>
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But Entomom, being in rural Wisconsin would help, right? Not saying because it is rural IN Wisconsin, but rather that it is just rural in general.
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<p>Correct, rural in general MIGHT help. But who knows how much? It likely depends on how much rural "diversity" is represented in your application.</p>
<p>Cool, I'm also from rural Wisconsin :)</p>
<p>I've thought about this question a bit. My D is a freshman at Yale and we're from a grassy oddshaped western state. Why might Yale want kids from our state? I don't think they care that much about bragging rights to say "all 50 represented", but that Yale is much more interested in creating a micro-community of the US and the world. This enhances the education of everyone. </p>
<p>The life experiences of kids from around the world are quite different, and testing ideas (both in class and late at night, flopped on your couch) through the many filters represented by a globally diverse student body gives each Yale student a better education.</p>
<p>For example, a kid from a ranch in the west is going to have a much different perception of things like water and land use issues, farm subsidies, corn based fuel impact on food prices, the NRA, protection of predatory species like wolves and so on. It's one thing to read an article about issues in our region, and another to have a student in a discussion group explaining the history and attitudes of his neighbors back home.</p>
<p>Ditto for each of you who arrives with a set of unique experiences and opinions. These will be tested and honed, and you will help others as they do the same. </p>
<p>So, yes, it probably does help to be from an under-represented part of the US or the world, because there just aren't as many of you to pick from, as the community is built.</p>
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north dakota does well
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<p>Examining their numbers, I think its safe to say this is one state that really is favored. Compare their index with the rest of the midwestern states - its second best to Illinois's.</p>
<p>I'll speculate on the reason for this. 22 Yale freshman have come from ND in the past 10 years, an average of two a year (and, in fact, no more than four taken in any one year). I believe Yale tries to find at least one male and one female from that state every year just so they can "complete their collection". Hence ND, with 0.21% of the U.S. population, sees a couple of its students benefit from the pursuit of geographic diversity every year.</p>
<p>I am from Nevada, one of the lowest states on the list. I live in a rural town about 1 hr. from Las Vegas, and I attend a relatively small school with a very low graduation rate and only a small percentage goes on to college, usually in-state. We have only had 1 student got to an Ivy (Cornell). From what I have heard, I am the only Yale applicant (my group of friends and I are the top of the class and none of them are applying) from my school and considering that I'm a URM girl, and NV has the highest high school drop out rate, is this an advantage? Do I have a good chance, geographically speaking?</p>
<p>will they look at geographic diversity within a state? I'm from Texas, my my region is very underrepresented not only at Yale but a lot of top schools, unlike most of Texas which is competitive.</p>
<p>We're not too sure... as much as we'd like to tell you the truth, we can only make our assumptions based on the official, politically correct statements Yale draws out, and few impartial data. We can never say how much geographical location helped a candidate or not. There are a million other factors in the application to consider. </p>
<p>These are some of the circumstances you can't change. I wouldn't worry things such as geographical, racial, income level, etc when those are factors you are innately given. So just apply and hope for the best.</p>
<p>Wow, you did a great job with data, but I do have a question for you. Where did you find out how many kids from each state made it to Yale?</p>
<p>Meant as a response to query below. Timestamp appears to be a problem.</p>
<p>Thanks, I had been looking for something like this.</p>
<p>Think about it:</p>
<p>certain private schools are favored, like Choate and Taft.
people who row crew: favored like you wouldn't believe
people who sail: favored again
legacies: favored, great "tip factor"</p>
<p>What does CT have alot of? Oh, that's right! Rowers, Private schools, sailors and legacies.</p>
<p>That explains the 18%. For s "regular kids" in the app pool for elite institutions like Yale, being in CT is the pits.</p>
<p>guys, I heard, directly from the dean of admissions mouth, that being in a "square, sparseley populated grassy state" is a leg up over CT applicants or the entire tri-state area, at that. I'm promising you. Doesn't that really end the discussion? </p>
<p>Summary: Yes, being from an odd underrepresented state helps, but it's just a tip factor. If you're an awful student, being from Wisconsin really isn't going to help you, but when you have the same stats/excurrics as a New York white gal and you're both up for contention, you're getting accepted over her. </p>
<p>Q.E.D</p>
<p>Descartesz (reviving this thread here): I had done a very similar analysis from the same source some time ago. Here's something else that you can add to the mix- if you go to Collegeboard you can find how many college seniors took the SAT from each state in a given year and how many scored at what level- just to get an idea of how competitive the potential applicant pool is from each state.</p>
<p>I had a special interest in this- we were going to move for job related reasons from a 'high-representation' state to a 'low-representation' state. I expected that my analysis would uncover strong geographic preferences. I was not able to find such a preference. On the contrary, as you found, there seems to be a bias in favor of nearby states. (edit: I think this is probably just apparent bias and may have to do with yield being higher for nearby states). </p>
<p>So yeah, the dean of admissions may have told applicants from CT that they were at a competitive disadvantage relative to 'square sparsely populated states', but that might just be a way to soften the blow for those from CT who will eventually get rejected. Certainly, at the Yale info session in our underrepresented state, there was no mention of a geographical advantage- all we were told was how ridiculously hard it was to get in.</p>
<p>I would love for my D to be the beneficiary of a geographic advantage- but I'm not going to expect it.</p>
<p>^^ typo in first paragraph above: high school seniors, not college seniors taking the SAT.</p>