<p>For both east coast schools and schools in California, how much of a boost will it be that I come from an underrepresented state (Idaho)?</p>
<p>Thanks. </p>
<p>Very few schools care about “geographic diversity” or give you any extra consideration. No public schools care about it. Also, ID isn’t as under represented as you think. WY, ND, SD, MS, MT, AK – yes. ID less so.</p>
<p>Since it’s unknowable for those handful who might, just ignore it and push fwd w/your GPA,tests, and LoRs.</p>
<p>disagree with t26e4
Geography does matter whether public or non-public.
Your geography may work for or against you. For instance, it is easier to get into Michigan or UNC if you are a resident of the state versus non-resident. If non-resident, they like to have diverse crowd.
Yes, they have quotas whether you want to believe it or not.
For instance, recent article about a NJ girl got wait listed at Rutgers but accepted into PSU. She was 3.7 gpa with 1570 SAT. Unknown as to specifics of courses and gpa but 1560 is 25percentile for Rutgers and 1630 is 25th percentile for PSU. Both rely on state money so the more out of state they can bring in the better.</p>
<p>Geography does matter. If a student from NY applies to NYU and a student from Alaska applies to NYU with the same grades and ECs, they will probably accept the kid from Alaska for diversity. Applying to schools outside of your “zone” increases your likelihood of getting in. I went to a college fair a few eyes back with my D and she wanted to go speak to the UF counselors. She asked about her having a worse chance of getting in because she was OOS. They said that they were in fact, looking to increase the geological diversity of the school and being OOS would actually help her chances of getting in.</p>
<p>@TomsRiverParent: Ooops. Sorry, I completely agree with you about the residency boost for in-state publics. That’s an entire different matter than from what I perceived from the OP however (ID resident asking about CA or east coast schools). </p>
<p>Also publics may seek to fill a non-resident quota due to the higher revenue. </p>
<p>My comments was more towards the lines like Annie’s example of NYU, an example of the “few” I noted in my reply</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats I hope you mean geographic diversity and not geological diversity. My D doesn’t have a rock collection or anything! :)</p>
<p>@VSGPeanut101 Oh right! Sorry lol, I meant geographic diversity </p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the insight! I guess I’m mostly wondering about private (with the exception of UNC and UVA), top-tier schools. Schools of the caliber of BU, BC, Stanford, MIT, JHU, Cornell, etc etc… Are these schools more or less likely to give a boost to an ID student than most others? Do these fit into the “few” described by @T26E4 ?</p>
<p>Also, a slightly different question, but a related one: how much credit do I get for the fact that I come from a small high school in a rural area? Obviously I have a lot fewer opportunities than a kid most anywhere else, in that my school doesn’t offer the best academic options, my ECs are limited (in and out of school), etc… Often I feel that it is very hard to meet the standards set by some kids who have interned at a prestigious research institute or was able to compete in a national competition, etc. Most of these opportunities were very limited to me. Will colleges recognize this?</p>
<p>You will get some preferrential treatment for from a rural area such that the academic standard may be slightly lower. As for how much, who knows. Some schools may have a small quota for that pool for diversity purpose. On the other hand, there can be quite some people from the rural area too just like you.</p>
<p>Check Whittier College in CA. They value geographic diversity, IIRC. Schools’ Common Data Sets will list if geo is considered in admissions decisions. But, who knows how accurate that is?</p>
<p>Do you have stats to compete for a seat in a top-tier school? If so, then beef up your ECs. Get creative pronto, if you’re a rising junior or younger and have a bit of time to show what you can do. </p>
<p>My take on this is that privates like to say that they have students from all 50 states. However, a big private like BU is very likely to already have some people from ID. A small liberal arts college, not nearly as likely, so that is where being from a small state gives you the biggest boost. As for schools like Stanford, MIT, and Cornell, well, they’re going to be hard to get in to, regardless. Maybe you’ll get lucky and MIT is graduating their only Idahoan this year (Stanford is sure to already have some ID students). As you can imagine, the farther east you go, the less Idahoans there would be at a school, and the bigger the advantage to being from ID.</p>