<p>maybe an obvious question, but I'm just wondering.</p>
<p>Well, it’s going to be underrepresented in some schools and overrepresented in others – just like every other state. Did you have something in particular in mind?</p>
<p>In the midwest and south, sure. I’m from Georgia, so when I tell people I’m going to school in Vermont they give me looks of absolute horror. I’m sure if you tell people in Vermont that you go to school in Georgia it would be about the same reaction.</p>
<p>for a school in Pennsylvania, for example?</p>
<p>Well, since you said PA, it made me think of Penn.</p>
<p>Thus:</p>
<p>[Penn</a> Admissions: Incoming Class Profile](<a href=“http://www.admissionsug.upenn.edu/profile/]Penn”>http://www.admissionsug.upenn.edu/profile/)</p>
<p>As you can see from the map, Vermont has about 5 in the class of 2012. I don’t know how that has changed, but probably not significantly.</p>
<p>Which college?</p>
<p>Vermont is what % of the total population? Find out that number, and then compare it to what % of the total population of a given school is from Vermont, and then you’ll have your answer. (I’m assuming that the population of college freshmen is equally proportionate to the total population in a given state across all states, which is probably a reasonable assumption.)</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, that formula makes sense to me as an estimate of the boost an applicant gets by being from an underrepresented state. I don’t know if it’s right, but it’s logical.</p>
<p>For our state, the percentage of enrolled students is about one-third what one would expect based on the fraction of the U.S. population that lives in our state.</p>
<p>One way to interpret that is that an applicant from our state has three times the likelihood of being admitted as an applicant with identical qualifications from a state with 1-to-1 representation.</p>
<p>Could that possibly be right? And before someone with a chip on his shoulder and no sense of humor tells me that there is no such thing as two identical applicants: I KNOW. This is hypothetical.</p>
<p>It’s a good thought, but the underlying issue is whether the state sends APPLICANTS to the school at a rate commensurate with its pop, and whether those applicants are as equally qualified as applicants from other states. </p>
<p>For example, Calif is what, 12% of the total US population. So technically speaking they should be 12% of every elite school in the east, right? But they have a great UC system at relatively low cost. So many students who would otherwise be elite material don’t even bother (understandably so). So they might be 12% of the pop but only say 8% of the applicant pool at Ye Olde Ivy. If they are accepted proportionately, are they underrepresented because YOI doesn’t like CA applicants? No. In fact YOI could “overadmit” them at 10% yet they’d be underrepresented relative to the population. (numbers made up for illustrative purposes)</p>
<p>Makes sense, and I did notice that California has way fewer students at Penn than Pennsylvania, as a percentage of population. (In fact, fewer students, period.) I imagine the strength of the UC system skews their numbers at lots of top schools in the East.</p>