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<p>No doubt some people in Montana and Wyoming have never heard of Stanford, but generally speaking more people in the Rocky Mountain states apply to Stanford than to Harvard. We have a rough proxy for number of applicants to elite schools: the College Board tells us how many students from each state send SAT score reports (including SAT Subject Test scores) to various colleges. No doubt some send score reports but don’t complete their applications, and some elect to send ACT scores in lieu of both SAT I and SAT II scores (as some elite colleges permit). Stanford doesn’t actually require SAT II scores, though it strongly recommends them, so most applicants send them. Among 2009 college-bound Montana residents, 86 sent SAT score reports to Stanford. Only 44 sent SAT score reports to Harvard (and Harvard does require SAT Subject Test scores from all applicants). 41 sent SAT score reports to Cornell, 37 to Princeton, 36 to Dartmouth, 34 to Yale, 30 to Brown, 30 to MIT, 27 to NYU, and 26 to Notre Dame. No other elite college made the top 50 for Montana.</p>
<p>Similar story in Wyoming but on a smaller scale, given the state’s smaller population: 15 to Stanford, 10 to Harvard, 9 to UC Berkeley, 9 to Georgetown, 9 to Duke, 8 to WUSTL, 7 to UCLA, 7 to MIT, 6 to Northwestern, 6 to USC, 6 to Colorado College, and 5 each to UNC Chapel Hill, Columbia, Yale, Johns Hopkins, and Brown.</p>
<p>In Idaho it’s Stanford 159, Harvard 80, UC Berkeley 69, Yale and MIT 66 apiece, Cornell 58, Princeton 52, USC 50, Brown 45.</p>
<p>In Colorado, Stanford 616, Cornell 323, USC 317, Harvard 315, UC Berkeley 307, UCLA 291, Princeton 282, Brown 269, MIT 254, Yale 245.</p>
<p>Utah: Stanford 195, Harvard 136, UC Berkeley 92, Princeton 90, UCLA 87, USC 82, MIT 81, Cornell 76, Yale 76.</p>
<p>Stanford just dominates the West. Schools like Penn and Dartmouth just don’t register much of an impact in that region. This whole admissions game is a lot more regional than many people care to admit.</p>