<p>Hey I'm a junior at Edina High School in Edina, MN. As I've been browsing through these threads, I've come to the conclusion that kids living in the east and west coasts are waaayyy more competitive those in the cozy midwest. Just the sheer number of people on the forum with hometowns in Boston, New Haven, New York, San Francisco amazes me. I don't think I've seen any member from Minnesota and definitely not anyone from my high school, even though it is one of the top public high schools in the country (top 100 by newsweek, 8th best sports school by si). It just seems like the midwest is generally more laid back and nothing like the cut throat competition in the east and west. Moreover, i've noticed that colleges seem to have lower standards for kids applying from the midwest. For example, a girl last yr from my school got into stanford- she was not nmsf and from what i know she probably had good grades and was the student leadership president... but nothing really stellar like national awards or even state awards. However, when kids with absolutely amazing stats post on CC, they are bombarded with generic comments like "those ecs are weak" or "your gpa is too low to get anywhere". So what im really wondering is: do colleges really have lower standards for kids applying from the midwest and, if so, how would that help in the application process for midwest hopefuls like me?</p>
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I don't think I've seen any member from Minnesota
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<p>Now you have. There are at least two more quite active Minnesotans (students, not parents like me) here. </p>
<p>The upper Midwest does have a different regional culture of young people growing up to be balanced, responsible citizens and family-oriented adults in a way that is much less apparent in the northeast. (How's that for a gross generalization?) I've traveled everywhere in the United States, and I've visited every world-famous college in the United States, and it really is a bit different here in Minnesota. The majority of college students study within 500 miles of their family home, and the truly world-famous colleges want enrolled students from everywhere, certainly every state in the country, so as a matter of supply and demand, applicants from Minnesota have a bit of an advantage. But don't take anything for granted. There are some great students here aspiring to the same colleges you aspire to. It is still competitive to get into [insert name of highly elite college here] from anywhere. </p>
<p>The SAT state report for Minnesota </p>
<p>shows where Minnesota college applicants sent SAT scores. The nationally famous colleges get a good number of applicants--Stanford is especially popular here. </p>
<p>Good luck. There's a better than even chance that I've actually seen you in real life. I hope you enjoy the college applying process and that you like the college you end up in at the end of the process, as I expect you will.</p>
<p>I'm from the Southwest. I think kids from the southwest (excluding Texas, maybe) are in the same boat as kids from the midwest. </p>
<p>I hope this means it's an advantage for us! :D</p>
<p>I'm from Minnesota, too. :)</p>
<p>Another parent from Mn here. In recent years my daughter's school sent one student to Yale. The majority have attended in state schools such Mankato, Winona,St. Cloud, U of Mn Duluth, Morris and a few to St. Kates, St. Bens and Gustavus. We also have quite a few at Eau Claire and Madison.</p>
<p>So far my daughters has her sites on Chicago...she would give her eye teeth to go there. The only in state school she is really interested in so far is Macalester.</p>
<p>Do you want to know another region that isn't laid back but just has dumb students and low education standards? The Southeast. The two dumbest states? That's Mississippi and Florida. Students in the area can also typically get in with slightly lower stats than those in California and the Northeast. Of course, that only works to my advantage. It's hard though for people in Florida (like me) to get into state schools and live in the Southern half of the state. More people live there and colleges want more geographical diversity (within the state at least) so it is also easier to get in if you live in the conservative leaning panhandle or west coast. It's like the Italian North-South rivalry. Central Florida is neutral ground. No wonder it's the happiest place on Earth!</p>
<p>Anyway, where you live can impact admissions decisions. However, the impact is more obvious in very underrepresented and rural states like Kansas, Montana, Alaska etc. Florida is probably somewhere right above the midwest in terms of geographical impact on admissions.</p>
<p>I don't think that's the case in the Chicago area. Chicago magnet high schools (must apply to attend) are pretty competitive, and so are some suburban schools.</p>
<p>I'm from Missouri...it DOES seem like everyone is more laid-back about competition and college admissions. There's just a different vibe here.</p>
<p>Certain states in the Midwest definitely get an advantage, i.e., the Dakotas. Minnesota and Wisconsin don't contribute to geographic diversity at coastal universities as much.</p>
<p>OP, Edina is the best HS in MN according to USNWR.</p>
<p>I'm from Ohio and our school is pretty laid back, as well. We send lots of kids to top 20 schools, but rarely any to the ivies. However, the lack of kids going to ivies comes mostly from a lack of interest and applicants.</p>
<p>I live in WI. 85% of WI students who attend a 4 year school attend either a WI or MN state school. Of the remaining 15%, half attend in state privates. That means that only 7-8% of college bound students in WI are applying to schools outside of WI / MN. My guess is that MN has similar stats. Because schools want kids from different areas of the country, it will give you a bit of a boost, I think. That being said, my highly successful youngest son got waitlisted at his first choice school, Swarthmore. I can't imagine that more than a couple dozen kids from the entire state apply there. He had top grades, top scores, NMF, and excellent ECs, but being from the midwest didn't get him in.</p>
<p>haha...is being from New Mexico kind of like being an under represented minority?</p>
<p>(Maybe New Mexico is good for something. ;) )</p>
<p>ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Well, last year 18 people from Stanford were from Minnesota, only 7 from Michigan, at least from what I've seen nobody's getting in to good places considering the scores of our class, so from all that i've statistically seen at least my school and michigan are the most competitive, as kids w/ similar scores and stuff from the coasts are getting in over us.</p>
<p>Remember that statistics for Michigan will be deflated by UM and the MSU HC taking away a lot of Ivy-types.</p>
<p>I live in a2 and like nobody good enough for the ivies wants to go to u of m.</p>
<p>What do you consider "good enough for the ivies"?</p>
<p>goblue - BS.</p>
<p>At my school we have 3 kids with 33+ ACT's, top 10 class ranks, with pretty dang good EC's(Winner of Triathalon's, Eagle Scout, Robotics World Champ - one of these kids) that are dead set on UM. And I'm applying this year too(34, top 10%, pretty decent EC's, etc.), though who knows how likely, and I'm certainly not a lock at an Ivy or anything, but certainly competitive. And I'm considered nuts for looking beyond UM(though I have applied).</p>
<p>And I know kids at Huron and Pioneer who are just the same. Kids at CC, BBR, DCD, and many others. People in Michigan have an obsession with UM, that includes top students(probably 7 of our 'top 10' will go there). Maybe you are hanging out with an exceptional group of people(both academically and monetarily) in order to not see this. At my school there might be 20 kids who will end up OOS, high end. With UM and MSU, it does not make sense in the pocketbook to go to most of these other schools.</p>
<p>OP, two years ago, Yale received 84 SCEA applications from Michigan. If we assume that number has increased in the last two years by about the same percentage as the entire Yale applicant pool, then Yale received about 96-100 SCEA applications this year. As a Yale acceptee who has access to the Yale geographic distribution website, I can tell you that exactly 12 of these ~100 were accepted. The overall SCEA acceptance rate this year was 18.1%. Statistically speaking, it doesn't seem like standards are lower for the Midwest. </p>
<p>DSC, just as it is with your HS, I've noticed that many of the high-performing students from my MI high school tend to stay in-state. Probably many of them would sooner just apply to U of M and attend for the reasons you noted. However, I doubt that many students accepted at HYPSM would choose U of M over one of the top schools. Speaking strictly from anecdotal evidence, of the 10+ Harvard, 20+ Yale, 3 or 4 Stanford, and several MIT acceptees from Michigan I know from the last two years, all except one of the MIT acceptees (tetrahedr0n from CC) chose to attend the higher-ranked school.</p>
<p>Michigan is not Minnesota. Perhaps "Midwest" is the wrong way to generalize the issue.</p>
<p>^ exactly. as i said before, the dakotas have a definite advantage.</p>
<p>The Vanderbilt class of '11 has 0 students that matriculated from south dakota.</p>
<p>being from michigan, minnesota, wisconsin or illinois does not give you a real advantage in college admissions.</p>