<p>For those of you who don't know, North and South Jersey are polar opposites. North and Central Jersey (Which I'm grouping together in this post) are where 85%+ of the New Jerseyan applicants to top schools come from. I'm from South Jersey, near Philadelphia, where there is a small pocket of solid high schools, but the academics are significantly poorer than those of North and Central New Jersey. At the Ivy League summer program I was at two summers ago, there were 15 or so students from New Jersey, and the furthest south they came from was Princeton. I'll cut my ranting short about how my school destroys at regional academic competitions then comes in last at states, but my main thought at one in the morning is: Do colleges distinguish between North and South Jersey in admissions? The academic levels are very different, as well as the cultures. Central to an extent, but primarily North Jersey is an extension of New York, being essentially a southern suburb of New York City. They also support the New York and New Jersey sports teams in general. South Jersey has Philadelphia accents, the Philadelphia sports teams (Go Phillies, despite blowing the playoffs), and goes crazy over hoagies, soft pretzels, and everything Philly. We also have Wawa. I apologize for the disjointed writing of this email, but let me emphasize how late it is and how I probably should go to sleep instead of posting this. New Jersey should be split and given to Philadelphia and New York - are they considered the same region by college recruiters?</p>
<p>You are viewed in context of your high school and what opportunities you had in your high school.</p>
<p>For colleges such as say, Stanford, it is when the regional student kicks in. So if someone from North Jersey had better credentials and stupendous ECs, they would be selected. However, having said that, someone can make an impact in the community irrespective of the school they go to.</p>
<p>“You are viewed in context of your high school and what opportunities you had in your high school.”</p>
<p>This is correct. Colleges understand that North Jersey has a lot of affluent school districts, but Newark isn’t one of them. High schools with nothing in common will not be lumped together except for the purpose of geographical diversity.</p>
<p>From South Jersey too, REPRESENT! but yeah seriously, i know exactly what you mean. We really are two different worlds. My school certainly does not compete with the schools up North, and college definitely get that by looking at the schools themselves.</p>
<p>I’m from North Jersey, and I go to one of the schools you’re referring to haha. But yeah, it’s all about the context of your high school.</p>
<p>Good points about individual schools’ education - in terms of geographic location, though, are they distinguishable? @ctodd152 REPRESENT!</p>
<p>There’s got to be a way you can turn your childhood in the Third World of Browns Mills, NJ to your advantage… depending on the school this could be an amusing essay topic lol.</p>
<p>My GUESS is admissions officers in the Northeast are going to be pretty aware of the different worlds of New Jersey, but at schools further away not so much. I know I’ve read that the selective schools don’t like to take more than 1 from the same individual high school so someone is keeping tabs on this within the individual states. I think there are similar phenomenons of geography and populations elsewhere ie look at the difference between the small corner of New York that is NYC versus the vast “upstate”. People can be idiots about geography/culture, I came to Philly from Alberta, Canada (think Rocky Mountains) and my roomate (from Avalon) was worried that I was only going to speak French. Lets hope the admissions folks have learned a little more about this than most.</p>
<p>BTW Wawa ROCKS!</p>
<p>That sounds about right, and it would be a great essay topic! Anyone want to rant about how their school got crushed by North Jersey? Je ne sais pas.</p>
<p>Elitist,</p>
<p>You make a fair point. But I don’t think you’re going to get geographic “diversity” credit for being from South Jersey. Just look at the way colleges report this stuff, when they bother to report it at all. They boast about how many students they have from each state. They don’t distinguish between NYC/suburbs and upstate NY; or Fairfield County v. rural Connecticut; or Boston/suburbs v. western Mass; or Philadelphia/suburbs v. central PA; or DC suburbs v. rural Virginia; or Chicago/suburbs v. downstate Illinois. So why should it be any different in the NJ context? They care (mildly, at best) about how many states and countries they can claim; beyond that, geography means nothing. But geography does matter a tiny bit, and that probably means you’re in te same pool with every applicant from NJ. </p>
<p>So concentrate on the things that matter and that are in your control: GPA, test scores, teacher and GC recs, ECs, essays. At the end of the day, geography is going to be a small factor and maybe one that works against you to a small degree at some elite Northeastern colleges, but only to the same degree it works against North Jersey applicants. Deal with it, and move on.</p>
<p>We now have Wawa in North Jersey btw…now, if only Wegmans would catch on…</p>