<p>ive been reading a lot of people's stats on here and im a little worried lol</p>
<p>i mean a lot of people have done internships and stuff at prestigious universities but i dont live near anywhere like that</p>
<p>they also have all these national awards in competitions that my school doesnt participate in and i dont know how to even get in them like all these math and science competitions ive never heard of</p>
<p>i live in a smaller town</p>
<p>that being said everything else i have is solid: class rank, test scores, recommendations, essays, etc</p>
<p>is it going to hurt me that i only have mostly local and school awards except national merit scholarship semifinalist and boys state?</p>
<p>dude08, I'm not in admissions, but I think the answer to that is both yes and no. If you go to a school in a big city or well to do suburb where the student body is basically 'not disadvantaged' then my observation is that if the school is not very proactive about seeking out opportunities for their students to shine beyond the local level, then it can indeed hurt the students. In that case, one has to be individually proactive about seeking out ways to shine - online courses, non-school ECs, etc. In the Bay Area where I live, there's no doubt that the more aggressive schools have better track records by way of admissions.</p>
<p>If you are in a more rural location, that is taken into account, and in fact is often a plus in itself.</p>
<p>So it's pretty grey. Most top schools are quite good about context, but it's not just about what the school offers.</p>
<p>They are good about context, but I think that a person from a small town who shows the initiative to seek out competitions and experiences that no one else has bothered to learn about is going to be in a superior position to you. Yale loves independent initiative and people who go beyond their comfort zones.</p>