<p>Hey guys, I was just wondering if I apply to Harvard and I'm from Mississippi would that be an advantage. Would that be better than say someone from New Jersey applying because there aren't many people who apply to Harvard from MS anyways. I also go to a school in Mississippi that's just for Mathematics and Science. There are just a few of these in the country. So I was just wondering if normal people like me from MS would have chance.</p>
<p>You'll get a small advantage from applying from Mississippi or any other state from the South or Midwest. However, you better have the credentials to be considered first.</p>
<p>Yes, if you have good stats and ECs, being from Miss.can be a distinct advantage. I heard from a Harvard alum interviewer from Miss. that one recent year, there were only one or two applicants to Harvard from the entire state.</p>
<p>It is not true that one gets an advantage from any southern state. For instance, Harvard gets an abundance of good applicants from Florida and Texas. It's states, though, like Miss., Arkansas, Idaho, Oregon, Washington State, Alaska, Hawaii and the Dakotas that Harvard has a hard time attracting good applicants from. Consequently, it can be an advantage to be from such a state.</p>
<p>It also can be an advantage to live in a rural or inner city area in any state as economic diversity is desired, too.</p>
<p>Washington state? Really? Seattle has some pretty affluent suburbs with excellent schools and the population of the state is higher than more than 50% of other states. It also is more educated than other states IIRC.</p>
<p>Yes, Washington state. However, if there's a situation where one applicant who's from a rural area or inner-city and poor, and an applicant that's rich and lives in luxury, the low-income applicant would probably be accepted because he/she isn't rich and had to really have motivation to get where he or she is... This assumes that App 1 & 2 both have around the same stats. For example, in my horrible state of South Dakota, there's this city of about 150,000 (--- a fifth of the population of the whole state- lol) --- other than that small city, it's almost unheard of to apply to an ivy league... And even there, only a few apply, most students who are wealthy around here plan to stay close to home b/c they need their parents to run their lives for them and hand over the cash. You know, the typical "you have to go to Harvard" parents. Except here it's "you have to be perfect and go to a good mid-west school." The ones who sign you up for volunteer activities, clubs, and sports you don't like, force you to take the toughest course load and make you get perfect grades, hire tutors for you, etc... Having parents with incomes of $100,000-$250,000 is like the average income of the parents of each IVY applicant (not sure, but it's quite evident) if not higher... SO really, you need to have parents with (according to NorthStarMOM) at least 10,000,000 to donate to the school before they'll give you a plus in admissions. Basically, you have to be filthy rich or low-income (usually around 40,000---give or take --depends on the school) to really have it be a plus. You can show you're low-income by getting a fee waiver and a job --- Jobs are good because if you work in a grocery store because you needed the job to save for your college education and/or help support your family, they'll really see that as a good thing.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if this is the situation with Nevada? I've never thought that many Nevadans go to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. It's usually Stanford if anything because it's so much closer.</p>
<p>thanks for the info guys, and i was curious, i heard from some of the seniors at my high school that polysci wasn't getting alot people that wanted to major in it so if i put an image of say a person whose asian but does not want to do anything in the field of math or science instead i wanted to do polysci and international affairs, is that better than putting any major related with math or science on my resume</p>
<p>well, as far as I know the government department is one of the largest at Harvard... so I'm not sure if that's credible information.</p>
<p>There isn't a political science major, but there is a government major. The government major IS one of the largest at Harvard.</p>
<p>There are about 552 people who concentrate in Gov't.</p>
<p>"or any other state from the South"</p>
<p>So does Virginia count too? I am from Northern Virginia (it's so not southern, but VA is still technically in the South).</p>
<p>What about Wisconsin?</p>
<p>Harvard CLAIMS that it doesn't need to go out of its way to accept applicants from these states; but, psssh, we all know that isn't true.</p>
<p>I wouldn't try to ride on the sails of my residency, though. Try to be at least a LITTLE interesting, would ya? :-P </p>
<p>And I don't imagine there's an overabundance of people applying from Wisconsin. Good luck!</p>
<p>rhs06- my blockmate is the only student in our class of 2006 from Nevada. So I would say...yes.</p>
<p>I should qualify my statement. Any state in the South except for Florida, Texas, and Virginia, and any state in the Midwest except for (Chicago,) Illinois.</p>
<p>damn, it sucks to be from jersey :(</p>
<p>The states that they have the hardest time getting people from are South Dakota and Wyoming... Maybe a few others in the upper-mid-west... The south is kind of hard to get qualified people from, but not nearly as hard as the midwest... The population in the South is much larger than that of the midwestern states...</p>
<p>It doesn't suck to be from NJ. There are actually way too many of us; it's frightening.</p>
<p>yeah, i still don't understand how such a relatively small state can churn out so many overachievers every year. No matter what college you apply to, even on the west coast, it's a disadvantage to be from NJ. Oh, to be from South Dakota... <em>sigh</em></p>