<p>Is there a way to find out how many kids applied from each state?</p>
<p>Where has reasoning in this thread gone to? Claiming that Harvard favors MA applicants based on the data we have here is baseless. There are many factors that make it more likely that students from MA end up being overrepresented without Harvard favoring them for their location of residence.</p>
<p>For one, there is a high degree of concentration of excellent preparatory and boarding schools in the New England area, and especially in MA. These schools attract the best students and prepare them so well warranting about a dozen students being admitted from each of the schools every year. This concentration of schools alone doubtless accounts for probably more than half of the students from MA.</p>
<p>Second, many students from MA apply because though Harvard is well known everywhere, it does have even greater reputation in some areas, one of them being, obviously, the state in which it is located.</p>
<p>MA is also a state with a disproportionately large number of intellectuals, and thus has many parents whose children follow their parents’ footsteps and are likely to be admitted to schools like Harvard.</p>
<p>I am sure these arguments would be supported by admission data from other Ivy League schools that are not located in MA.</p>
<p>Also to add to Polyglot’s post, the underrepresented states (which seem to trend as states with lower populations0 have fewer applying… the acceptance rates may just be very similar. </p>
<p>Well said!</p>
<p>@ Polyglot, I completely agree with your post. I hope you don’t mean that my last post was baseless. You basically reiterated the points Idiosyncra3y and I made, and though I completely agree with them, there is also a regional preference that works in favor for MA applicants.</p>
<p>Here’s the source for my assertion that there is preference for MA applicants in Harvard admissions:</p>
<p>[5</a> questions for Harvard’s admissions dean - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/02/24/5_questions_for_harvards_admissions_dean/?page=2]5”>http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/02/24/5_questions_for_harvards_admissions_dean/?page=2)</p>
<p>Excerpt:</p>
<p>"First and foremost, Harvard will always be a Massachusetts and New England institution. We work extremely hard on our recruiting and outreach in Massachusetts and New England because we feel it is vital for Harvard to play an important role in educating the future leaders from the place that has done so much to shape its mission. We have always had a policy of admitting a Boston or Cambridge student over others when the credentials are approximately equal.</p>
<p>In the same way, we pay special attention to students from Massachusetts and the rest of New England. Students from our home area benefit enormously by living with and learning from classmates who come from all parts of the United States and abroad. We will continue to seek the best students from around the nation and throughout the world."</p>
<p>–Dean William Fitzsimmons</p>
<p>For anyone who is interested, here is a good thread to read before you post:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/715657-what-high-school-communities-does-harvard-favor.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/715657-what-high-school-communities-does-harvard-favor.html</a></p>
<p>One thing that will skew the relative ratio of students by state is that some students will matriculate at a school other than Harvard even though they were accepted there. I know that in Colorado in the class of 2012 there were 16 students accepted although there are only 8 in the class. That’s exactly a 50% yield. I strongly suspect that Harvard’s yield in New England is much greater than 50% (probably more like 90%). In our area there are many more applications to Stanford than Harvard and more families with ties to Stanford rather than Harvard.</p>
<p>I have wondered if Harvard tends to apportion fewer offers to areas where their yield is lower. NC is the tenth most populous state in the country and it ranks towards the bottom of Sherpa’s list. It is not like NC lacks for educated parents (Research Triangle Park anyone?) to foster the environment that leads one to aspire to elite schools. My daughter is the first student admitted to H from her HS in many years. Her class includes three others now attending ivies, one at Cambridge and two that are at Duke on full merit scholarships. Recent classes have also sent students to the other YPSM schools in addition to the above. I do not have any data, but have suspected that NC gets fewer offers because H assumes that they will lose too many cross admits to Duke (and to a much lesser degree to Morehead Scholars at UNC-CH).</p>
<p>I think the bottom line is, a student from NC with a certain set of credentials will have an equally likely chance at Harvard if they lived in MA with those same credentials. Despite the 35,000 applications, Harvard’s app process is extremely thorough. Check out the website for an outline of what happens.</p>
<p>How many kids do you think apply from, say, North Dakota every year? I would guess a dozen or less.</p>
<p>Idiosyncrac3y (Canadian Boy) says
if you are smart enough to apply to harvard, you would’ve known to read the numbers in context… the Census figures, without breakdown of demographics by age etc. is a poor and inaccurate way to use instead of the highschool student population. But having no access to these numbers w/o wasting more time, the census figures were used as a rough measure and the numbers should be read as such.</p>
<p>As siserune presented effectively in 2009, in this thread
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/715657-what-high-school-communities-does-harvard-favor.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/715657-what-high-school-communities-does-harvard-favor.html</a></p>
<p>this statement by the admissions dean seem to explain largely why the MA and NE states are overrepresented in the Harvard class.
</p>
<p>Guys, this argument is going nowhere. There is an indisputable numbers bias towards MA, but arguing like this does nothing for anyone. This admissions process f nervewracking as it is, and this isn’t helping anyone, nor will it affect anyone’s decision. In the words of The Beatles, let it be, please?</p>
<p>hopingdad, which article is that from?</p>
<p>You are getting quite angry?</p>
<p>You have now just said that all of what you originally said is just rough and should not be taken too seriously. Which is exactly what I said…</p>
<p>Homer, who also didn’t seem to like me is also now agreeing that there is not such a large bias to MA students.</p>
<p>Again though you resort to attacking me.
- I am not Canadian
- Too much time? I have posted twice I think. You have been searching for census data? added to which you are (apparently…) an adult who should have better things to do than argue with teenagers.</p>
<p>I see though that you have revised your attitude about when my (apparently inevitable) failure will be… You do seem quite excited about it still.</p>
<p>I guess it’s the general consensus that other than New England, the Midwest “kinda has it easy”? Or am I lost?</p>
<p>@all
Let’s not flame the threads. Peace!</p>