<p>Do colleges give special consideration to students coming from rural schools, or schools in small states? I've heard of schoold coming from Montana as being classified as rural by universities. As such, colleges can boost your SAT score by something like 100 to compensate. Is this true? Or do they do something else with it? The whole college process is a big mess of confusion to me... :(</p>
<p>It gives you a boost in admissions. It’s part of wanting a geographically diverse school. Example is coming from a state like South Dakota, it’ll help your chances.</p>
<p>They wouldn’t boost your SAT score because, well, they can’t. However, as modest said, many schools want to geographically-diverse population so if it’s a school in the Northeast for example they are going to be reaching out to people in states like Montana. Applications that might be slightly below their usual standards for kids from New Jersey or New York might get an extra once-over if they’re from an under-represented region. Also, if you’re thinking about the National Merit Scholarship thing, each state has a different minimum qualifying score so it might be easier for you to get the scholarship than someone from California, for instance.</p>
<p>So is this like Affirmative Action in which they need a minimal amount of students from all geographical locations to fully represent the college? I’ve never understood the special circumstance advantages…</p>
<p>Also, is it true that if you are the only one person applying to a specific university from your school, you are given more consideration than if there were two or more people from your school applying to the same university? I have a friend that absolutely refused to let anyone else apply to Standford because he thought this would give him a boost in admissions. Does that matter? Do admissions divide applications up by specific schools or is this just another misconstrued fairy tale?</p>
<p>^I suppose it is somewhat akin to AA in that it gives an advantage to people from less represented states simply because they are from less represented states. It’s not as direct a correlation as having 100 points added to your SAT score, but it’s certainly a boost, as adcoms–especially at the most competitive schools–are looking to build a diverse class. It looks impressive when a school can say it has kids from all 50 states. </p>
<p>As to whether or not it matters if multiple people apply from the same school, the answer remains vague. Colleges swear that this isn’t true, but if you don’t come from a less competitive school, colleges are less willing to delve below the top 1 or 2% rank-wise. More competitive schools that historically have done well with prestigious colleges will likely boast multiple acceptances to prestigious schools, but a ho-hum school probably won’t have the same success. That being said, there are no quotas, and if two students from one middling school are exceptionally impressive, there’s no reason they wouldn’t both be accepted (case in point: my unimpressive school sent two kids to Harvard last year).</p>
<p>Alright thanks.</p>