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I know that if my son had been accepted to both an Ivy/MIT and Stanford or Caltech he wouldn't even have had to think about his response -- he'd be off to California in an instant.
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<p>Minnesota appears to be more of a western than eastern state in the sense that Stanford appears to have more cachet here than HYP. The SAT report for Minnesota suggests that.</p>
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mostly 4.0+ GPAs, high SAT I/SATII, Olympiads, research and papers,
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<p>I follow the names of kids who do math olympiads and some of the other olympiad competitions. If the research results in Intel awards I've probably heard of those kids too. If that is the kind of applicant we are talking about in this thread, then it would be interesting to see where the students end up as they apply this year and next year.</p>
<p>It's not northern New Jersey, but the elite private school in SE Pennsylvania that my kids attended once upon a time has been on a roll with Stanford the past few years, with multiple acceptances there (and quite a few kids enrolling - some of S's wins vs. H). The urban public magnet from which they graduated has had 1-2 kids per year accepted there for the last few years, about the same as with HYP, and with one exception they've all been cross-admits with H.</p>
<p>I'm sure there are lots of kids from NJ at Stanford. It's true that Stanford cares less about geographical diversity than most other elite universities, because it still feels a special mission to be the intellectual breeding ground for the West Coast, and to represent the position that California IS the crossroads of the world, and the most diverse region on Earth. But I don't think there's any anti-NJ, or anti-New York Metropolitan Area, bias. It sees a lot of really strong kids from California and other West Coast points, and a lot of engineering types, who don't necessarily apply to HYP. There's a lot of overlap in the applicant pools, but a lot of non-overlap as well. Also, there are probably a bunch of California schools, including publics, that have the same kind of ins at Stanford that northeastern prep schools have at HYP.</p>
<p>We've had several Intel finalists and semi-finalists come out of our high school - if they applied to Stanford they didn't get in, but I can't identify Intel kids from the scattergrams. The two Intel kids I knew personally ended up going to Harvard. It seems from my point of view much, much harder to get into Stanford than HYP from our school - on the other side of the river from NJ, but similar demographically I daresay. It may just be our school is not as well known as some of the tonier towns.</p>
<p>Robinhood,</p>
<p>I would encourage your son to apply to Stanford early-action if he is interested in attending and willing to make that move across the country. I don't think he or his friends should dwell on whether or not Stanford will approach their applications with a cynical view of their motives for applying. If it is true that elite schools with nonbinding early application programs are on the lookout for Harvard and Princeton wannabes, then Yale, MIT, and Caltech are all in the same boat as Stanford, and thus his suspicions should naturally concern them as well. However, I do not think this is the case. As some of the best schools in the country, SYMC have the luxury of not having to factor a student's "interest" (as expressed through visits, admissions office contact, etc.) into their decision. </p>
<p>I would think that Stanford would welcome high qualified applicants from the East Coast, for the reason that most students do attend a school relatively close to home. Also, do not underestimate the effect an early acceptance from a school like Stanford has on the applicant's psyche. Even if his top choice is Harvard or Princeton, I think you'll find that it becomes very, very difficult, if not impossible, to turn down a school that you become mentally wedded to in the four months between Early Action and Regular Decision notifications, and trust me, Stanford (and Yale, MIT, etc.) knows this.</p>
<p>I'm speaking from experience as a Massachusetts resident, Stanford early admit, and Harvard/Princeton regular admit.</p>
<p>Rumors we have been hearing is that Stanford is trying to pull in more Students from outside California, so if all things being equal, OOS kids would get accepted over instate kids</p>
<p>I have heard this from many sources, and seeing the kids from our HS who got rejected, talking to Alum and parents for other "top" HS, this idea has some credence</p>
<p>ps- I am in SF- so maybe its a Bay Area bias Stanford has</p>
<p>My son attended a non-elite average public h.s. in the Philadelphia suburbs and he graduated from Stanford in 2006. I don't know if anyone from our school ever went there before, at least not in the recent past. He did not apply ED or EA (I believe it was ED at that time), did not visit the campus before being admitted, and was not interviewed (Stanford does not do interviews, or at least they did not do them then.) It is common belief among students from California that it is easier to get into Stanford from the East Coast or other places far away from CA because so many CA students apply to Stanford. It is true that a high percentage of Stanford students are from CA, but that percentage would be better compared to how many Harvard students are from New England or the Northeast than to how many are from Massachusetts, based on the huge population of California. The missing statistic in this discussion is whether Stanford admits a higher or lower percentage of the applicants from California than from the East Coast. We only know how many from each area attend, not the percent admitted out of the total who apply. I would guess the percent admitted is probably about the same for CA and the East Coast.</p>
<p>FWIW, my son chose Stanford over Harvard and MIT (and Princeton) because he liked the atmosphere best, and because it was equally strong in technical and non-technical areas. It is true that the majority of students admitted to both Harvard and Stanford choose Harvard, but I believe that it is much more even between Stanford and the other schools. He started out in Computer Science and ended up with an Economics major and a CS minor, so it was a great choice for him. As I was warned by many ("....you know he will end up staying out there..."), he is now working in California, and, on a recent visit to see him, I heard him tell someone who asked him where he was from, "I'm from California." Oh well, I don't mind. It's a fun place for me to visit!</p>
<p>m-o-t:</p>
<p>I am in awe of 18 year-olds who choose a college 3,000 miles away. Ya did soemthing right, mom!</p>
<p>I don't know if I did anything right except tell him that he could apply and that we would visit only if he was admitted. (FWIW, I was totally uninformed about Stanford until he became interested in it. Also, he was 17 not 18 years old when he chose Stanford.) He had a very hard decision to make and actually didn't make his decision until the last possible day. The 3,000 miles away part does not seem like such a big deal to me because it is a very easy direct and not expensive flight from Philadelphia, and we used frequent flyer miles for the vast majority of his trips home and our visits. It isn't any worse than if he was a 6 or 7 hour drive away. My husband travels a lot for work, so plane trips to the West coast do not seem like as big a deal to us as to many other families who do not fly frequently or at all. </p>
<p>I am really glad he chose Stanford for a lot of reasons. He had many great opportunities and experiences which he would not have had elsewhere, and I am convinced it was the right choice for him. I am also glad that I have had the chanceto spend time at Stanford and the surrounding areas. There are so many great places to see within a reasonable distance of the school.</p>
<p>blue,</p>
<p>Our Calif. hs had similar stats as yours: 6 to Stanford (4 legacies), 13 to H & P and no cross-admits. It made me wonder if Stanford made efforts to accept students they thought would NOT be admitted to HYP so they would not lose the cross-admit wars.</p>
<p>My DD was applying about the same time as MOT's son. The admissions folks told us that the % of admitted students from CA was equal to the % of applicants from CA - about half at that time. I don't think that was policy, but remember what a huge population CA has and the fact that Stanford is pretty much the only large, Div I, tier I private university in the West.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that distances in CA are vast. For example, from San Diego to San Francisco is about 500 miles, all within the same state.</p>
<p>Stanford does seem to like Montana kids. My son's HS is a slightly above average public. 2 to IVY, 1 to Stanford, 1 to USC. Quite a few from here have gone to Stanford in the past. Almost 1 - 2 every year get in it seems.</p>