<p>Does an demographically atypical applicant from an underrepresented state still benefit because of the state?</p>
<p>For example, applicants from the oilfields of Wyoming or the potato fields of Idaho would be desirable, but what about the affluent kid from Jackson Hole, Wyoming or Sun Valley, Idaho. Do they get a bump, too?</p>
<p>everyone talks about the midwest...what about the southeast? southeast under-representin'! (in northeast schools.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'd feel comfortable saying: the Dakotas, Wyoming, Oregon, Utah, Iowa, and Idaho are some that come to mind. Just think of states with low populations along with less than stellar educational systems, and for the most part the midwest will dominate this list.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Tonyt, of those states you mentioned, only Iowa and the Dakotas are considered to part of the Midwest. Every other state you listed is in the West portion of the United States.</p>
<p>
[quote]
1) Few of the colleges that most people call "elite private colleges" are located in the Midwest, and yet most students go to college within 500 miles of home, so it takes extra effort to find students willing to go so far from home even for the most famous colleges,
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<p>tokenadult, really? The Midwest has more elite private colleges in the U.S. News Top 25 (Northwestern, University of Chicago, Notre Dame, and WUSTL) than any region besides the Northeast.</p>
<p>
[quote]
tokenadult, really? The Midwest has more “elite private colleges” in the U.S. News Top 25 (Northwestern, University of Chicago, Notre Dame, and WUSTL) than any region besides the Northeast.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Okay, I'll revise my statement in light of what you said. Midwestern students are underrepresented in elite private colleges along the coasts because they have some elite private colleges in-region. </p>
<p>After edit: to know just which state or region is "underrepresented" we would have to look at the high-school-age population of each state and region, to figure out what a "natural" number of college applicants from each place might be.</p>
<p>Sorry, I really had a different idea of what composed the midwest as opposed to what the census bureau defines it as, but anyway I guess a revision of my thoughts would be you would not usually find coastal states as being underrepresented.</p>
<p>West Virginia is underrepresented, right?</p>
<p>Is Utah underrepresented? I know our educational system sucks, Utah spends like the least per student in the whole nation.</p>
<p>Also is Utah considered southwest, west, midwest? Because the stats on some college websites only show number of applicants by region. I think I've seen Utah be categorized as southwest sometimes and west sometimes. Clarification would be great. (Dang Utah education, I don't even know which region Utah is in. j/k. I'm just ignorant)</p>
<p>
[quote]
West Virginia is underrepresented, right?
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<p>i would definitely think so.</p>
<p>
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Is Utah underrepresented?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>yes, im pretty sure it is.</p>
<p>and new mexico most be so incredibly unrespresented that people forget its a state and don't even mention it! but actually i'm from new mexico and i go to a really good public school. 3 seniors last year are going to yale and 2 are going to upenn, and i know of alot of other kids from here who are at other ivies and top schools. i have a feeling that its still rather underrepresented. for some reason, though, this really doesn't make me feel any better and i don't get the feeling that i'm really at that much of an advantage. i think that the admissions rate for new mexico at ivies is even lower than the average because of the quality of students must not be as high, and my 2080 SAT sure doesn't help me.</p>
<p>actually im almost positive arizona is last in terms of public school funding</p>
<p>^there's a reason why LA and MS are considered to have the worst public school systems in the nation.
While I don't know numbers, I wouldn't be surprised if their funding was below Arizona.</p>
<p>"actually im almost positive arizona is last in terms of public school funding"</p>
<p>Nope, Utah and Idaho beat Arizona by $6 in per student spending, =) Yay for us.</p>
<p>1 & 2. Utah and Idaho ($6,028)
3. Arizona ($6,036)
4. Oklahoma ($6,176)
5. Mississippi ($6,237)</p>
<p>Quite sad considering the state that spends the most (New York), spends more then double any of the lowest five states.</p>
<p>Edit: Check below for more recent numbers</p>
<p>^Dang.</p>
<p>But I still hold, money wise or not, that it's generally agreed upon that MS and LA have some of the worst public school's in the nation.
Same works the other way- NJ is typically considered the best, although NY spends more money.</p>
<p>(Based on opinion, of course; while I'm no expert at AZ schools, there's definitely a reason why so many students refuse to attend publics in LA; for that matter, there are of course excellent publics in LA- it's the exception in the case of that state, but one can find an excellent public school anywhere)</p>
<p>Heres spending numbers for the 2005 fiscal year. I believe this is more recent.</p>
<p>Top 5
New York State ($14,119)
New Jersey ($13,800)
District of Columbia ($12,979)
Vermont ($11,835)
Connecticut ($11,572)</p>
<p>Bottom 5
Utah ($5,257)
Arizona ($6,261)
Idaho ($6,283)
Mississippi ($6,575)
Oklahoma ($6,613)</p>
<p>I guess other states improve while Utah just falls behind =(</p>
<p>Highly educated states tend to represented in terms of representations. </p>
<p>To define an underrated state - it must strong academic programs that attract people from all over and have certain reputation and prestige.</p>
<p>Remeber its not one good college but many good colleges , that may make a college town.</p>
<p>Definitely not albama, mississippi, lousina, or montana. Not the mid-west either - with wisconsion, minnesota being exceptions. Why, well OK,KS,Nebreasks,Iowa all suffer from a phenomon known as rural flight. People are leaving, they want to enjoy either the big cities or in the case of small town liberal schools, affluent areas, or clean areas not surrounded by poverty and neglect as alabama, miss,etc.</p>
<p>Of courses many college towns have these problems, but the key point here is the budget spending and how well the area of the state is. Utah could be underrepsenated why,
despite low educational spending, UTAh doesnt seem to have a lot of problems, the place, is clean, beautiful to alot, and tons of jobs, research areas, etc - its desirable but mostly to mormons.</p>
<p>I agree that Oregon is defintely underreprestanted because it is successful, but havent really heard of a lot of schools out there. </p>
<p>Its may be hard to tell, but definitely the state has to have a well attracted pool that wants opportunity. And on a side note anyone who argues idaho,montana,alabama,miss better than add alaska, hawaii or better yet - Maine, Wyoming, nebrasks, dakota esp. south, etc. Not all that prestigious, Mind you some of theses states have some
great public unveristies but those are designed for instate students.</p>
<p>College towns, and desirable places too , ie ann arbor, boston, new haven (despite problems the surround areas of ct are rich), cambridge, philly, la, berekely, etc.</p>
<p>Hard to know. Most prestigious colleges have either OR</p>
<ul>
<li>large endowment OR</li>
<li>many professional graduate</li>
</ul>
<p>plus</p>
<p>research capability.</p>
<p>possibly arts+music capability, Remeber its also society that decides in a global sense.</p>