Your state of residence as a hook?

I was perusing U Penn’s site and looked at their freshman profile. They had a map of the continental United States, detailing the geographical makeup of their class. There was a grand total of 1 student from Wyoming and Montana.

Now, if you lived in Wyoming or some other similarly desolate state, would you have exponentially better chances? In every college pamphlet, colleges talk about how they have students from all 50 states, thus the need to admit one kid from Wyoming.

This not a plan at all. I am just curious.

OT: Ever notice how the worse a school is, the harder it is to find the incoming freshman profile?

<p>I believe to some extent yes, it will affect your chances somewhat. For instance, a lot of students from NY or NJ apply to Ivys, thus,they have more competition. It will be difficult to stand out in admissions, compared to a student applying from Wyoming, as not many people apply to competitive schools like UPenn. Like you said, colleges want diversity.</p>

<p>my knowledge is that colleges don't quota by state (state colleges excluded). </p>

<p>applying from wyoming can't boost your chances although it will help you. Colleges know that schools in Wyoming don't provide as many opportunities as a school in NJ, thus they'll understand if you couldn't take as many AP courses or conduct a research at a nearby college.</p>

<p>It will help you because they want a diverse student body, but it won't help you enough that you could possibly call it a "hook".</p>

<p>It's a slight tip factor all else being equal, but not a hook.</p>