<p>When colleges are looking for “geographic diversity” in their incoming frosh classes. Does that mean OOS, does it also mean they are looking for rural applicants, or is it a combination of the two? </p>
<p>In a related question, if an applicant takes the most rigorous courseload possible at their HS but that school is small and only able to offer 5 APs, is that taken into account? </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>historymom, don’t sweat it. Our school offered on paper 5 AP courses, really only 4. No problem anywhere. </p>
<p>Usually geographic diversity speaks to OOS. As to the rural part, the kid can make it work for them . But just like diversity in other areas , they are interested in what that upbringing meant to that kid. If they were still a mall rat, the mere fact they grew up rural won’t mean that much.</p>
<p>And like everything else in this process, it will mean more at some schools than others.</p>
<p>S’s school offered only 3 AP classes and S took only 2 of them (the third was Spanish V). He was accepted everywhere he applied(MIT,Caltech, UCB…). So clearly a limited number of AP’s was not a problem.</p>
<p>Schools do look at AP’s offered. They just want you to challenge yourself. </p>
<p>As far as diversity is concerned, It depends on the school you are talking about. OOS students do mean diversity for some schools. But other schools like Vanderbilt, do look at rural vs sub. as far as mix into building a freshman class. I believe a lot has to do with budgets of the admissions department. If I only have X amount of dollars to get people from Calif. to go to my school, then I am just going to hit the big cities where I could get the most bang for my buck. Thus a lot of times it leaves out recruiting rural sections of the country. Vanderbilt used to be like that, so even though you had X amount of students from Calif, they were all alike on campus with the same types of kids that they recruited from Ga. or Texas or NY. That has changed big time at Vandy. So it is something you need to look at.</p>
<p>“If I only have X amount of dollars to get people from Calif. to go to my school, then I am just going to hit the big cities where I could get the most bang for my buck. Thus a lot of times it leaves out recruiting rural sections of the country”</p>
<p>So, for certain colleges, would a rural kid driving 3 hours to attend an info session then be looked at favorably? Do admissions people at some schools pay attention to that stat?</p>
<p>I don’t know if anyone exactly pays attention to how far you drove, but here is an anecdote that may be relevant. Last year we attended an info session for Carnegie Mellon Univ. that was being held in a suburb of Kansas City (and that was a 5 hr round trip for us). The rep put up a slide proclaiming CMU had students from all 50 states. Then, she stopped the show to explain the slide was no longer correct, and if anyone in the audience was from Nebraska, come up and talk to her. There actually WAS a student in the audience who had driven down from Nebraska, and indeed the student and the rep had what appeared to be a serious conversation at the end of the talk. FWIW.</p>
<p>Interesting story. I wonder what happened w/ that student from Nebraska. :-)</p>
<p>^^^I’ve wondered myself. Somehow I don’t think simply being from Nebraska and making a long drive was quite enough by itself, but perhaps it earned some points.</p>
<p>It really depends on the school and on its location. At Harvard, the largest number of students come from New England, the Mid-Atlantic states and California. So being from CA would not contribute to the geographic diversity unless it was a small place in CA that does not usually send students to the East Coast. Ditto Tx. I don’t think a student necessarily gets a tip for being from Austin, Houston or Dallas, but my S has a roommate who comes from a tiny little town deep in the south. I expect that was a point in his favor. I know being from Montana, Wyoming or North or South Dakota or Idaho would similarly be a tip, as would Midwestern areas that do not often send students to the East Coast (but beware that big cities may not count as they have more students going out of state).</p>
<p>“unless it was a small place in CA that does not usually send students to the East Coast.”</p>
<p>That pretty much describes our town…agricultural, >15,000 residents etc. NOT what people think about when you say “I’m from California.” 
My girls aren’t interested in going to the East Coast but maybe some of the western campuses they are interested will want to bring a country girl or two into their freshman class. Not counting on it or anything but when it comes down to it, anything that brings a reach a little closer is a blesssing.</p>
<p>Hmmm, my daughter did better in admissions and scholarships than might have been predicted by her stats, which were good but not stellar. She was originally a VERY rural farm kid (in fact technically qualified as farm migrant kid for a few years although we did not seek any benefits). Most people I come in contact with now really can’t grasp how rural I’m talking about–19 miles one way to get even basic grocery items like bread or milk, three small towns cooperating to run a 9-12 high school for 85 students, 14 graduates last year in what was once D’s class. And D really was a farmer, operating the combine at the age of 13 (since she couldn’t take the truck out on the highway to run a load of wheat in to town), picking rock and pulling rye, moving pipes, feeding orphan lambs, etc. Then at the end of that summer I got a new job out of the blue and a week later we landed in Germany, where she spent her high school years. Oh, and she’s Mexican-American and speaks pretty decent French and German and is majoring in Russian…diverse in many ways, now that I think about it.</p>
<p>ReneeV, if she couldn’t make a good essay out of that background she just wasn’t trying.</p>
<p>WashDad,
The main essay was about her cooking hobby, specifically making the best fudge in the world, but she did manage to weave in details very effectively. Once we tried to analyze what was the tipping factor for her, but I really think it was the whole combination plus some very cool accomplishments. Or as she said, maybe “they” just liked her!</p>
<p>Wow–Renee your daughter sounds amazing–anyone should be happy to have her at their college!</p>
<p>This was what I was asking about in some other threads. Are you better off being a bright star in a small dark part of the universe or a bright star in a big galaxy of other bright stars? OR Small town Small School vs. Small High End School in the Big City…</p>
<p>Renee…cool story, you out “ruraled” my kids for sure Though many moons ago I was farm girl enough to raise a couple of bummer lambs, drive a tractor before a car, change pipe (my first paid job) and be able to miss school during both harvest and freezing season. </p>
<p>Your D sounds like a fascinating girl. Where did she end up attending college? I’m sure they did “like her” very much!</p>
<p>This thread caused me to remember that as an Oberlin college student from the City of Baltimore, back in the day, I thought the most fascinating people around were from the rural communities. There was a guy from Maine who drove 25 miles to the nearest grocery store for milk. Someone from central Massachusetts was unphased by the Ohio winter who walked around with an unbuttoned flannel shirt. I was so impressed! Today I’d call him stupid, but not at 19. THere was a young woman from Missoula, Montana who could describe the culture of a mining town. Other rural kids could describe their environments with a crispness that was extremely interesting. </p>
<p>I also decoded the suburban background. I called home and Mom asked, “the kids you are meeting…where are they all from?” I answered, "They all come from one town called ‘Twenty Minutes From New York’ "</p>
<p>When my older two applied, we were living in a small, depressed rural town in upstate New York. I believe that it helped them, although I don’t know.</p>
<p>Youngest applied from an upscale suburb. </p>
<p>All 3 got where they wanted to go. The eldest, denied ED, found true love at his second choice after the RD round ended (accepted to 4 places, waitlisted twice, and 2 rejections including that ED again). Middle kid got her ED. Youngest only applied RD and chose between 3 acceptances (out of 8) and is thrilled as a freshman today.</p>
<p>If I were to counsel a suburban student today, I’d say it is equally possible to have your suburban background become interesting, but only if you put some effort into it. How many suburban kids know the history of their community?
Most of them had an agricultural history, and a moment when economic change overtook it. That stuff is INTERESTING, why not learn it? Jane Jacobs wrote about “A Sense of Place.” Now that I live in a suburb (first time in my life), I find them more interesting than when I was in the city and the country and made sport with them. A suburb is still built upon a natural base, so there’s still geology to learn, plant materials to observe. </p>
<p>I prefer it whenever someone finds reason to be proud of their home community. I mean, even in our previous poor rural town, there was this cool bakery where you could do a drive-through order by yelling into the hole of a huge bagel painted on the side of the wall. </p>
<p>Take pride, no matter your address!</p>
<p>when I first brought kids home from school w/ me my frosh year, they were astounded at the fact that in our driveway we left the keys in the ignition and in town we took them out of the ignition and left them in the ashtray. When they went into the market with me several people said “hello” and asked how I was doing and the clencher was when we went to check out. The checker rang us up and I said “put it on the account” and she let me sign for it. </p>
<p>I remember my one friend from LA said that he didn’t know places like this existed anymore.</p>