<p>I was on the Collegeboard website and they said that 44% of Stanford is from in state. </p>
<p>Simply put, does Stanford accept more In-state people over out of state people or is it just a correlation because more people apply from within the state? I would assume that a school like Stanford would receive a lot of applicants from out of state as well… Does anyone know what this data means?</p>
<p>I think, but don’t quote me on this, that nearly 70% of all applicants to Stanford are from California. So, if candidates from every other place were equally qualified to attend Stanford as those from California, we would expect a ~70% representation at Stanford, which is not the case. However, I would argue (and probably correctly), that California’s applicants to Stanford are overall the least qualified, considering Stanford’s location and popularity there. As a result, Stanford will attract less serious applicants from California. Conversely, most east coasters won’t send in a joke application to Stanford, when there are 8-10 other schools much closer to us for that purpose, and more serious applicants tend to be better applicants and will enjoy a stronger admit rate. I would say that Stanford probably does not favor In-state or favor Out-of State applicants over each other. This is not to say Stanford does not value geographic diversity- of course, Stanford is going to love the kid from Alaska, but hey-so will every elite institution.</p>
<p>^^ agreed for the most part. The same thing happens not by state but by region for pretty much all top schools–Harvard’s going to get tons of applicants from the Northeast (many of whom are probably not very qualified), etc.</p>
<p>I asked a Stanford admissions officer whether they take geography into consideration–for quotas, preferences for states, etc.–and she gave me a firm no. They’re more interested in enrolling a strong and diverse class, so geography would be the last thing they consider, and they don’t give preference to Californians, nor do they discriminate against them.</p>
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<p>I agree with the above points for the most part, but I would take anything an admissions officer says with a grain of salt. Often times, their job is to provide a PR-coated response to ensure the illusion of equality, e.g. no admissions officer would admit that they would favor an applicant from severely under-represented states such as Wyoming.</p>
<p>^^ true. I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten more than a few sugarcoated responses, but that statement coincided with my own thoughts, so I accepted it without question. :D</p>