East Coast admissions

JHS
Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:20:09 +0000

The Dean of Admission to the UMD school of social science was exaggerating a bit to make a point. Yes, it is probably a little easier to get admitted to Stanford from the East Coast than from California, but we’re talking something like a 7% admit rate vs. 5%. Yes, in general, you maximize your chances for admission by applying to colleges where you are a little bit exotic and add geographical diversity. But that would make a lot more sense if we were talking about USC or Santa Clara, not Stanford. Yes, it’s very competitive for out-of-state kids to get admitted to the most desirable public universities, especially those that are relatively small (UVa) or that have a cap on out-of-state admissions (UNC - Chapel Hill), and the bar is probably highest for people from adjoining states. Yes, in-state admissions at good flagships like UMD is also very competitive.

But, no, it’s not easier to get into Stanford than . . . well, almost anywhere. It’s about the same difficulty to get into Stanford as Harvard or Yale. Princeton. Maybe, for people from Maryland, it’s a little easier to get into Stanford than those colleges, because Maryland produces so many great students, and it’s easy for them to get to the East Coast Ivies, and so lots of them apply there. But it’s MUCH easier – easiER, not easy – to get into UVa, even from Maryland, than it is to get into Stanford.