Geographic Diversity?

Charger78
Fri, 04 Jul 2014 12:55:13 +0000

To my mind, it varies by school. Think states that are not well represented in the target school’s current distribution, i.e., are outside of its bulk sending region, whether that be Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, West Coast, etc. Groton and Andover probably would like to have another kid from West Virginia, and certainly from Montana. The candidate has to be qualified, of course, and if the term is operative, the point is that they might choose that kid over yet another one from Massachusetts (or New York or Connecticut) with roughly the same qualifications. Reasoning is that the top ten or so schools, which are less tuition-driven and can turn away many more applicants than most, also have national aspirations for their geographic draw; they want to have 25-30, or more, states represented in the student body. Hence, coming from Alabama or Iowa might help. Remember, “might” means that the gatekeepers have already let the candidate through the door into the maybe pool of applicants due to grades, SSATs, ECs, hooks, etc. After that, financial aid need might offset the geographic diversity plus, or it may not.

Students can potentially be on the wrong side of geographic diversity, as already indicated. Among the most selective schools, if the school takes day students from a densely populated area, that will raise their application count quite a bit and could make it more difficult to get in, as a day student or boarder, from the home state. I think this is true particularly if FA is needed for a day student, and if the boarding applicant is unhooked. Again, schools like Groton, Andover and Lawrenceville come to mind. Maybe this applies to Exeter, Choate and Deerfield as well.

I’m not an admissions officer, so take the above with a grain of salt. While Mississippi, etc., might be helpful on the diversity front for many selective schools, lots of states are potentially “helpful” but you would best figure that out by looking at the state distribution stats and what the school says it values among its student body.