<p>I live in North Carolina (who’s public education is ranked 48th nationwide just ahead of south carolina and mississippi) and am worried that my application will look terrible next to somebody who was educated farther north where the schools are better. Will my place of education hurt my application even if everything else is pretty good (GPA, SAT, ECs, etc.)?</p>
<p>Don’t worry, they factor in things like this into their decisions.</p>
<p>I, myself, live in the Redneck Riviera (NW Florida, South of AL) and my ACT score of 33 Composite is virtually unheard of in my area. Don’t fret over it, and apply to safeties (if you haven’t already).</p>
<p>Besides, they pick the individual based on “personal qualities” once your scores are above a relative threshold. Good luck!</p>
<p>MIT '14 Hopeful –> 1st Choice above all things</p>
<p>Scores (incase you are curious):</p>
<p>610R/790M/740-8W - 2140
31E/36M/35R/34S - 33C
4.00UW/4.52+W</p>
<p>Make sure you have a hook if possible (music/community service/passion/uber skillz)
Mine is music 
[Piano</a> by Jordan | Home](<a href=“http://www.PianoByJordan.com%5DPiano”>http://www.PianoByJordan.com)</p>
<p>Good luck again! GO BEAVERS!</p>
<p>Thanks, I have a hook. But yeah, i’m just worried they’ll see how bad the NC schools are and assume my education must be lacking.</p>
<p><em>laugh</em> I’m from Kentucky.</p>
<p>No, it will not hurt your application. There are many, many MIT students from crappy or mediocre schools, or decent schools in states with terrible reputations for education. If anything, the fact that you did so well, in surroundings less conducive to success than many applicants had, will be a point in your favor.</p>
<p>MIT doesn’t actually want a class filled entirely with kids from elite New England prep schools, TJ, Stuy, Bronx School of Science, and whatever their West Coast equivalents are (though there are certainly some of those, too). Nor does it admit the 1500 applicants who got the furthest in high school - if it did that, there wouldn’t be so many people taking 18.01, 8.01, etc.</p>
<p>They’re not going to assume your school is bad just because it’s in NC. There are plenty of good schools in the south. They’ll evaluate you based on your particular school and those particular opportunities with which you were presented over your high school career, not on your state’s average.</p>
<p>
Just curious, but where did you get this information from?</p>
<p>Around 20-30 kids got accepted from Florida early action, me being one of them.</p>
<p>I saw that statistic somewhere (though I can’t remember where), also my APUSH teacher briefly mentioned it. Thanks for all the feedback, this has been quite helpful.</p>
<p>North Carolina counts as South? To me, the south includes Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georigia. Maybe it’s just me, since I am from south Alabama ( I am like 40 minute drive from Gulf of Mexico). It is surprising to me that you think living in North Carolina will be disadventageous. Down here is much worse, TRUST ME.</p>
<p>North Carolina seceded. It’s south of Virginia. If that’s not southern, well…</p>
<p>Anyway, MIT admissions are sensitive to your upbringing and environment. If you tell them what you did with the resources you had available, they’ll understand. Many applicants are in similar situations. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a magnet nearby.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks. By the way anything VA and south is considered the south (ever heard of the “bible belt”?) MD and DE are borders and north of there is the North.</p>
<p>You guys, the south is a perceptual region with no hard and fast definition. Though NC is usually included, no one’s 100% wrong in leaving it out.</p>
<p>True, but the emphasis is on NC’s public school rating.</p>
<p>Applicants are judged as individuals (as well as that can be done by paper information and an interview), not by where they’re from. MIT, in particular, avoids an elitist class by accepting a disproportionate number (as compared to the Ivies) of public HS kids, kids who need aid, etc.</p>
<p>It depends on where you live in the state, but I doubt going to school in North Carolina will negatively impact your chances of admission. The schools in some areas (such as Chapel Hill, where I live) are some of the best in the country, and NC test scores are pretty much the same as the national average (a little higher in math and a little lower in reading), NOT among the lowest in the nation. See [State</a> Profiles.net](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/]State”>State Profiles). </p>
<p>I know a few people from our state were admitted EA.</p>
<p>I live in guilford county, which isn’t the worst area in the state.</p>
<p>MIT is looking at the educational choices that the candidates have made. Where you happen to live is very rarely a choice that you made. Therefore it is not important and not really relevant in admissions.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks. That really settles my worries about this.</p>