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<p>Hunt, the Penn data speak for themselves on the size of the legacy advantage, roughly 2-to-1. And I’ve talked to a lot of admissions officers about the so-called “underrepresented state” advantage. They all say the same thing: yes, they like geographic diversity but it’s just a very small factor, not nearly as big a deal as people from “overrepresented” states think it is, so if you’re from an underrepresented state don’t expect it to be much of a boost to your application. I can show you tons more examples from the Princeton data. Here are how many kids from the “underrepresented” Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states ended up in Princeton’s Class of 2014, followed by the number from that state who submitted SAT scores to Princeton, which we can again take as an upper bound on applications:</p>
<p>Idaho 1 / 52
Kansas 0 / 98
Montana 4 / 37
Nebraska 1 / 54
Nevada 3 / 114
New Mexico 4 / 84
North Dakota 0 / 15
Oklahoma 5 / 106
South Dakota 1 / 22
Utah 1 / 90
Wyoming 1 / <5
11-state total 21 / 676 = 3.1%</p>
<p>As for “overrepresented states”:</p>
<p>Connecticut 50 / (data not available but < 751) = > 6.7%
DC 10 / 161 = 6.2%
Maryland 59 / 1,064 = 5.5%
Massachusetts 53 / (data not available but < 1,454) = > 3.6%
New Jersey 176 / 3,245 = 5.4%
New York 105 / (data not available but < 3,358) = > 3.1%
Pennsylvania 62 / 1,830 = 3.4%</p>
<p>Data are not available for some states because for each state the College Board lists only the 49 schools receiving the most SAT score reports.</p>
<p>Now obviously the data are limited in what they tell us, but the pattern is clear and unmistakable: the percentage of SAT-submitters who end up actually enrolled as freshmen at Princeton is significantly HIGHER in the “overrepresented states” than in the “underrepresented states.”</p>
<p>You are of course free to refuse to discuss this further if you like; I know it’s sometimes upsetting to have your preconceived worldview challenged. But I repeat: there’s simply no statistical evidence of a significant admissions advantage to being from an “underrepresented state.” The colleges all want at least one enrolled freshman from each state, but once they’ve made that minimal quota, state of residence appears not to matter much, if at all. And sometimes they don’t even get that one. Just ask the 98 Kansans who got as far as submitting SAT scores to Princeton, some sizable fraction of whom no doubt completed applications, none of whom walked through the gates in this fall’s entering class.</p>