<p>Not really, Tokenadult, and not necessarily. I know there may be specific programs for certain specific areas such as good neighbor programs, but for the MOST part, the elites like a diverse group, in my opinion, anyways. I have a friend who is in admissions and his job is to look for kids in the inner city where is elite LAC is located. An emphasis is on disadvantaged kids, though it seems that his catch tends to still be more well to do kids who happen to live in that area. But he does canvas city schools that are largely if not completely ignored by most colleges. He is always looking for that rare jewel in his city that can be helped by his college. It is a natural thing to do. Would be embarrassing that such a student has to go to a national program to be discovered with a top notch school within a short bus ride away in his home city who ignores him.</p>
<p>A local Catholic school here is very generous to kids who are nearby, but then more than half of their students are local. They turned down some kids from out of state and do not give nearly the aid to such kids if accepted. Yield is very important to them. If a local highschool says the kids will likely go there and gives some other info to substantiate those odds (like he only applied to 3 schools, all local), he will get a quick accept and some money to boot if he is above average in stats. Many times these colleges know the highschool counselors personally, not just during admissions discussions; they could be related, neighbors, old friends because of proximity. It makes llife easier to accept a more sure thing instead of having to redistribute these awards when given to someone far less certain. I mean why would someone from Chicago want to go to Lasalle College, for instance, unless he has some danged good reason to want to be in Philly or at that school? Especially if he is applying mainly to closer Chicago colleges for the most part. A school like Havorford, or Penn has a history of accepting Chicago students but a small Catholic college just does not get the yield from out of state applicants without some compelling reason.</p>