<p>I’m from Minnesota; I graduated from Prior Lake High School this spring. As far as I know, at most 2% of my graduating class left the Midwest. I attend Amherst College and I know a few Minnesotans there (and have heard of a few others), but nothing like the huge numbers from the Northeast and California. Minnesota kids like to stay close to home. The co-valedictorians of my class both went to Gustavus, even though I’m betting one of them would have been a shoo-in at Harvard, if such a person exists (she wasn’t remotely interested). I doubt that it’s a huge advantage, and being from Minnesota didn’t help me get into all of my top choices, but it may be a slight admission factor.</p>
<p>I think it really depends on where in the midwest…at my “top school” I would guess that the process was slightly more competitive for easterners and Californians. However, I don’t think adcoms are quite as merciful to midwestern applicants from privileged suburbs of large cities (esp. Chicago but also Twin Cities, Cleveland, Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinnati, etc. etc.) – in other words, midwestern kids whose upbringings don’t differ that much from those of the stereotypical east-coaster. However, a Midwestern student from a rural area or a less privileged area might get more of a bump. Idk it seems to me (in my admittedly limited experience) that colleges look more at specific environments and circumstances rather than a geographic region as one big lumpy whole!</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s really a matter of whether there’s a “lower standard” for students from the Midwest or not. I think the major issue is a cultural one.</p>
<p>I’m from Michigan- the west side, to be exact. This means that I am not in the hub of uber competition that is the Detroit suburbs. People here are really laid back and perfectly happy to go to GVSU, and if they’re smart enough, MSU or U of M or ND (I go to a Catholic high school). If I remember correctly, we typically send over a third of our graduates to community college, and over three quarters stay in state. People here expect to go off to college and then come back and live the rest of their lives here. Generations of people are born, marry, and die in the same city, going to the same parish, sending their kids to the same schools that they went to as kids.</p>
<p>It’s a Midwestern thing. What happens, though, is that kids don’t really think about going out of state for college, or even see a need to. </p>
<p>So in answer to the OP, I do not think that there are lower standards for the Midwest. I just think that the applicant pool from many “traditional” Midwestern locations is rather self-selected.</p>
<p>I agree with ducktape. I do get the sense that most midwest kids do have a desire to stay somewhat close to home. For the most part, only the cream of the crop even venture to apply to schools in regions such as the East Coast or West Coast, or the Southeast. Thus the applicants from the midwest to big schools such as the ivies or the top 50 are a self-selected group.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any clue about Colorado?
I’m so north I’m nearly in Nebraska/Wyoming but I still get lumped in with California dominated “West” statistics:[</p>
<p>Lower standards for Southwest, too, I think (excluding TX). New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona are not the most competitive states. The cutoff for Presidential Scholars in AZ last year was below 2280, compared to 2390-2400 in the northeast and CA.</p>
<p>Well, I went to a magnet school in Illinois. We had ~70 national merit finalists in the senior class–about half of the people. We also won a lot of national math, science, chess, and humanities competitions. (For example, we had the #1 performance in the country in the AMC.) Only 4 people got into Harvard and 2 got into Princeton. Meanwhile some of the eastern prep schools with lower stats were sending 20-30 people to Harvard. </p>
<p>So I wouldn’t say the standards are lower in the Midwest.</p>
<p>And like other people said, the Midwest can’t really be generalized.</p>
<p>Kansas here, only one? I go to a very small rural high school, (23 in my class). I am hoping that working on the farm will be my hook for the ivies. I have a 33 on the ACT. My school never sends any1 to great schools, except that my brother got into MIT. Most students around my area are satisfied to apply only to K-State or KU and then go there, so competitiveness really is non-existent.</p>