<p>Even if there’s no quotas, I still believe that geography plays a role in admissions.</p>
<p>If you look at a similar student at a similar school from NJ/NY vs. Wyoming, I would be willing to bet that the the kid from Wyoming is more likely to be admitted. Its sort of like race. Universities try to create a diverse class. To do this, they often need to weigh factors like location or ethnicity in admissions to beef up the number of students admitted from groups that would otherwise be even more underrepresented. They may not like to admit to this, but it happens. Saying there are no quotas is one way of shrugging off the question.</p>
<p>It’s sort of like asking someone if they committed a crime last night and having them answer “I didn’t kill anyone!”. Well, it’s not really like that… but I think it’s a funny comparison.</p>