All of the boarding schools promote that they host a high number of international students, and from many countries.
When a schools claims 37, 46, 54 or how ever many counties, does that mean current enrollment (less believable) or is it over a longer length of time (more believable)?
Current enrollment when I’ve looked at it. Which is not to say that there aren’t examples listing I er a great period of time.
From this, could one conclude that admission from some places is more competitive than the listed rate of acceptance? And less so from countries who send fewer kids?
How much does geography factor in? Or is it not really that impactful relative to the application as a whole?
I think you can make no such conclusions. While it varies by school, you will generally see that the largest number of applications come from India, Korea, China, UK, Canada.
Geographic diversity is less important than some hope. A less qualified applicant from Laos won’t be accepted over an incredible applicant from Thailand even if the school already has a Thai student.
This makes sense, and we will keep it in mind. Thanks for your perspective.
I am impressed by some of the parents in far flung locations placing such faith in the schools. Working on my own courage. When the kid wants it more than the parents, we need to dig deep.
The kid absolutely should want it more than the parents. You’re the facilitator, the font of encouragement, the check writer, and a few other things. But it’s the kid’s journey
He reminds me of this very single day 
Our school has that many countries represented now (and 6 continents!) This was a huge draw for our family as we were living in a very homogeneous area. (And DS has crashed on friends’ sofas in some far-flung corners of the world since then.)
Selectivity varies by a million things, and country is indeed one. But it’s also gender, how much FA is needed, boarding vs day, etc. It’s one of the reasons that single % admitted can be so misleading. But @skieurope is right (as usual) that a weak candidate doesn’t become string by virtue of coming from an underrepresented country.
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