<p>Okay. Here it goes. I'm genuinely curious about this, so don't laugh at me. It's kind of a fun story, really....</p>
<p>Three weeks ago, I give my guidance counselor the school report portion of the Common App. He asks me where I'm applying. I tell him, "Dartmouth Early Decision." He said that in his thirty years as a guidance counselor for my school, NO ONE had EVER applied to Dartmouth, ED or RD. Now, most of the kids at my school go to KU, K-State, the JuCo, Mizzou, etc. We have maybe four or five people a year that go to an Ivy League or equivalent school, even on the level of Wash U/Northwestern/Georgetown/Rice/Emory. Most of them get the "big fish, little pond" syndrome, apply to HYPS, get rejected, and end up at KU. </p>
<p>I know that some top colleges may have a sort of "history" with certain schools, namely private schools and top publics. Does the fact that I'm apparently an anomaly at my school (or, namely, the fact that Dartmouth has most likely not dealt with my school in a loooong time) hurt my chances in any way, especially when I'm stacked against prep school kids, whose schools have had perennial contact with these adcoms?</p>
<p>Second question. I'm from Kansas. Feel free to spurt out any Oz jokes, I've heard them all. I live in eastern Kansas, so it's not as bad as it is out West. I know most applicants are probably from California, New England, or some major Midwestern city. I also know that schools like saying that they have students from "all 50 states." Will being a chick from Kansas applying ED have any weight whatsoever here? I'm confident that my scores and ECs and recs would be strong no matter where I was from, but does being a Sunflower State resident, a place where getting out of the state means going to Iowa U, mean anything? Surely it must stand out in a sea of CA/NJ/NY/MA. Or maybe not.</p>
<p>Told you they were bizarre and possibly dumb questions. :-D</p>