It should come as no surprise that factors such as grades, test scores, activities, and recommendations are considered in the college admissions process. Believe it or not, students’ addresses sometimes are considered as well. In other words, where you live can either help or hurt your chances of admission at certain colleges. In general, colleges want to admit and enroll students from diverse backgrounds.
Geography can play a role
When most people think of diversity, they think of characteristics like race/ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic status. But in college admissions, geographic diversity is important, too.
Colleges like to be able to say that they attract students from far afield. This makes them look better–like they are more “in demand” and attractive to a wide variety of students. So they strive to admit students from all 50 states and a smattering of US territories. Guam! Samoa! US Virgin Islands!
Plus international enrollments are also sought after, and with well over 200 countries in the world, colleges want to have as broad a representation as possible.
Admissions economics: supply vs demand
Some states have more people in them. Some states have lots of students who are applying to college. For example, New Jersey has over nine million people. Many parents are knowledge workers with advanced educations, and they cluster around New York City. The average wealth of these folks is relatively high, and many youngsters are college-bound.
Wyoming, on the other hand, has just over half a million people. The largest city, Casper, has only about 60,000 people. It is a rural state, and those who are college bound are overwhelmingly headed for the University of Wyoming in Laramie.
So it stands to reason that a selective college in the Northeast, like perhaps Princeton or Amherst, will have a high number of applicants from New Jersey and a very low number from Wyoming. Because colleges want to be sure that Wyoming is represented on campus (“We have students from all 50 states!), qualified applicants from Wyoming will have a better chance of admission than an equally qualified applicant from New Jersey (or Massachusetts or New York City).
Sometimes parents will call me and say they are considering moving in order to give their kids a better shot at admission. I tell them to move to a ranch in Montana or to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi or to Fargo, North Dakota. They just laugh. But the fact is, if they really want to increase their kids’ chances of admission, they could significantly increase the odds by moving to Wyoming.
However, the weight given to students’ addresses appears to go beyond the logical at some schools. A while back, an article in the Chicago Tribune (behind a pay wall…sorry!) compared the percentage of Illinois students at Ivy League colleges to the percentage of students from other states. According to the article, students from Illinois comprise 1.7 to 4.4 percent of freshman classes at Ivy League schools.
In contrast, New York students make up 11 to 30 percent of the Ivy League’s freshman classes. And students from California account for 9 to 14 percent. Of course, New York and California both have very large populations. But Illinois has the fifth-largest school population in the U.S. Interestingly, students from Connecticut, which is tiny in comparison, account for 2.5 to 6.5 percent of the Ivies’ freshman classes.
Local geography also plays a role
Even within states, where you live can affect your chances of admission. Let’s return to our examples of New Jersey and Wyoming. While there are many kids who apply to selective colleges from New Jersey, there are some communities that are under-represented on elite college campuses. These include heavily urban and poorer communities in Jersey City or parts of Trenton. They also include rural counties, like Cumberland country, where the average median household income is much lower than in the wealthier counties nearer to New York City.
Even in Wyoming, there are differences. Jackson Hole is a very wealthy community in the northwestern part of the state, and there are more kids aiming for top universities from Jackson Hole than from Casper. But even with in Casper, kids from Natrona High School (where former Vice President Dick Cheney attended) are more likely to apply to Ivy League schools than those from Roosevelt High School, which is in the same school district.
I would hasten to add, however, that as a study authored by Raj Chetty and colleagues at Harvard has shown, wealth is overwhelmingly the number one predictive factor in admission–much more important than geography. Private, elite colleges accept rich applicants at higher rates than they do poorer applicants. So despite the geographical advantage kids at Roosevelt High School in Casper may have, these same kids lack the financial advantage of kids in Jackson Hole. And wealth generally trumps geography.
Your country of origin: does where you live affect your chances of being accepted to college?
The same principles of geography preferences that operate within the United States also operate internationally. Some countries have loads and loads of applicants to US universities. According to the Institute of International Education, the top three sending countries to American universities are China, India, and South Korea.
Other countries, such as Paraguay, Niger, or Laos, send relatively few students to American universities. With Chinese students accounting for over 30% of all international students in the US, the competition for entry to top universities for students from China is enormous. And while South Korea sends relatively fewer students, the population of South Korea is a fraction of China’s–which means that South Korean students face incredible competition to enter top US universities.
However, with the small numbers of students from many Angola or Guyana applying to American universities, these students will have a geographical advantage in the process.
However, as with American students, wealth plays an enormous role for international students. The overwhelming majority of US universities do not provide any sort of financial aid to International students. In some cases, American universities actually tack on an “international student surcharge” for students from other countries. So if you’re poor–regardless of national origin–your chances of being admitted to a selective American university are infinitesimally small. It can happen that a poor kid from Malawi can get accepted with a full ride to an Ivy League school, but that poor kid had better be the subject of motion picture.
How can you your address increase your chances of being accepted to college?
As you’re researching schools, look for data on what percent of students are from different states. You should be able to find this on colleges’ websites. If the percentage of students from your state is low, your chances of admission are likely to be greater. While you shouldn’t use this information as the sole determinant in deciding whether to apply to a particular college (remember–family wealth is a more predictive measure), but it can be helpful in assessing how likely it is that you’ll be admitted.
Do you need help in overcoming your geographical disadvantage?
Possibly. Private college counselors at Great College Advice tend to work with a lot of students in states (and cities and countries) from which the competition to enter the most selective schools is most keen.
However, we also work with students from places that would seem more geographically advantaged in the process, like Wyoming, Alaska, or Alabama, as they strive to enter selective universities.
Where you live does affect your chances of admission. But there are so many other factors that are also important. Geography is not determinant. It can be a plus for some and a minus for others. But selective colleges and universities want more than your zip code. They want students who are curious, motivated, and courageous.
If you need help in becoming the sort of student who can be admitted to top univerities–regardless of where you come from–give us a call or contact us via our website. We’d be delighted to talk to you.
