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Living in DC - College Admissions Advantage?
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Anonymous
| I understand that geographic diversity plays a role in college admissions (e.g., kid from North Dakota, all other things being equal, would get the nod over kid from, say, major Northeastern city). I am wondering whether living in DC provides any such advantage (as opposed to being yet another highly qualified kid from Bethesda or Potomac). |
Anonymous
| Living in DC is a disadvantage. Lots and LOTS of super-qualified applicants from top schools. DC is in fact overrepresented in the student bodies of the Ivies. |
Anonymous
It may depend on what part of DC you live in? Upper-NW is basically Bethesda cloaked in a semi-urban veneer. East of Rock Creek, NE, etc., not so much. |
Anonymous
It doesn't matter what part of DC you live in. You are still a DC resident when the college admissions committee considers the geographical diversity of the class. |
Anonymous
| From someone in the business, take it from me -- living in the DC, NYC, or Boston metro areas are all disadvantages. And if you're in Ffx or MoCo, it's a disadvantage for the respective state schools. |
Anonymous
| The only advantage would be if someone goes to Wilson or SWW. Colleges like to take kids who have to face tough environs. I know 2 kids who got into Princeton this coming year from Wilson. For any kids going to the privates -- it is really tough getting into good colleges for the reasons stated earlier in this thread. |
Anonymous
| Maybe not DC but I have heard that it may be an advantage to live nearby the college you want to attend. Eg. Berkeley, Yale, Princeton... Of course they can't take all the locals but if you are a good candidate, you might have a good shot over someone from an ultra competitive metro area like DC. |
Anonymous
| I don't know - I used to help with admissions at my small but highly ranked college, and they had a bit of trouble getting people from DC. Yes there are a lot of top kids, but they all want to go to the same schools - Harvard, Yale, etc. They usually got a couple, but yes they were always from NW. They had trouble finding a qualified student from P.G. County, which they really were concerned about. So they do look at that kind of thing. |
Anonymous
| What if you are a white kid from a Prince George's County public school? Would that be as interesting for college admission as an AA child? |
Anonymous
| They might think you're AA anyway if you're from PG pp. |