Geographic diversity and its impact on the student experience

[Anonymous]

Something that doesn't seem to be considered much is the degree to which a school draws most of its students from across the country, as opposed to from within its state or region. When most students are from somewhere else, it has a huge impact on the student experience. Why do you think this isn't something more students focus on when choosing a college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something that doesn't seem to be considered much is the degree to which a school draws most of its students from across the country, as opposed to from within its state or region. When most students are from somewhere else, it has a huge impact on the student experience. Why do you think this isn't something more students focus on when choosing a college?

Because most students go to the non-selective school nearest their home

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something that doesn't seem to be considered much is the degree to which a school draws most of its students from across the country, as opposed to from within its state or region. When most students are from somewhere else, it has a huge impact on the student experience. Why do you think this isn't something more students focus on when choosing a college?

Because most students go to the non-selective school nearest their home

Bingo. The competition for the tippy-toppiest of schools in this country is such a rarified pursuit, but the few involved in it never pause to consider what the truly average high school senior thinks about when applying to college. A degree is necessary for most paper-pushing jobs in this country. The public university with the intercardinal name down the road offers such degrees. Done and dusted. There is nothing wrong with this.

[Anonymous]

Boston students still love Harvard.

Where's the mystery?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something that doesn't seem to be considered much is the degree to which a school draws most of its students from across the country, as opposed to from within its state or region. When most students are from somewhere else, it has a huge impact on the student experience. Why do you think this isn't something more students focus on when choosing a college?

Because money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something that doesn't seem to be considered much is the degree to which a school draws most of its students from across the country, as opposed to from within its state or region. When most students are from somewhere else, it has a huge impact on the student experience. Why do you think this isn't something more students focus on when choosing a college?

Because most students go to the non-selective school nearest their home

And most selective schools are already geographically diverse. It's not something that works well to differentiate between colleges of the same selectivity.

[Anonymous]

And on the flip side, most students don’t recognize the impact of geographic diversity on the admissions process. They are so focused on what they can control- GPA, SAT- that they completely forget that schools want exceptional kids from places like Wyoming, South Dakota and Kentucky. Also keep in mind that for many students, going a couple hours away to their state flagship or even a regional university is often “moving to the big city” and offers far more diversity than they’ve ever been exposed to, even if it’s mostly in-state students. My husband has taught at LACs (ranked 50-100) & big universities and he often has freshman who have never traveled outside our state, been on an airplane, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something that doesn't seem to be considered much is the degree to which a school draws most of its students from across the country, as opposed to from within its state or region. When most students are from somewhere else, it has a huge impact on the student experience. Why do you think this isn't something more students focus on when choosing a college?

This is such a 1st world problem.

[Anonymous]

Socio-economic, racial, and international diversity all mean so much more than geographic diversity. Do you really think, for example, that the life experience of the 1/3 of the student body at UVA that is from out of state is all that much different that the life experience that most of the UVA in state undergrads--especially those from NOVA--bring to the school? Answer: they don't.

Another example would be Notre Dame. Great school. I think very highly of it. It's also one of the most geographically diverse colleges in the country. More so than the Ivies. More so than Stanford. Its student body is more evenly geographically spread than probably any school in the country. Yet, with all respect to the school, it's not exactly known for the "diversity" of its student body.

[Anonymous]

Lots of people consider this, OP. Agree that it is a first-world problem and that it isn't a top consideration but it is something people talked about back in my day and something my kids thought about in their own college process.

[Anonymous]

Maybe teenagers don't consider other teenagers to be demonstrably different from themselves because those teenagers live in another state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe teenagers don't consider other teenagers to be demonstrably different from themselves because those teenagers live in another state.

Yep it's the parents who don't want Larlo with Karlo from AL or somehere

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something that doesn't seem to be considered much is the degree to which a school draws most of its students from across the country, as opposed to from within its state or region. When most students are from somewhere else, it has a huge impact on the student experience. Why do you think this isn't something more students focus on when choosing a college?

This is such a 1st world problem.

And most of us are in the 1st World, so it’s a relevant problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something that doesn't seem to be considered much is the degree to which a school draws most of its students from across the country, as opposed to from within its state or region. When most students are from somewhere else, it has a huge impact on the student experience. Why do you think this isn't something more students focus on when choosing a college?

Because most students go to the non-selective school nearest their home

+1
Most kids will enjoy it and the familiarity and the price and not think twice about it.
Others will consider it "13th Grade" and will avoid it and seek more diversity. It's self-selecting.
Simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe teenagers don't consider other teenagers to be demonstrably different from themselves because those teenagers live in another state.

When I was in college regional differences were the first thing we noticed about the other people in the dorm.