My friend actually moved to the Midwest for college admissions purposes

[Anonymous]

OP here, and no I don't think I am jealous! I love the east coast and my family is here (as is my friend's family)...a college admissions edge is not worth the move from my perspective. Just thought it would be interesting to note how geographic diversity can be gamed, and is being gamed, like the rest of the system. And I don't think it's going to hurt my friend's kids that other high-achievers at the school don't apply to the ivy league. Provided that parents can get the kids noticed (and my friend knows just how to do this, as an ivy grad herself), admissions officers love to "discover" great candidates off the beaten track. Of course, these kids are planted there on purpose!

[Anonymous]

Yes! I wish we could have done that.

[Anonymous]

So, then why did you post? Seems like you already had the answers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine it helps with Ivys. I'm from suburban MN and had lots of very smart kids in my class, but the big destinations were one person to Georgetown and one person to Perdue and most everyone else stayed within 3 hour drive.

I agree with this. I went to a suburban Minneapolis HS and have a lot of college friends still there with kids now in HS/college. Most people don't stray far for college. Only a handful go outside the Midwest

[Anonymous]

A suburb of Minneapolis probably won’t help much. North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi would be a hook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, and no I don't think I am jealous! I love the east coast and my family is here (as is my friend's family)...a college admissions edge is not worth the move from my perspective. Just thought it would be interesting to note how geographic diversity can be gamed, and is being gamed, like the rest of the system. And I don't think it's going to hurt my friend's kids that other high-achievers at the school don't apply to the ivy league. Provided that parents can get the kids noticed (and my friend knows just how to do this, as an ivy grad herself), admissions officers love to "discover" great candidates off the beaten track. Of course, these kids are planted there on purpose!

Off the beaten track these days means kids from rural poor areas or kids in shitty urban schools. Not wealthy midwestern suburbs.

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure how helpful that will be especially being in the suburbs of a city. It would be more helpful to be rural. Schools do like geographic diversity so South Dakota, North Dakota, Arkansas… etc would probably be good. But it seems silly to uproot your children and their lives for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure how helpful that will be especially being in the suburbs of a city. It would be more helpful to be rural. Schools do like geographic diversity so South Dakota, North Dakota, Arkansas… etc would probably be good. But it seems silly to uproot your children and their lives for this.

I agree with this. You can't pretend to have been raised on a cattle farm if you haven't been.

[Anonymous]

Might help a little but a high school like Edina is basically a W/Langley/New Trier school in another state. Nebraska or Iowa or Wyoming would have been better for geographic diversity. But Edina will get you prepared and the kids do well.

[Anonymous]

Seems extreme

[Anonymous]

That’s nuts if it’s done for college admissions purposes. First, why upend your entire family to slightly increase your odds of a particular subset of schools. But second, it isn’t gonna work. A suburb of the Twin Cities isn’t getting an admissions plus at an ivy. The Dakotas, Idaho, Oklahoma - maybe. Not suburban Minnesota. That’s a highly educated region.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think she'll find that in Minneapolis, like the rest of the country, they worry a lot less about college and focus more time enjoying a full life. and THAT is good for college admissions.

these DMV kids all look the same!!

Op here : this is absolutely the case and something she often mentions. The dream for the other smart kids at this high school is to go to St Olaf and maybe Carleton. Their families wouldn’t want even their kids to go farther than Wisconsin — the northeast is simply not on their radar, though these are comfortable professional families. But my friend’s kid is focused on the east coast ivies.

Carleton is excellent, far better than many favorite schools on here.

[Anonymous]

They'd have to move to s apecifuc state like Wyoming or Alaska to get a bump.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That’s nuts if it’s done for college admissions purposes. First, why upend your entire family to slightly increase your odds of a particular subset of schools. But second, it isn’t gonna work. A suburb of the Twin Cities isn’t getting an admissions plus at an ivy. The Dakotas, Idaho, Oklahoma - maybe. Not suburban Minnesota. That’s a highly educated region.

This. Minneapolis is an incredibly large, cosmopolitan city. I’m from the midwest and this strategy just makes me laugh. If you’re going to try it, figure out if there’s a state that they have very few applicants from and move there. South Dakota? Definitely not going to be Minnesota!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s nuts if it’s done for college admissions purposes. First, why upend your entire family to slightly increase your odds of a particular subset of schools. But second, it isn’t gonna work. A suburb of the Twin Cities isn’t getting an admissions plus at an ivy. The Dakotas, Idaho, Oklahoma - maybe. Not suburban Minnesota. That’s a highly educated region.

This. Minneapolis is an incredibly large, cosmopolitan city. I’m from the midwest and this strategy just makes me laugh. If you’re going to try it, figure out if there’s a state that they have very few applicants from and move there. South Dakota? Definitely not going to be Minnesota!

Don’t you have to look and see what the MN high school’s college exmissions looks like?

If most of their kids are going to Big Ten /local SLACS schools, and only a handful are stretching for something like an Ivy or top 10; and your kid is obv competitive academically; then, the kid might have a much better shot of getting into a top 10 from that school then from a local private…… just based on where the kid might fall in the class.

High school is extremely important. It’s also important to know who you are competing with / understanding the cohort.

Does the school have an IG page?