I know some in this loose category - some have parents with deep NE roots with legacy at schools often discussed here, but the families grew up in ski/resort towns in ID/MT/WY. Others relocated in the time frame OP referred to (6-12). And in that case, nearly all those folks had connections/houses to these areas prior to COVID, but were not living there year round. A few moved there permanently as they had kids, mainly boys, who were not doing well in remote learning.

Some of these folks have gotten into their parents' alma maters or peer schools. Others did not. Geography probably helpful for those admitted, but clearly wasn't the secret sauce for all of them.

Anonymous wrote:I live in mountain west - former east coaster. Moved at the very start of covid, unrelated to covid, for my husband job. I am a teacher at a school that is 30% native American and about 20% Hispanic, the rest is mostly lower-class/middle-class white kids and then maybe 15% are the children of the doctors, professors, executives at a company that is located here, etc. The graduating class is like 250 students, of the students who go to a 4 year college, almost everyone is going to an in-state school or a WUE (western college tuition exchange program) school in a neighboring state. less than 5-10% of students would fall out of this category and they most end up at California state schools, which are very hard to get into, and a few end up at smaller liberal arts colleges. A few kids in the past few years have gone to colleges that are elite - Grinell, USC and Pomona are really popular - and I think there has been ONE kid who went to an ivy. Most kids arent competing for the same school as the elite DMV school kids. I will say, anecdotally, the kids who ended up at the stronger colleges were definitely not as strong as the DMV students I taught, they still get great scores and 5s on APs and have leadership/sports but no one is doing like national science award level work, starting non-profits, or all the other things the privileged DMV students do. Also, travel sports don't really exist here and most kids have jobs.

💯

So how normal kids from the 80s and 90s were back east that got into t20s

But the above is also why mountain west kids do not want to come out east unless it is for grad school or serious money that will help them build their homestead back west

There is a reason why the mountain west has the worst cost of living to local wage ratio. It is extremely desireble to live in and people loathe to leave

Anonymous wrote:^^ I don't know how any of that is relevant.

Resort town or not. Better weather or not.

Schools can tell who is coming from Bozeman. I think OP is asking do those kids get the geo hook and the answer is yes.

Colleges are 100% fine with their Montana spots going to kids from Bozeman who live in nice houses and travel as widely as any other kid of a millionaire. .

You are out of touch with how college admissions work these days.

I live in mountain west - former east coaster. Moved at the very start of covid, unrelated to covid, for my husband job. I am a teacher at a school that is 30% native American and about 20% Hispanic, the rest is mostly lower-class/middle-class white kids and then maybe 15% are the children of the doctors, professors, executives at a company that is located here, etc. The graduating class is like 250 students, of the students who go to a 4 year college, almost everyone is going to an in-state school or a WUE (western college tuition exchange program) school in a neighboring state. less than 5-10% of students would fall out of this category and they most end up at California state schools, which are very hard to get into, and a few end up at smaller liberal arts colleges. A few kids in the past few years have gone to colleges that are elite - Grinell, USC and Pomona are really popular - and I think there has been ONE kid who went to an ivy. Most kids arent competing for the same school as the elite DMV school kids. I will say, anecdotally, the kids who ended up at the stronger colleges were definitely not as strong as the DMV students I taught, they still get great scores and 5s on APs and have leadership/sports but no one is doing like national science award level work, starting non-profits, or all the other things the privileged DMV students do. Also, travel sports don't really exist here and most kids have jobs.

Anonymous wrote:^^ I don't know how any of that is relevant.

Resort town or not. Better weather or not.

Schools can tell who is coming from Bozeman. I think OP is asking do those kids get the geo hook and the answer is yes.

Colleges are 100% fine with their Montana spots going to kids from Bozeman who live in nice houses and travel as widely as any other kid of a millionaire. .

the point is this is really a Montana question and not a broader intermountain west question

And within Montana, the numbers also are minuscule because many transplants moved without kids

Op really is speaking out her ass without thinking or looking up data

^^ I don't know how any of that is relevant.

Resort town or not. Better weather or not.

Schools can tell who is coming from Bozeman. I think OP is asking do those kids get the geo hook and the answer is yes.

Colleges are 100% fine with their Montana spots going to kids from Bozeman who live in nice houses and travel as widely as any other kid of a millionaire. .

Anonymous wrote:During covid, when it became apparent that remote was not a blimp, a big chunk of our well paid staff moved to Wyoming, Montana, etc. The first 10 minutes of many zooms started with how shitty houses in Bozeman were going for 1+ mm. A year later it was talking about how the house they bought a year ago was now worth 2mm

Are colleges really dying for these who lived in the SV or Bay Area from ages 0-12 and then moved to Boise, Bend, or Bozeman? or Coeur D'Alene, Ft Collins, or Provo?

Hmm I don’t think Wyoming really got many transplants because -

1. Jackson was already super expensive pre covid.

2. The weather in Wyoming is harsher than Montana and Idaho

3. Census data shows that Wyoming didn’t get a big jump like Idaho and Montana

the big bumps were Montana, Idaho, and Utah

- Boise isn’t really a resort town. Applications will track pop growth. It has a university, state capital and micron so you already have educated parents there that leads to academic kids

- as for Montana , schools can tell the diffenxe between applicants from Bozeman, Missoula, butte, billings, Helena, miles city, kalispell etc

-Utah kids don’t really want to come east for school

Anonymous wrote:I live in a ski town out west, and smart kids in the public high school do well in college admissions here. I am curious to know how much of it is about geographic diversity versus they've just done well in school and sometimes sports. Many of them come from Uber Wealth and have all the tutors, private coaches, consultants, etc.

Hmm park city high isn’t really sending hordes of kids to Stanford or the Ivies

What do you mean by “doing well” in admissions?

Anonymous wrote:Colleges are focused more on economic diversity than geographic. Moving to a wealthy resort area isn’t much of a boast.

I dont think that's true when it comes to these states. They care about it as a whole, but an Idaho kid checks the box.

I live in a ski town out west, and smart kids in the public high school do well in college admissions here. I am curious to know how much of it is about geographic diversity versus they've just done well in school and sometimes sports. Many of them come from Uber Wealth and have all the tutors, private coaches, consultants, etc.

Colleges are focused more on economic diversity than geographic. Moving to a wealthy resort area isn’t much of a boast.

I get it. Getting a google engineer's son who has lived in Bozeman for a few years is not what AOs usually mean when they talk about wanting more applicants from Wyoming. They want the cultural diversity that comes from geo diversity. They were thinking they'd get something different .. cowboys or First Nation or rural. Not another kid who is wearing a $350 sweatshirt.

But .. this hurts poor kids in Wyoming, not your kid.

Your question is not well articulated. What are you really driving at?

What's wrong with kids who moved from SV to Bozeman?

Colleges want diversity, including geo diversity. Why would they care where you lived from 0 to 12? They wouldn't even know.

During covid, when it became apparent that remote was not a blimp, a big chunk of our well paid staff moved to Wyoming, Montana, etc. The first 10 minutes of many zooms started with how shitty houses in Bozeman were going for 1+ mm. A year later it was talking about how the house they bought a year ago was now worth 2mm

Are colleges really dying for these who lived in the SV or Bay Area from ages 0-12 and then moved to Boise, Bend, or Bozeman? or Coeur D'Alene, Ft Collins, or Provo?