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Hello again.

This time, my question concerns geography. As I come from North Carolina (ranked 48th in education), does that help or hurt selective college chances? I believe that thus far I have taken advantage of all the opportunities offered to me, and will continue to do so throughout my junior and senior years. However, I realize that the quality of education I am receiving may not be as strong as similar students in states like California, New Jersey, or New York. By the way, my updated college short list is now Columbia, Swarthmore, and Emory as my top choices; Chapel-Hill, Duke, and U Rochester follow closely behind. Thanks in advance!

P.S.-My stats are listed in another post..."Need Help in Early Start" in the College Search and Selection forum.
Need help in Early Start

P.S.S.-I brought that IB French grade up to an "A", an improvement from the "B" I had in PIB French 3 the year before...does this help?

By Dadster on Wednesday, June 05, 2002 - 10:35 pm: Edit

Elite colleges recognize that not everyone can attend a big-city magnet school, but expect applicants to do what you are doing - take advantage of the most challenging curriculum offered. You won't get penalized if you have fewer AP courses than another applicant, Of course, to the extent that your standardized testing might suffer if you are less well prepared, your location could hurt a bit.

On the other hand, if there aren't many applicants from your state, that can help. NC is populous enough that I'd guess it would be a "neutral" in that respect. Not as bad as NY/NJ, but not as beneficial as South Dakota.