Is regional diversity a factor in the highly selective college admissions process? You bet. Our nation’s elite colleges aim to admit students from all 50 states and as many countries worldwide as possible. You see, when an elite school publishes a press release about its Early Action/Decision admits to the Class of 2028 and touts admitting students from 47 of the 50 states as Dartmouth did for the 2023 Early Decision round (most top schools fail to go 50/50 in the Early round), that’s a failure. It’s a failure because the school didn’t attract capable students from 3 of the 50 states in our union.

So, it was with great surprise that we read an editorial a few years back in Times Higher Education that criticized the consideration of geographic diversity in the college admissions process. Really? What are we going to criticize next: oranges?

Writer Argues Geographic Diversity Policies Are Discriminatory

As Kate Eichhorn wrote in a piece for THE on how schools allegedly discriminate against applicants from big cities, “Regional diversity is one factor among many that is used to determine which students gain admittance to private colleges in the US. It is an admirable idea. In theory, such policies are designed to bring together, in each incoming class, students from diverse urban communities and rural outposts across the nation. In reality, however, the policies rarely, if ever, result in national institutions, and do little to promote diversity.”

This Idea Devalues Students from Underrepresented Places

Oh? Ms. Eichhorn, you don’t believe that the high-achieving children of farmers in Nebraska who yearn to attend an Ivy League school, as an example, add to the rich diversity of an elite university’s campus? Shame on you! These students — an underserved population by our nation’s elite universities — are deserving of the finest education, just as are students from over-represented states in college admissions, including New York, New Jersey, Texas, and California.

Ms. Eichhorn, it seems you’re making the same mistake that Secretary Clinton made in the 2016 election by overlooking the importance of all the states in our union — especially the ones in the middle. And why? Because you believe our nation’s most bustling cities aren’t well-represented in the student bodies of our nation’s elite colleges

As you write, “Decades later, regional diversity continues to shape US college admissions. While the impacted populations have changed over time (in 2020, Chinese American students, who now make up the majority of students at specialised high schools in New York City, are most likely to be impacted), the result is more or less the same. Elite universities are still able to pit high-achieving minorities in densely populated urban areas against each other for a limited number of seats.”

Shame on the Writer to Blame Asian American Discrimination in Admissions on Geographic Diversity

Ms. Eichhorn, your writing contains giant leaps of logic. You’ve essentially concluded that highly selective colleges discriminate against Asian American applicants from specialized high schools in New York City by admitting a student from Oklahoma.

Are you aware how many Asian American applicants from, say, Stuyvesant High School in New York City — a specialized high school — earn admission to Ivy League schools annually? Are you familiar with how many students from the entire great state of Oklahoma earn admission to Ivy League schools every year? Would you be surprised to learn there are more students admitted from this single high school than from entire states in our union?

We at Ivy Coach have been leading the charge against Asian American discrimination in college admissions for decades. There is no doubt that Asian Americans face unjust discrimination in the elite college admissions process. But don’t blame the discrimination against Asian Americans on Oklahomans.

Legacies from — you guessed it — New York City take up more slots in incoming classes than Oklahomans. So, too, do athletic recruits from — you guessed it — New York City. Why are you not targeting these groups and instead targeting students from underrepresented states, Ms. Eichhorn?

You’ve tried to argue that students in major cities, and particularly underrepresented minority applicants, face discrimination because of the importance of geographic diversity in admissions. But in so doing, you’ve discriminated against students from underrepresented states, including deserving young people in states like Nebraska and Oklahoma who — like New Yorkers — have every right to an Ivy League education.

Ivy Coach’s Assistance with Students from Underrepresented States

Over the 30+ years we’ve been helping students earn admission to the colleges of their dreams, Ivy Coach has worked with students from all 50 states.

If you live in an underrepresented state and your child hopes to earn admission to one of America’s top universities, fill out Ivy Coach’s complimentary consultation form. We’ll then be in touch to outline our go-forward college counseling service.