What Gets You "Flagged" in a Huge Pool?

[Mt Kilimanjaro]

---

Members do not see this ad.

An admissions counselor at a school in the state where I was born (but do not live now) mentioned to me that being born in that state would "flag" me for further consideration.
I assume this is common at state schools, but what about private schools that get huge numbers of applications.

Do they "flag" people from the area, their own alumni or people with activities from the area/school?

 

[sinombre]

I think it depends. Some private schools definitely have a preference for applicants in the general area (Loyola comes to mind).

 

[cerno]

Having immediate family members who are faculty comes to mind.

 

[inycepoo]

Ivies are ****** for the NE. West coast comes at a close second. They're also ****** for their own feeders. No one believes it because there's not enough public data to generalize, but figures from my own institution and 2 others (together representing HYP) show this.15-20% consistently annually since 2000.