why do in-state applicants do better for PRIVATE schools?

[Mae16]

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Was just looking at admissions statistics on medschoolready.com, which show that even for private schools, in-state applicants usually have an easier time with acceptances than out-of-state applicants.

For instance, according to this web site, at Albert Einstein 23% of in state applicants are accepted versus only 9% of out of state applicants. And at Emory, 27% of in-state applicants are accepted vs 13% of out-of-state applicants.

I'm really surprised by this - why is this the case?

 

[flip26]

Was just looking at admissions statistics on medschoolready.com, which show that even for private schools, in-state applicants usually have an easier time with acceptances than out-of-state applicants.

For instance, according to this web site, at Albert Einstein 23% of in state applicants are accepted versus only 9% of out of state applicants. And at Emory, 27% of in-state applicants are accepted vs 13% of out-of-state applicants.

I'm really surprised by this - why is this the case?

Some private med schools have publicly funded programs or joint ventures, or public funding through the hospital connection, thus they favor instate applicants slightly.

Miami is like this, and I think there is some explanation for it on their website.

Perhaps some private med schools, particularly in states or regions without many public med schools, see it as part of their "mission" to support local applicants...

 

[Scottish Chap]

Was just looking at admissions statistics on medschoolready.com, which show that even for private schools, in-state applicants usually have an easier time with acceptances than out-of-state applicants.

For instance, according to this web site, at Albert Einstein 23% of in state applicants are accepted versus only 9% of out of state applicants. And at Emory, 27% of in-state applicants are accepted vs 13% of out-of-state applicants.

I'm really surprised by this - why is this the case?

This does not surprise me at all. Statistically, an average applicant is more likely to gain admission to a private medical school than a generic state medical school. Private schools can accept whomever they want. State school are mandated to pick applicants who are 'low risk' for failing out of medical school, and wasting state money - more emphasis on numerical data for screening in the latter.

 

[student1799]

Was just looking at admissions statistics on medschoolready.com, which show that even for private schools, in-state applicants usually have an easier time with acceptances than out-of-state applicants.

For instance, according to this web site, at Albert Einstein 23% of in state applicants are accepted versus only 9% of out of state applicants. And at Emory, 27% of in-state applicants are accepted vs 13% of out-of-state applicants.

I'm really surprised by this - why is this the case?

First of all, you have to be careful about which numbers you're looking at. The stats you quote aren't acceptance rates for ALL applicants (wish they were!), but acceptances for applicants who are INTERVIEWED. The "raw" acceptance rates for Einstein are 6.6% in-state, 1.8% OOS.

And even then, you have to realize that these numbers aren't actually acceptance rates--they're MATRICULATION rates (i.e. the # of students who actually end up attending the school, as a % of all who applied). Because there are always a certain number of people who have multiple acceptances and have to turn some down, matriculation rates are always lower than acceptance rates. I have a feeling that even for private schools, the % of accepted students who matriculate is going to be lower for out-of-state students, because 1) in-staters have a natural preference for their home state; 2) out-of-staters may have an offer from their state med school with lower tuition than the private school. So it may look like in-staters are vastly favored in admissions, when the real story may be that they get some (not huge) preference, but also matriculate at higher rates.

There's one more factor that leads to higher in-state acceptance rates: demographics. Since the largest state (CA) has only about 10% of the US population, and most states are a lot smaller, at any private school you would expect OOS students to make up 90% or so of the applicant pool. But most schools would want in-staters to be a bit more than 10% of the students, in order to retain some connection to the place they're located in. So they have to favor in-staters a bit to shift the balance to 15-20% in-staters (which is typical at private schools that attract a national applicant pool). Even so, as you can see, a large majority of students at these schools are going to be from out of state.

 

[ShyRem]

Look at who applies where. Most folks don't want to move too far from home, so they'll apply to every school in their state. So often private schools will have a high proportion of their applicants in-state, and thus a high proportion of their students from in-state.