22. The Geographic Hook

Many excellent colleges have trouble enrolling more than a dozen students from states more than 300 to 400 miles away, and will take notice if you’re from outside their traditional range.

—Howard and Matthew Greene, independent college consultants

The dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid at the University of Rochester decided last summer to analyze what admission factors had influenced his school’s scholarship decisions.

Among his discoveries was this: Freshmen living outside New York state received an extra $2,000-a-year scholarship. Jonathan Burdick, the admission director, didn’t check, but he suspects that the farther the freshmen lived from New York state, the richer the award. During a conversation I had with Burdick, he told me that he was particularly thrilled with the university’s three freshmen from New Mexico.