Which exit?

I come from a state that some Duke students believe to be "the armpit of America."

When I tell people I'm from New Jersey, they look at me with an expression of pity on their faces. Some of them recall the putrid smell they encountered when driving through the worst parts of the state and, having nothing better to say, ask me, "Which exit are you from?" Others merely recall that it's the home state Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and former Governor McGreevey.

But there is much more to New Jersey than what can be garnered from silly anecdotes and jokes. This "banal" and "dirty" state is actually a great place to live and an even better place to get both an academic and a worldly education. It is no coincidence that the 5 percent of Duke students that come from New Jersey are such a visible group on campus.

The fact that New Jersey is actually a great place to live and grow up in may be surprising to some but will not be surprising to anyone that has actually lived in New Jersey. Kids growing up in New Jersey are surrounded by what is arguably the best learning environment of any state in the country. They live within an hour's drive of two of the biggest and most important cities in the United States-New York and Philadelphia-and are probably surrounded by successful and well-educated people.

The Garden State has the third-highest per capita income of any state in the country and two of the top-10 most desirable cities to live in according to CNNMoney. New Jersey's education system is also among the best in the country. It has the highest high school graduation rate in the country and the highest SAT participation rate of any state in the country at 85 percent (as compared to a national average of 48 percent).

Additionally, New Jersey residents utilize their education to the fullest. The Garden State was named one of the top four "smartest" states in the Education State Rankings, and Jersey students have one of the top three highest average AP scores in the country. New Jersey also exposes its youth to an enormous amount of diversity both religiously and ethnically. It has the second-highest percentage of minorities of all northern states and has large percentages of all religions and philosophical denominations.

These factors combine to create what amounts to a competitive, educational and diverse environment in New Jersey schools. More so than in any other state, students in New Jersey know that they must distinguish themselves from their peers in order to get noticed by universities. This is due to not only the great education system but also to the dearth of good universities in Jersey. The state has only one prestigious university and a mediocre state university that most ambitious students would not want to attend.

Therefore, students must apply out of state to colleges that are on average more competitive to out-of-state students. This situation makes the state the biggest net exporter of students (18,500 freshmen per year) in the country. Due to this trend, out-of-state colleges are flooded with high quality applicants from New Jersey. Since universities in this country often care as much about geographic diversity as about academic credentials, they often reject qualified students from the Garden State in favor of students from "underrepresented" states. This just heightens the efforts of competitive students from New Jersey to be noticed.