<p>Do more applicants get deferred or rejected SCEA at Yale?</p>
<p>Does Yale recalculate in any way or take the weight out of your GPA or do they just look at the weighted GPA on your transcript?</p>
<p>Any answers/suggestions are appreciated!</p>
<p>More applicants get deferred than rejected. Yale used to reject a substantial portion of EA pool, perhap 30-35%, but last year they didn't reject as many. I expect this year to be the same with fewer rejections than in the past.</p>
<p>I don't know if they recalculate GPA, but the certainly contextualize it. They know that all 4.0s aren't created equal.</p>
<p>I don't know if Yale recalculates - some schools don't bother, just look at your grades in the subjects they care about, but none that I am aware of actually use the GPA your school submits except for in-school comparisons, and even there, they take into account whether grades are weighted or unweighted and how much. This is because schools weight honors and AP courses differently from each other, and in addition, most selective colleges only look at your 'solids' when computing GPA, and leave out a lot of non-solid electives. Solids are english, foreign language, history, science and math, roughly speaking, while band, journalism, psychology etc are not considered core academic subjects and not included in the GPA recalculation.</p>
<p>This is a general statement - I don't know the specifics of what Yale does.</p>
<p>Does anyone know how Yale views IB classes, specifically 6th subjects. So far this year (and last year) I'm running A's in all of my classes except for my 6th subject which is photography (I have a B..) Will Yale, or colleges in general, look at my photography class with equal weight because it is an IB course, or will they leave it out because it is a "non-solid elective."</p>
<p>At the info session we attended, the ad officer specifically said in response to a question that Yale does NOT recalculate GPA, instead accepting whatever methodology the high school chooses to use.</p>
<p>How that affects kids whose high schools do not weight grades I do not know.</p>
<p>^
I can't imagine it affects them at all - it almost certainly just means that Yale only looks at the subjects it cares about and doesnt consider GPA except to understand how a student did within the context of that specific school. That methodology is pretty common amongst the top schools.</p>
<p>Else schools that weight APs at 6 (some do) would be wildly more successful in getting students into Yale (and elsewhere) than schools that weight them at 4.3 (some do that!)....and we know that's not the case :)</p>
<p>In considering the rigor of my courseload, will they also consider the rigor of my school in general? I do have a few B's, but at my school there are many subjects/classes where it is quite uncommon to get an "A", whereas at my friend's school, an "A" is sort of what people generally get for completing all the work that is done and you have to have done something particularly poorly to get a "B".</p>
<p>cj, presumably that would show in your class rank, which would be more solid than that of a person with the same GPA at your friend's school. Of course, you could also be attending a school that doesn't rank, like ours!</p>
<p>I know it's hard to figure out how they will look at these things. My S has a friend, for example, who has also applied SCEA and has a higher GPA, but who has not taken as difficult a course load (although his course load is still rigorous). Really, it's anybody's guess how they will look at these things.</p>
<p>I've also read that kids are screened regionally, and only the top candidates are presented to the full committee. But I don't know if that's true, either. </p>
<p>Really, I have the sense that if you meet a certain level of qualification, it's a lottery beyond that point. Unless, of course, you are a member of the Bush family, or an URM who has been lucky enough to attend a ritzy private school that will package you appropriately.....</p>
<p>[I've also read that kids are screened regionally, and only the top candidates are presented to the full committee. But I don't know if that's true, either]</p>
<p>Yes, that's true, direct quote in a recent book from the Yale admissions dean, who said they rely on the regional officer to only bring forward the strong candidates.</p>
<p>On how they read - that's why they read regionally, and each school is expected to send in a school profile, which lists the honors/advanced/AP courses, and even if the school doesn't rank, the profile will often give an indication of the gpa distribution, so the admissions officers can get a general sense of how the student fits in the context of the school. </p>
<p>Overall, though, Consolation has a good point - beyond a certain level of winnowing, admisisons is art, not science - which means subjective and unpredictable and unrepeatable.</p>
<p>Ailey--You've mentioned that book a few times. What's the title? I'd like to read it.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the replies. I am not a valedictorian/salutarian, URM, or a Bush (obviously!) and I don't have through-the-roof stats nor have I found the cure for cancer or AIDS or everything else that so many people on here seem to have done, but I figured I would apply anyway because Yale is my dream school and I fall in love with it every single time I visit the campus. I figured I couldn't lose anything from applying. Anyway, I applied early to Yale, which is why most of my questions are on this forum, but I figured a lot of what I learn here can be applied to other schools, too, so thanks for all of the help.</p>
<p>I wonder if the fact that my son is not the only kid from his school to apply will hurt his chances, since his school is a mere public high school, not Exeter or Andover, Groton or St. Mark's. Will his friend's higher GPA make him the automatic "winner" from their school, despite my son's more challenging course load throughout school and higher test scores? Would they ever--gasp!--consider taking BOTH of them, since both are in fact unusual kids? It's hard not to resent someone who is a potential spoiler.</p>
<p>I find myself becoming extremely cynical about all the protestations of the admissions people. Especially when you know they fall over themselves to take any member of the Bush family who can walk and chew gum at the same time, and who doesn't have TOO many substance abuse convictions already. Not to mention the celebrities, and the URMs who went to fancy private schools and aren't even faintly underprivileged. It all becomes more and more dispiriting.</p>
<p>have faith</p>
<p>"have faith"</p>
<p>In what, and why?</p>
<p>That if he gets in to Yale, wonderful. If not, he will get into a school that is ALSO wonderful. Life is attitude. My D and her best friend both applied EA to Yale. They go to a public high school in an underrepresented state. Logic would say they are crazy, but they both fell in love with Y independently and decided it was best to just forge ahead. Who knows if one, both or neither will get in, but I admire their guts for going for it. And your son's too.</p>
<p>admissions addict, the name of the book is How to get into the top Colleges by Richard Montauk. At the end of each section on a topic, they have quotes from admissions officers from multiple schools to provide the different schools' perspectives on that specific topic. Yale, Stanford, Harvard, MIT, UPenn etc are all quite heavily quoted, as are a bunch of the liberal arts colleges (Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Vassar) etc. They don't cite every college for every topic, but have a good sample. Dfferent colleges have different views on some topics, which is why I found it interesting and informative.</p>
<p>(Background - I am an immigrant from India, who came here for my graduate degree, and the undergraduate college admissions system in my country was very different, and in particular the college I went to - the Indian Institute of Technology aka IIT - was SO completely different in their process that when my children were approaching college age, I made it a point to educate myself so I would understand the system here. I have read about 10 :) books on the topic, many by admissions officers, all focused on the selective colleges, since my children seemed to be headed that way, and it adds up to a consistent story, if not as predictable as people would like! )</p>
<p>Consolation--If memory serves, Barbara Bush (the president's daughter) was valedictorian of her high school class and either student body or senior class president. She probably did a lot more, but I think those were the two salient points the media picked out. I suspect she was well within the range of qualified applicants. Of course, being a Bush took out the lottery aspect, but only because she was independently qualified. As for the president, let's just say that admission standards were VERY different when he applied.</p>
<p>I'm not a big defender of the president, but I am a big defender of Yale and the argument about the Bushes pops up regularly and it bothers me.</p>
<p>Exactly riverrunner. Don't worry consolation, the weight of the world does not pivot on Yale (though admittedly, I myself am a devout prospective yalie)</p>
<p>Thegreyam, I am fully prepared for him to be rejected, since that's the way the odds lie. If he is rejected, it's Yale's loss, and he will go somewhere else that will be lucky to have him. If he gets in, I'll be happy for him. </p>
<p>Luckily, there are other schools where he would like to go. (Unluckily, they are awfully hard to get into also! <g>)</g></p>
<p>the perils of prestige! (and being hopelessly lovelorn)</p>