<p>Now before we begin, Yale is my big big reach, so I know my chances are slim but i just wanted to hear opinions as to if I should even bother applying.</p>
<p>Race: Black
Rank:16/526
GPA:3.86 UW 5.49 W
SAT: 2070 (790 CR 650 M 630 W)
SAT 2: no taken yet</p>
<p>Work Experience
6/1/07-7/25/07 Target (Missouri City, TX)
6/7/08-7/25/08
Employee Food Ave.<br>
Provide high-quality food service
Mitigate customer relations problems </p>
<p>Activities</p>
<p>9th Elkins High School Track and Field Team<br>
Ran 10 x 10 hurdles and 300 meter hurdles
2nd-10th Elkins High School Football Team<br>
Linebacker, Kickoff, and Receiving Team<br>
Directed the Defensive formation
(Quit because I broke my wrist and had to get surgery)<br>
9th-11th Elkins Band
Concert Band(9th) Symphonic Band(10th-11th)
6th-12th Trumpet Player<br>
Participated in UIL concert and sight reading contests
10th-11th Member 12th Captain Elkins Forensics Team</p>
<p>11th-12th Mu Alpha Theta
Member</p>
<p>11th-12th Science Honor Society<br>
Member </p>
<p>11th Member 12th English Honor Society
Treasurer</p>
<p>Awards </p>
<p>9th District Runner-Up Football
2nd Place in district
10th District Champions Football
1st Place in district </p>
<p>Debate Awards</p>
<p>5th Place Team out of 197 Schools (State)<br>
1st place UT Longhorn largest tournament in Texas (State)
Two time State Qualifier in Lincoln Douglass Debate (State)
1st Place Aldine Debate Tournament (Region)
3rd Place UIL District Extempt Speaking (Region)
6th Place NFL District Extempt Speaking (Region)
National Forensic League Special Distinction Honor (National)
State Quaterfinalist Extempt Speaking (State) </p>
<p>Science Fair Awards</p>
<p>Top Chemistry Student 2 years (School)
4th Place Science and Engineering Fair of Houston (City)
4th Place American Physics Society-Texas Chapter (City)</p>
<p>Self Taught Quantum Mechanics research:
9th Quantitative Analysis of Electron Transition in Helium (150 hours)
10th Evolution of Time Independent Wavefunctions in an Electrostatic Field (240 hours)
11th Evaluation of Photon Tunneling Probability by Spatial Variation(200 hours)</p>
<p>Increase your M and W on the SAT, get As from now on, and I'd say you have a REALLY great chance. And not because of your URM status -- your activities far exceed some of the applicants to Yale.</p>
<p>i think you have an excellent shot. your sats are only slightly lower than mine, by like 40 points but M and V are higher than mine (i'm also black lol). sats don't matter as much as people think. your ecs are WAY better than mine too. so write really good essays, get above 720 on two sat iis, get some decent recs and i'd say you're in. i'd be really surprised if you don't get in.</p>
<p>Thanks i don't know i was kinda worried about the SATs, if only i could have done better. Sgtpepper08 would you mind sending a pm of your stats i would really appreciate it.</p>
<p>The SAT is a little too low I think (even though you're URM). Although I could be wrong, as sometimes the writing section isn't considered that important. Still, you would have a much stronger chance if your M and W were about 700 each. Your class rank could come up a bit too. There are a RIDICULOUS number of valedictorians here at Yale (I was ranked 3 in my h.s. class).</p>
<p>The rank is based on junior year, by the time i apply i may be around 12 or so, i know Yale is a reach but i just wanted to gauge the chances. Would an ACT about a 31 or 32 make much of a difference?</p>
<p>Wow, great activities/work experience...yeah try to bring up your test scores and def. try the ACT. I have friends who had luck with that!</p>
<p>I also just said this to another poster, but if the scores end up killing you (which is unlikely) be sure to check out schools that will value your amazing ECs...like top LACs (Bowdoin, Oberlin, Williams, etc) or a place like UChicago.</p>
<p>Yeah, your SATs are fine. I got a 2060 (but I also sent in my ACT 34 just in case), and I got in. Take the ACT if you are really worried about it though, it seems like most people do better on it.</p>
<p>I dunno... I also got into Dartmouth without sending my ACT scores, but I know Dartmouth is less competitive than Yale. I just don't think that any score higher than 2000 will be the only thing to keep a kid out of Yale, especially the OP.</p>
<p>I have another question, would it be a bad thing to apply to Yale Single Choice early, bc i hear that like the top ppl apply early, and the acceptance rate is about the same. So would it help or hurt in the long run?</p>
<p>What can you do to get your Math above 700? </p>
<p>It seems incongruous to have a 650 Math and lots of science awards and interest. Remove that incongruity and you have a much better chance. That 650 really sticks out. I'm not sure the writing counts at all. The adcom can get that from the essay.</p>
<p>Well the fact of the matter is that math is my weakest subject, the reason i have science awards is not bc i am good at math, but i love science to the point that i work really hard to learn the math. And overcome math difficulties, in fact when doing my research the hardest part was the math, i got the physics concept like right after reading it, but the math for quantum tunneling was tough.
But any suggestions as how to boost the math. I was thinking of taking the Math SAT 2 as with the generous curve it would be easier to get above 700 and therefore present a stronger sense of my math abilities.</p>
<p>On a better note, by quantum tunneling project has been approved to be published by The Citizen Scientist, which is national, so I think it can only help.</p>
<p>Having research published is somewhat common among applicants to elite universities. Maybe you can emphasize the fact that you taught yourself and that you're passionate about what you did.</p>