<p>Well, I was talking with a friend the other day and she told me that it has always been her dream to attend Yale, and personally, I don't think she's done enough, but I won't keep her from her dreams. She's an above average student, but not by much compared to the rest of the students that attend the same high school as me.</p>
<p>I know that there are those who have stellar ECs such as many of the people that post chance threads on the forums, but how many applicants are actually just a little above average students hoping to get in without the stellar ECs and relying mainly on luck? Even more so, how many applicants do you think are just regular students applying to Yale to see if they get lucky (because I know they exist)?</p>
<p>8% of applicants get admitted to Yale, but out of all the applicants what %age do you believe to be the pile of applicants applying for hopes of getting in by luck, etc.</p>
<p>I hope I made myself clear. I'm low on time right now and can't seem to think of the best way to ask the question. If one of you interpret it correctly though, then maybe you'll be able to restate my question in a better fashion.</p>
<p>The exact percentage of applicants who don’t really stand a chance is 17.865%.</p>
<p>^ That number is actually pretty close. I asked this recently of an adcom and was told that only 5K of the 26K applicants are pretty obvious rejects so that puts it at under 20%. I was actually surprised the number was that low considering the huge increase in applicant numbers. You are competing against a lot of viable candidates.</p>
<p>^I think you also have a certain percentage who simply do not realize how their stats and achievements compare to other applicants. Those who have never visited CC, have inactive or inexperienced gcs and only compare themselves to others in their school, may truly believe that they have an excellent shot at getting into Yale, even though the Yale Adcoms take one look at their application and immediately put them in the “obvious reject” pile.</p>
<p>The applicants people on CC refer to as having gotten in by “luck” are not simply “above average” students. They’re generally students with really stellar stats and good recommendations, but nothing that REALLY stands out about them – no national awards, no sports talent, no URM hook, etc. These are the kids with the 2260 and the 4.0 and pretty glowing recs, who are also white, middle-class and from the New York City suburbs. Someone with simply “above average” stats and no hook isn’t going to get in – sorry :-(</p>
<p>i visited yale in June, and though the adcom wasn’t answering your specific question directly, but a similar one, he said that each year, Yale could fill 3-4 full freshman classes worth of applicants who would be successful at Yale. </p>
<p>Maybe he wasn’t realizing what he was saying and actually this is much larger, but if you consider that, that means that only about 6000 of the applicants are what the admissions committee consider as “potentially successful applicants”, and they are not going to admit people who are unhooked who they do not think would be successful, so that puts in all in quite another light.</p>
<p>Of course the qualifications to be considered “potentially successful at Yale” by the Yale admissions committee are pretty intense.</p>
<p>About the “certain” rejects pile…these are most certainly applicants who would have been rejected had they been their stud running back recruit. Odds are many more of the 21k who aren’t outright rejects will nevertheless still be turned down because of their academics.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that 80% of applicants are qualified to do the work but only whereabouts of 20-30% are really, seriously considered. Still, when less than 1 in 10 applicants ends up with an acceptance, that’s a pretty big number.</p>
<p>I do know some non-superstars who’ve been accepted, but they’ve been from top preps and have great stats, recs, focused ECs–just nothing on a national level.</p>
<p>"These are the kids with the 2260 and the 4.0 and pretty glowing recs, who are also white, middle-class and from the New York City suburbs. "</p>
<p>Oh my God, I pray this is me</p>