Analyze Candidate #1

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>Although none of your insights are absolute, they are interesting to read. Comment on whether or not this applicant would be accepted by Yale SCEA. Yes I realize this seems like a chance thread but it's not for me:</p>

<p>Candidate #1
Demographics: Asian, Overrepresented State
Scores: 2250 SAT, 35 ACT, 750, 760, 770 on Subject Tests
GPA: 4.0 Unweighted, all Honors/AP Courses at an accelerated track
APs: Psych (5), Enviro (5), Chem (5), Spanish Language (4), English Lang (5), US Govt (5), Human Geo (5), and Calc BC (5)
School: Private, competitive. Rank: Top 5% out of 130.
Awards: Cum Laude Society, National Merit Semi-Finalist, Various Honor Rolls, Various School Awards, Various Essay Contests/Writing Awards, Newspaper Awards</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: Impressive commitment to three academic activities that are all humanities related. Editor-in-Chief of two publications, President of Speech Team (and a strong national competitor as well with multiple national tournament finishes). Demonstrated genuine interest in activities with will to drive forward and pursue his passions. Basically demonstrated his sincere passion through his activities, which he spent almost thirty-forty hours a week in total on all three. He spent his summers doing those activities as well. In addition to these main three, he was also a varsity runner for three years, and held a part-time job for 8 hours a week, and a couple other things that were less significant to him.</p>

<p>Recommendations/Essays:
Wrote essays about an experience that was meaningful to him. One teacher rec very, very strong, the other was in between very strong and decent.</p>

<p>Would you say this candidate has a decent shot of getting into at least one of HYPS?</p>

2

<p>I think it would be hard because of demographics, unless there is something in the application that really appeals to Admissions people.</p>

3

<p>That profile describes students who I have seen get into every top college to which they applied, and students who didn’t get accepted at any of HYPS (lots of them). There’s nothing in it that disqualifies the student from serious consideration, at the SCEA stage or RD, but there’s nothing that compels admission either, at either stage. The things that will really make a difference aren’t on the resume, and without them one can’t tell if the chances are terrible or good. (No one actually has average chances.)</p>