Another chances thread (woo-hoo!)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
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<p>Alrighty... I'll be a senior this fall at a giant monolithic public school in good ol' Indiana, and Yale is my first choice (so I'll be applying early action). Are these stats good enough?</p>

<p>The typical Ivy-Leaguer-wanna-be repertoire:
SAT: 2340 (800 CR, 740 M, 800 W)
SAT II: World History 800, Literature 800, (taking Math IIC this fall)
GPA: 5.1 weighted, 3.9 unweighted
Class rank: 2/650
Extracurriculars: Yearbook editor-in-chief, Key Club (committee member, treasurer, VP), Young Democrats (co-prez), Students for a Free Tibet (founder, president), Habitat for Humanity, Speech and Debate team, Spanish tutor, Peers Educating Peers, NHS, choir
IB Diploma Candidate
AP scholar
Work experience: administrative assistant at a clinic</p>

<p>The interesting stuff:
I just returned from a year abroad in India, where I got to do such interesting things as participating in a seminar on Tibetan culture at the Sera Je Monastery, assisting with tsunami relief, hiking and whitewater rafting in the foothills of the Himalayas, and going to formal with a Bhutanese prince! Also, I formed a partnership with my school in Indy which ended up raising $1200 to support a local orphanage.</p>

<p>In ninth and tenth grade I spent 11 months working on Howard Dean's presidential campaign. I was a Dialing for Dean precinct captain and the Youth Coordinator for my region.</p>

<p>I was suspended for participating in a walk-out against the invasion of Iraq. So um....will this help me or hurt me?</p>

<p>I am totally serious about cooking. I love to cook. My crepes suzette are earth-shatteringly magnificent, if I do say so myself. By the way, are there kitchens in the residential colleges at Yale?</p>

<p>I'm taking AP physics C through the EPGY program at Stanford.</p>

<p>One of my essays is about tsunami relief in India (if you'd like to see it, just let me know....it could use a little critique). I'm not sure about the other one, but of course I'll write one explaining the whole suspension thing as well. </p>

<p>So....um, what are my chances? (Just for the record, I'm a white female and not actually communist despite my username).</p>

2

<p>I'd say your chances are pretty good, like 25% or 30%. You have to remember that the acceptance rate for EA applicants is about 20%, and Ivy admissions are pretty random sometimes. You have good scores, grades, and rank, and you have some pretty good extracurriculars. You also come from the Midwest, which is a small hook. However, your race counts against you (to be frank), and while you do have good ECs, you don't have much of a spark... as of yet. I think that if you write your essays well, you will come across as a candidate that the adcoms will want to admit. From there, it'll depend on whether they have enough room for you.</p>

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<p>Well....my mom was born in Mexico, but I'm not racially Hispanic. Guess I can't use that one, eh?</p>

<p>:)</p>

4

<p>Acceptance rate for EA apps this year was 17%. That includes recruited athletes, URMs, legacies, and developmental cases. For the quality unhooked candidate, maybe 10%. Yale defers fewer than many of the upper schools, but takes about 14% of the deferreds in the RD round. Harvard defers many candidates, but takes very few from the deferred pool in the RD round.</p>

5

<p>I like the idea of a walk- out! we were going to organize one of hose at my school but our school administration didnt let us!</p>

<p>I think you have a great chance of getting into Yale!
GOOD JOB!</p>

6

<p>Sorry-- "those*"</p>

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<p>Hehehehe....we didn't even ask permission from the admin (hence the suspension)...</p>

<p>On a completely unrelated note, I might actually have something that qualifies as a hook. I'm really into physics and may very well major in it. Isn't it kind of unusual for females to major in the hard sciences?</p>

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<p>well it is unusual, and it may help, but that isn't a hook. A hook is something very unique that no one else really does that'll make you stand out from the rest - for example, if you started a charity that grows and is featured on CNN. most people do NOT have hooks, simply because the whole point of them is that they are <em>rare</em>. good luck. :)</p>

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<p>I think that you would have a great shot if not for the suspension. One part of the application asks if you have ever had serious disciplinary action (i.e. suspension,expulsion), and you will have to check "yes." That could hurt your application severely.</p>

<p>Also, why would you have a walk-out to protest the war in Iraq? Your school did not start the war in Iraq. Therefore what could your protest possibly accomplish?</p>

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<p>Yeah I know. I'm actually not too worried about the suspension though. A friend of mine was suspended and got admitted EA to Harvard......and he was suspended for making drug references in his campaign speech for class president.</p>

<p>Well, one could ask what protesting accomplishes at all. Only rarely does it make a great impact. Still, that doesn't mean you shouldn't protest. To condemn protesting as a "waste of time" is to become so jaded with the system that you feel it is futile to exercise your right to free speech. I hope I will never be that cynical.
Furthermore, walk-outs have been a method of protesting for years, and my school was joined by nearly 1500 other colleges and high schools from around the country. It wasn't an isolated incident, and it certainly wasn't an excuse to skip school. The only classes we missed were homeroom and lunch....we were suspended for insubordination, not truancy.
And it did have some impact. Our walk-out was covered by four local news channels and most of the school newspaper was devoted to it. In a Republican state like mine, that isn't too shabby. Our suspension also gave us the opportunity to attend the state-wide rally the next day, which was pretty cool, I thought.</p>

11

<p>Oh man.....
Yale is the awesomest school ever!
What are some things I should work on (besides essays) if I want to get in?</p>