Anybody guessing if i can get in?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>Hi. below is my "profile" so to speak that i plan to submit when I apply in future year... i live in Canada, and Im an international student (korean to be specific) and i was wondering if anybody could give me any feedback on my profile.. ive already taken my sats and all, so here I go... </p>

<p>School: Private High School (ranked #1 in province of BC, Canada)</p>

<p>School Average (no GPAs here, unfortunately):
Grade 9: 88%, Grade 10: 94%, Grade 11: 90% (here, i transferred to the private high school), Grade 12: 92%</p>

<p>SAT: 800 Math, 600 C. Reading, 680 Writing (11 on essay)
Math IIC: 800, Physics: 730, Chemistry: 720</p>

<p>Awards and Accomplishments:
Pascal and Fermat Math Competition School champion and national Top 25%
YWCA Vancouver Real Story Writing Competition Top 50 junior finalist out of over 1000
British Columbia Passport to Education grade 9~11
Honours with Distinction and Effort Honours Grade 9~11
School Grade 11 Band Award
Provincial Honour Band member certificate (chosen out of 300, i think)
National Lifeguard Service Certificate (including supplements)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars
Piano Performance, Ensemble and Accompaniment since 5 years old (7 hrs of performance/practice) (5years old :S~)
Violin Performance, Ensemble and Orchestra (2nd violin) (7 hrs of performance/practice) (5 years old :S~)
Bb Clarinet School Principal/solo player, BC provincial honour band player (6hrs) (grade 9~)
Eb Alto Saxophone School Principal/solo player(grade 9~)
Senior home volunteer and junior Head of resident supervising (grade 10~)
Church accompaniment, vice president, and president candidate of youth/student council(grade 9~)
Debate club, regular member (grade 11~)
Philosophy club (grade 10~)
School Newspaper junior editor and writer
Kendo (grade 11), 12 hrs of practice and training each week
Hiphop Dancer (leader)
Varsity Badminton 5th place (mixed doubles) in BC major badminton tournament
BC Lifesaving Society Lifeguard/Lifesaver Training
Math Peer tutor/club member
Summer Camp Assistant teacher
Weighttraining club, regular member (haha, very surprising eh?)
School Ambassador for Prospective Students
Codirector and conductor of student-led ensemble</p>

<p>Courses (for my schools, there were no such thing as "honor courses" :()
Grade 9: Art, Math, Science, English, French, Information Technology, Social Studies, PE, CAPP
Grade 10: Music, Math, Science, English, French, Social Studies, PE, CAPP
Full Credit Summer School: Chemistry 11, Math 11
Grade 11: French 11&12, Chemistry 12, Biology 12, Physics 11, English 11&12, CAPP, Music 11, Information Technology 12, Social Studies 11
*Note: at the new school, instead of honours, we have accelerated courses
Grade 12: AP Calculus AB, AP Physics B, AP Chemistry, AP English Literature, English Literature 12, Physics 12, Economics 12, Math 12 (AP English Language)
... so, 4 or 5 APs, out of the 9 that our school offers.. which nobody can POSSIBLY take because all of them have to be taken in gr. 12 here, and cannot be done, so about 3 is usu. the max..</p>

<p>Phew.. that was a fun fun time... :S
Anything special about me other than I'm a Korean attending school in Canada... hmm... I used to be missionary kid living somewhere in some barren area of Europe... and my essay(s) are mostly on this issue...
Sorry for those who aren't religion maniacs as i am, as you can see</p>

<p>Whoever can review these infos about me, I would REALLY appreciate. Thx so much ppl</p>

2

<p>btw.. i think for the GPAs... theyre approx. the following
Grade 9: 3.4, Grade 10: 3.65, Grade 11: 3.5, Grade 12: 3.6</p>

3

<p>Sry my bad.. ive applied to Yale for EA and probably applying to like different IVY univs and univs like johns hopkins, northwestern, duke(?), washington in St. Louis etc... some of the better skools... science major probably (biology)</p>

4

<p>The 600 reading is going to do you in. It's pretty low for Yale.</p>

5

<p>hmm thats why i retook my SATs, and i felt pretty happy after the test day. The score is coming out today or tomorrow, can't remember</p>

6

<p>Scores are coming out tomorrow. Hope your scores go up (just like I hope mine go up).
Your ECs are a little spread out, but decently well accomplished. You seem to be very good at math. I'm jealous. :) Good luck.</p>

7

<p>What school do you go to? I'm applying to Yale RD and I went to public school in Surrey - Semiahmoo</p>

8

<p>cool anth_03 u go to Semi?
I go to Southridge (the local private skool :P) and yes, my extracurriculars are "very" spread out, but unfortunately, I'm generally like that, and our school requires that each student is "very" well rounded (academic, arts, athletics, service/volunteer):(</p>

9

<p>well i graduated from semi last year and im takin a year off... small world eh?</p>

10

<p>just something ive been noticiing when reading people's stats....all of us are SO similar! its scary. almost everyones ecs are relatively similar with subtle differences...but so many people have research, some in school things, some volunteering, etc. Everyone's lists look so similar and our SAT scores are all great as well. Its scary --how can yale only choose less than 10% of us?</p>

11

<p>what i heard from one of my school counsellors is that because so many people participate in different ECs, the admissions office looks at how consistent one's ECs, course choices etc. are relative to the applicant's goals, passions, or school policies (in my case, the goals of my school really affects how and what I participate in). These factors are usually expressed in college essays. Well, this is my school counsellor's opinion, at least.</p>

12

<p>Well, I am in a IB school in vancouver. I know lots of people i many literally with 2300 SATs and tons of national awards and 42+ IB predicted scores are applying to Yale for RD. So good luck. It is scary to think how many highly qualified individuals are competeting for 2 or 3 spots in vancouver regions... Last year, one girl from our school got in with IB predicted score 42, and last last year, another girl got in with great stats ( international-level Red cross organizer).. but other years, people fail miserably...</p>

13

<p>Eh, depending on your scores, your chances are there. However...the way things stand now, you will have to have great essays and rec's to have a shot in.</p>

14

<p>I think your grades are going to kill you before they even bother looking at your SAT scores, but if your class rank is strong (top 5%) you might still be OK.</p>

<p>Assuming your grades are better than they sound here, I think you're still going to need to hit 700 on reading if you want any sort of a reasonable shot at getting in.</p>

15

<p>i actually have good rec letters; im really friendly with the principal (who wrote me my rec letter) and he likes me bunch, too, so im pretty confident about the school report. For teacher rec letters, i have good better relationships with teachers than with grade (u can interpret that in your own way, i guess), so i'm pretty confident there as well. As for the grades, it's really hard to get something over 90 at our school (its a univ. prep school, and it gives out really nasty grades, so i'm actually doing quite well). I also have some reference letters from yale alums, who wrote me awesome ref. letters (well, im guessing) so hope those ref letters are pluses for me. Btw, these ref letters aren't from just random ppl, theyre actually pretty powerful ppl within Yale.</p>

16

<p>I think unless the alums are like your teachers or out-side activity directors, their letters might annoy admission officers since they are just paying lipservices. Well no offense</p>

17

<p>Hmm well... these almus aren't just any random alums, I've known them since grade 5/6 i think, and the wife of the husband who wrote the ref. letter (btw the wife also wrote it too, and maybe graduated from Yale, i'm not sure about her) was actually my elementary/middle school teacher, so i think thats not too bad. We still keep in contact btw, if anybody replying to my comment might say "well, she was your elementary teacher, which was back in the old days" or something (no offense to those who might mention that)</p>

18

<p>Unless these alumns can add something important to your application, a perspective that nobody has ever seen in you before, they are just lip service. Sorry, there can only be so many people that say the exact same thing about you, which will sound like this if you are applying to Yale: "Great KID!" </p>

<p>I hate to be frank, but unless these alumns saw a side of you, interacted with you in a way that nobody else has, then they are just more copies of people seeing great things about you.</p>

<p>Which is great...but after the 2nd or 3rd letter, it gets repetitive. </p>

<p>And remember, no amount of recommandations will get you in currently. You need to bulk up on class rank, possibly SAT's and some awards that aren't local. Even something state level would look better.</p>

<p>Keep on trying, but don't pull the "alumns of Yale, powerful people" rec letter line if you are asking for an evaluation. It just seems like you aren't valuing it and think you can get in without that help.</p>

19

<p>I know that, in general, an alumni interview is more about keeping alumni involved with Yale than it is about giving the admissions committee necessary information. However, I think in certain circumstances an alumni interview can really help you out--I think mine helped me. My job is kind of weird and was really difficult to explain clearly on my application. (I make glass artwork, mainly handmade glass beads that I sell to local galleries and art shows. It's a lot like glassblowing on a small scale) Anyway, there was no way to show the admissions committee my artwork without sending slides (which I couldn't do for various reasons) so I brought some of my stuff along to my interview. The interviewer seemed to really like the work and said she would talk about it in the report. </p>

<p>Sometimes an interview can be used to clear up unclear things that were on your application, and I think the best things to talk about in the interview are things that the admissions committee doesn't see.</p>

20

<p>as most of you are aware in the common app, there is a teacher recommendation form. Of course, I kindly requested my school teachers to fill these out. However, the letters i am talking about are reference letters, which describe the applicant's character and possibly the relationship the person had with the applicant. Of course, in my case, I didn't ask any random alum to write me a letter, which any of you should consider before criticizing anybody or just mentioning that fact. These people are people i have known for so long, so I do think these ref. letters are very useful and "pluses" to my profile.</p>