Californians at a Disadvantage?

<p>I live, approximately, in the Bay Area (I'm closer to San Jose, though-Saratoga...anybody know where that is?) and I do feel that it's way more competitive to get into Yale here. </p>

<p>My school had 3 people get in this year, but 1 declined. So the yield rate at my school is 66.7%. </p>

<p>Someone told me that Yale analyzes specific schools' yield rates to evaluate about "how interested the school's students are in Yale" in order to determine how <em>generous</em> they can be in letting them in. </p>

<p>Now, Yale is really cautious where I live. I think that Yale sees that it loses a good majority of it's admitted students to Stanford (a year or two ago 14 people got into Stanford and none of them into Yale), and so it tries to pick only the most loyal and dedicated students for admission. </p>

<p>With that being said, if Yale is your first choice and you come from an area similar to mine, I'm sure you'll be able to find some way to show Yale that you'll go if you get in.</p>

<p>sorry to Highjack the thread. But what would y'all say to a student with comparable Stats; only I got a 710 on the Math portion of the SAT; from a town of 15,000 people in the Hills of East San Diego county. Only two people from my school have gone to Yale; and nobody has applied there for about 6 years. Seriously. I asked my counselor for an application and she had a drawer full of 2000 - 2006 applications.</p>

<p>masamune, between high profile high schools in Silicon Valley like Saratoga, Los Gatos, Lynbrook & Monta Vista (SJ/Cupertino), Gunn & Palo Alto (next to Stanford U), and private schools like Bellarmine, Mitty and St. Francis, the Ivys get a lot of apps from high quality students. Yale knows that many of those students will also apply to the other Ivys as well as Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA and Caltech, and will be super selective about extending multiple invitations to students at any one HS.</p>

<p>In fact, high profile schools in Silicon Valley may produce more UC and Ivy eligible students than in any other area of California, maybe in the country. There are just too many quality students in our area!</p>

<p>If you're from Saratoga, you know the pressure of having to go to a prestigious, high ranking school and what is expected of you as far as college goes. Anything (almost) less than the absolute best is considered a failure.</p>

<p>Ack, dang you Silicon Valley students. I've been nursing a grudge ever since the middle school Mathcounts competition. We worked our tails off to get into State, then Southern California was ousted by Northern for Nationals because all the geniuses live there. Compared to Temecula, all the rich geniuses. But that's cool. Practically no one else applies from my area (one guy did last year, but I think he was the first ever from my HS), so maybe Yale will take me more seriously.</p>

<p>:) heh actually there have been a lot that have applied to the ivy leagues. I'm not sure how many have gotten in, but I do know that one girl got into yale and is currently attending there right now. There were a few others who basically applied to all the ivys, but usually for financial reasons have ended up going to a UC.</p>

<p>How come nobody tells me these things? I have no idea what to make of it. I think I'll give up speculating whether I'll get in and just submit the darned application.</p>

<p>i didn't know you were interested hah, but yeah a lot have applied at the very least. your chances are a little lower just because of the fact that you're from southern CA (this year i think they admitted around 200, or maybe 300, or was it 100? something like that), but you still have a decent chance at getting in.</p>

<p>Are you a minority becuase being a inority in California, esp. Hispanic, would offset the small disadvantage from living in Cali. Plus being from a small town will help you.</p>