I am a rising senior attending a medium sized public school in New England. My family is from Sweden so I am bilingual and have dual citizenship. My two top choice schools are Brown and Yale and I am wondering if I have a chance of getting in?
My high school doesn’t calculate class rank but I have had all A’s (except one B+ freshman year) and junior year had an average of 97. I would assume that I’m in the top 10% of my class based on what I hear from classmates.
I am a national merit scholar semi-finalist and got a 34 on my ACT. I haven’t taken the subject tests and I’m not sure if I will, since I spoke with a Yale admissions councilor who said that not taking them wouldn’t hurt my chances of getting in.
As for classes, here is what I have taken/will take: (my school doesn’t allow freshman or sophomores to take AP classes)
Freshman year: honors geometry, honors biology, honors English, honors civics, Spanish 2, band, gym
Sophomore year: honors algebra 2, honors chemistry, honors history, honors sophomore English, band, Spanish 4
Junior year: AP US History (got a 5), honors physics, honors literature, honors pre calculus, Spanish 5. I also took college level Anatomy and Physiology and Human Growth and Development classes through my school’s technical center, for which I received 7 college credits. These classes took up two class blocks every day, so they limited my ability to take more AP classes
Senior year: I will be taking AP biology, AP government, AP calculus, AP Spanish, AP literature, and a mandatory senior seminar class
Extracurriculars:
-I’ve been on the Nordic ski team since freshman year (two years JV, two years varsity)
-Varsity tennis since freshman year, though I was injured junior year and was unable to play
-Model United Nations since sophomore year. This year I will be one of the (two) leaders and will organize and chair two conferences at my school
-I became a member of my school’s environmental club (which only has five members) my junior year and will be a leader of the club my senior year. With the club, I organized a school-wide “earth day extravaganza” event and am working on campaigns to raise awareness about recycling and composting and we are trying to eliminate single-use plastic water bottles form our vending machines.
-I interned at City Hall my junior year, where I lead a project against idling. I brought a local anti-idling organization to present to the driver’s education class, which will become a yearly event. I also worked with the city to get them to put up official anti-idling signs around the school’s parking lot. I hosted a press conference with the superintendent and school principle to commemorate these new signs.
-For the last two years, I have helped lead a children’s running club at a local elementary school.
-I have taught piano lessons to neighborhood kids for the past three years. I have had six students overall and all have become at least proficient in piano.
-I did theater for ten years, including freshman and sophomore year but had a bad experience with my school’s drama club and also realized that I was more interested in pursuing other interests
-this summer, I have been a lab assistant in a neuroscience lab at a local university. We have been testing mice to see how a certain gene plays a role in generalization of fear.
-I also work at American Eagle as a sales associate
-I am an avid runner and have run three half marathons and will be running my fourth this fall
-I am a member of NHS and will be an Advisory Mentor for freshman this year
-My team and I were the state champions of our state’s Brain Bee, which is neuroscience competition for high schoolers
-I was a member of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council sophomore year and might do it again my senior year
-I also do various volunteer work around my town
I am planning on double majoring in neuroscience and political science. The other schools I’m looking at include Dartmouth (where my dad went and now teaches at), Amherst, Tufts, Colombia, and Vassar.
I know getting in to Yale is a long shot but I’m just wondering others on here think.
Thanks!