<p>If I have to be brutally honest - on the lower end of the 7% typical Yale admissions rate…</p>
<p>Most of the people that do apply to Yale will have similar academic statistics…
What makes you a unique candidate, though, are your extracurricular activities and essays.</p>
<p>If I were you, I would not underestimate the importance of the rifle competitions, the service and the dental clinic job…</p>
<p>Just watch out how you present yourself.
Sometimes people make great accomplishments sound dumb and not compelling; sometimes people make average accomplishments sound great and meaningful. Be of the second type. </p>
<p>Where I am getting is that you ARE academically qualified to attend Yale - just as most of the applicants are. However, make sure that you present your activities in an interesting way, showing commitment, progress and development of certain skills. Considering that you don’t have a huge list (which shows depth and is not necessarily bad), if I were you, I would dedicate one of my essays entirely on one of the activities in order to show that what I have done is not just a list of some college application boosters, but activities that matter to me. </p>
<p>Your essays will play an important role as well - make sure you don’t bomb them…</p>
<p>PS: About the recs and the Ph.D. - no one will care. As long as the recommendation is meaningful, well-written and doesn’t incarnate an extremely trite collection of generic superlatives, you will be fine. It’s the text and the details in the rec that matter, not the title of the person who wrote it. I am sure, in some cases, a good high school English teacher can generally write a better recommendation than a college pure mathematics professor. Having said that, I would also add that a rec from a well-known politician/figure (who knows you well and doesn’t regurgitate hackneyed attributes) might be a “deal maker”.</p>