an year older, rising senior and need to get stuff done so asking to see what my chances are with what i’ve done so far…
Want to apply to Yale Early Action if it will help. my number 1 choice, by far.
Desired Major: Biology with minor in art history
CURRENT
NAME: LEA
TYPE OF SCHOOL: private, canada
GPA: 4.0 (no weighting here in Canada):
freshman year: 94 average (percent)
sophomore: 95 (these two years i had some very serious personal problems going on in terms of health and family stability, and we were absent from the area a lot dealing with this. that’s to account for the low marks those years, i know they’re not great.)
junior year: high 98 average (family was finally stabilized, and i went a little overboard trying to account for my bad marks the years before. probably studied over 20 hours per weekend and 3-7 hours afterschool. was ranked 1st in my grade.)
SAT SCORE: 1590
of AP Courses i will have taken by end of term before application: 6
EXTRACURRICULARS:
Academic
international biology olympiad: placed top 20 national finalist for written competition (NBC) and then qualified for CBO team to represent canada at the international level.
NCF Envirothon (international environmental sciences competition, freshman year placed as a team 14th, and junior year 11th; on lower levels of competition, 1st place individually and as a team at both regional, and provincial levels. senior year, placed top individually and as a team)
Classics (Latin & classical provincial competition- every year since Grade 8 have placed 1st academically in the province with a 1st place award for all 3 categories, and won creative design / artwork awards as well.)
Artistic
Fashion Design (also applying to fashion design program because this is alternate career interest; very wide ranging portfolio of 50+ design pieces I’ve self cut, sew, crafted over the years based on couture & high fashion pieces, inspired by books and nature around me with a focus on environmental, sustainable, fair trade fabrics & business methods. have my own clothing business on Etsy and earn several thousand a year for making my own designs and selling them online, looking at a contract with a boutique to sell my designs in commercial stores now.)
Competitive Dance (more of a hobby and done for fun for 3+ years)
INTERNSHIPS:
Currently ongoing Political Science internship for now 3 years at an MP’s Office, just got promoted to paid position.
Cardiology, Surgery, and radiology internships completed every summer so far ; research lab position through out the year
is this all enough? i’m honestly freaked that i’ll be mediocre- i’m not a genius of any sort and i’m really scared that my effort won’t shine through.
Yale is a long shot for everyone, but with your stats they will give you a thorough review. And the acceptance rate for EA is much high than RD, so if Yale is clearly your number one option, definitely apply EA.
Definitely above average application, applying early will help and I definitely could see you at a top 10 college/university if you applied to enough colleges.
Definitely apply SCEA but I don’t think there is much boost in that. The higher SCEA admissions rate is primarily driven by the fact that it includes athletic recruits, a lot of legacies, development cases and generally is comprised of stronger candidates overall. Apply SCEA because if you get in, your senior year will be completely stress free. There are no shoo-ins for Yale, but based on what you have described, I think you will be among the stronger group of candidates.
@ucbalumnus lol i think i’ve seen that generic chance thread and it definitely was the most helpful thing i’ve gotten from people around the internet so i appreciate you linking it back to me yes, i do go to a prep school w connections and i ranked first in my class, have high test scores, won two international competitions but i don’t know what that means compared to other students. and yet despite the stats does this mean i’m going to continue to be nervous and dilly dally on this thread despite knowing my rough answer? also yes :")
At this point you have multiple chance threads, I expect you have had very good guidance and support from your private prep school and I have to believe you know the answer to your question. YES, you will be a viable candidate but NO Yale admission is not guaranteed for any unhooked applicant. That is all any responsible poster here can tell you. Applying EA may help a bit, but I have seen some truly outstanding candidates deferred in the EA round (some of whom were accepted in the RD round).
The very positive news is that you have done extraordinarily well in HS and if Yale doesn’t work out as hoped, then you should still have many many outstanding college choices. I’d recommend that you give up the idea of Yale as a dream school and work to create a solid college list that includes reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (find out your parents’ budget and run the net price calculator for each school) and that you would be excited to attend. The people I see who get hurt by the college admission process are the ones who focus on one or two hyper-competitive schools and then don’t get in. There are many wonderful schools out there where you can have a great 4 year experience and get wherever you want to go in life.
I would suggest is that instead of being “nervous and dilly dally on this thread despite knowing my rough answer” that you move on to more productive uses of your time.
@happy1 Your comments are very very reasonable, I realize that zoning into a single college isn’t the healthiest idea. My school & my family just give me a lot of pressure as they are both Ivy League graduates/alum and they all have overwhelming expectations that if I don’t meet, I’d feel sorry about.
I apologize for the repetition- you can close / archive this thread if you want (it says you’re a Forum Champion and I don’t really know how this works or what that means, but if you have the power go ahead by all means.)
What I really hate is that you are feeling all of this pressure and the weight of such irrational expectations. You have done extraordinarily well in HS, achieved on a very high level and that fact should be recognized regardless of if you get into any one college or not. DO NOT allow a college admissions officer who likely never met you be the arbiter of your worth/success.
Your parents need to recognize that the Ivy and equivalent schools have got exponentially harder to get into since they applied. Your HS guidance counselors should know how difficult it is to get in to these schools. AND even with the new standards, you are a solid candidate – that is a credit to your achievements to date. If you get into Yale that is great – if not tons of amazing schools will be thrilled to have you on campus.
FWIW I went to an Ivy school (which I never would have got into today) and my kids did not apply to any Ivy schools – and guess what – they both had tremendously happy, challenging, and successful undergrad experiences, both got into top grad schools in their field and both are doing very well. As you go through this process, try to keep you on the prize – which is not Yale – but is finding an affordable college where you can have a great expereince and get where you want to go in life.
yes, i do go to a prep school w connections and i ranked first in my class, have high test scores, won two international competitions but i don’t know what that means compared to other students. and yet despite the stats does this mean i’m going to continue to be nervous and dilly dally on this thread despite knowing my rough answer? also yes :")