I applied Yale SCEA and was deferred, but I was wondering about my chances overall for the Ivy Leagues? Thanks and I’ll chance back!
Objective:
SAT I: 2300 (took once, didn’t send): 800 Math, 790 Writing, 710 Reading
ACT: 35 composite,10 writing (took it once)
SAT II: 800 Math II, 740 Biology (plan to send)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.93
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School doesn’t rank. Not sure, maybe top 10%? The average GPA of my class is a 3.66.
AP (place score in parentheses): School doesn’t offer APs.
IB (place score in parentheses): Haven’t taken my IB exams yet, nor have I received predicted grades.
Senior Year Course Load:
IB2 Mathematics HL
IB2 Biology HL
IB2 French HL
IB2 Chemistry SL
IB2 History SL
IB2 Literature SL
IB2 Visual Arts SL
IB2 Theory of Knowledge (one semester)
All of the HL and SL classes are equivalent to their corresponding AP classes.
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Semifinalist, North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad-top 1.5% in North America
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): My school doesn’t offer sports (I KNOW RIGHT?)
Muslim Student Association (treasurer): raised $130,000 for Syrian refugees in one dinner, in charge of managing a second one this year.
Psychology Club (founder/president)- Psychology isn’t offered at my school, but it’s my passion and I wanted to “teach” it to people who were also interested.
Science Olympiad- team placed 3rd in the state competition
French Honors Society- tutor underclassmen, host events, etc.
Didn’t join NHS because at my school, all they do is 10 hours of community service at the same place every year (waste of time in my opinion when comparing it to my existing areas of community service).
Personal Endeavor: trying to write and illustrate a French children’s book as a gift for my French teachers. I plan to get it printed, and have it available as an e-book too.
Job/Work Experience: co-founded a tutoring business with my father, 16 regular students and counting (kind of like Kumon, but I have to design custom lesson plans for each student and teach it to them).
Volunteer/Community Service:
Teacher at local Sunday School: since 7th grade, 1000+ hours of service, I teach elementary school kids Arabic, religious studies, etc.
Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital Volunteer: Neuroscience/stroke department-over 50 hours
Teen Board at local library: organize library community events, choose books to order, etc.
Summer Activities: not many, started hospital volunteering after 11th grade, visited family in Pakistan for entire summer after 10th grade.
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common App essay was really good I think, talked about a turning point in my religion and how that changed my personality and outlook of others, as well as how I decided to face adversity from now on. I actually wrote this in 11th grade for a Common App essay school assignment and my English teacher gave me full marks on it, so I’m confident in that aspect. Why Yale essay was focused, talked about how I loved the nature of Yale alumni and the availability of resources in relation to my intended majors. In the supplemental essay, I talked about my personal struggles as an aspiring self-taught digital artist and my growth related to art.
Teacher Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):: Not sure, the teachers at my school say that if they agree to write you a letter of rec, then it’ll be a good one.
French teacher’s letter of rec: 7-8 maybe?
Biology teacher’s letter of rec: 8-9, mainly because she’s a leader of the Science Olympiad team
Counselor Rec (rating 1-10, details):: Didn’t know her too well, but was impressed with my extra-curriculars: maybe 7-8, don’t really like her too much because she tried to tell me at first that the Ivies were a little too high for me.
Additional Rec (rating 1-10, details):: No additional rec
Interview: Interview went really well, it quickly turned into a smooth conversation, talked about my passions (psychology and art) mainly, but we touched on everything. I got to know some things about him, it was super chill. Went for an hour; could have gone longer, but he came after his daughter had a really bad allergic reaction and had to leave to see her at the hospital. One thing though, is that I mentioned that I didn’t want to apply for Harvard and that I really preferred Yale over Harvard (which were my true feelings at the time), and he made a special note of that. Would that have any effect on the deferred decision?
Other:
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Majors: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Biology
State (if domestic applicant): Michigan
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: Public (Nationally recognized), 146 in my class, about 600 students total.
Ethnicity: South East Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: $70,000-$100,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): nationally ranked school? religion? (idk), focused passions
Other notes: I was accepted to University of Michigan Ann Arbor EA to their LSA college, but it was honestly my safety school.
I think the main issue with my application was my slowly declining GPA over the past 3 years, the drops weren’t significant, but it slowly collected into my current GPA. If I have an improved GPA this semester (which I’m expecting), what would my chances be? Thanks!