Chance Me for Yale SCEA, UChicago (EDII?), Claremont McKenna (EDII?)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey! I applied for Yale SCEA as a prospective Global Studies major a few weeks ago, and I’d really appreciate it if y’all could chance me!

Demographics: Female, Asian (Chinese), NJ, top-ranked, competitive public school, no hooks

Intended Major(s): International Relations/Middle Eastern Studies/Political Science

ACT/SAT/SAT II: SAT: 1600; SAT IIs: 800s on World History, Math II, and Biology-M; APs: 5s on AP Macroeconomics, AP Calculus BC, APUSH, AP World History, AP Lang, and AP Chemistry

UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.0 UW, 4.8 W; school does not rank

Coursework: Highest possible (all honors/APs)

Awards:

  • National Gold Medal in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
  • American Voices Nominee in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
  • Certificate for Superior Writing in the NCTE Achievement Awards
  • National Spanish Exam Gold Medal 3x
  • State-level Chemistry Award

(I’m also a NMSF, but that’s in additional info.)

Extracurriculars:

  • Editor-in-Chief of an international media organization, manage a staff of 30+ people and publish art/writing/films/etc on sociopolitical issues
  • Co-Editor-in-Chief of school paper; cover world politics, national politics, some student life pieces, and some humor pieces and manage our staff
  • Co-Founder of a free tutoring service for the SAT/ACT with tutors and students internationally (PS: if you’re interested in this, please PM me! We’re looking for more tutors right now!)
  • National Security Language Initiative for Youth (State Department-run free, very selective study abroad program—my chosen language was Turkish! One of the prime reasons I’m heavily considering Middle Eastern Studies as a major.)
  • Legislative Aide @ State Assemblyman’s office (since my sophomore year)
  • Political campaign work (interned on a congressional campaign, volunteer currently for a Dem candidate in the presidential primaries)
  • Co-President of a political discussion club
  • Co-Treasurer of the debate team
  • Model UN (multiple Best Delegate, Outstanding Delegate, and Honorable Mentions at state + national levels)
  • Music (violin, singing, and ukulele!)

Other ECs I elaborated upon in the additional info section were being the VP of a local service club, serving as the Co-President of the Chinese Culture Club, serving as a coordinator for a local congressional campaign (in additional info because this is more recent), and serving as an ambassador for a start-up.

Essays/LORs/Other: As a writer, I have absolutely no objective way to judge my essays. Never ask me to rate my own writing. That’s impossible. For LORs, I got them from my APUSH teacher and my AP Chem teacher—also won’t rate those, since I waived FERPA and have no way of knowing. I got a supplemental rec from my boss, though, at the assemblyman’s office, and that rec was absolutely glowing.

Schools: Yale (SCEA), UW-Madison (EA), UVA (EA; applying for Jefferson Scholars here too), UChicago (maybe EDII), CMC (maybe EDII), Columbia, Northwestern, WashU, Wesleyan, Vassar, Hamilton, Middlebury, Stanford, USC, and a whole slew of other schools. Also applied to UK schools, UCLA, and UCB.

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This is incredible! I’m sure you have a good shot at any of the schools you’re applying to. Best of luck! :slight_smile:

3

Not sure how to PM you, but I am interested in becoming a tutor!

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Great stats and ECs. Yale would be dumb if they didn’t take you. But as you know the SCEA round is filled with students like you. I like your plan of going to ED2. You’d most certainly be scooped up by Chicago or Claremont during ED2 round.

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^ bumping this thread

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With such stats, the only thing that might deprive you from an acceptance is the quality of your essays. Nonetheless, I think a Yale acceptance would not be a surprise, if anything, it is merited. Good Luck!

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Female Asian student with high GPA/test scores not interested in STEM. Chances are decent. Of course the schools on your list will be reaches for any student, but obviously your application will be seriously evaluated.

I might add Georgetown since you have the 3 SAT Subject scores. And Princeton (Woody Woo) might be another reach worth considering.

Your academic profile is similar to a friend of my son who is currently attending Princeton as a history major and taking classes at Woody Woo (Chinese male with high scores in STEM, but focused on history/public policy). The ECs are somewhat similar-my son’s friend had Yale YGS as one of his ECs while you have the State Department one.

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definitely applying to georgetown sfs!! one of my top three choices and one of my dream schools, actually. considered princeton for a bit but it’s just so close to home :confused: got into one of my favorite british schools (king’s college london) with an unconditional today, though, so i’m really happy! i’m going to college!

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I feel like if you don’t get in to Yale, I’m not sure who they are accepting! Your profile looks excellent.

Do you really need to apply to twenty or more schools? My child’s high school would never allow this. Students at her school are capped at twelve colleges. You are ultimately only going to attend one, right?

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for my school, most kids apply to anywhere from 10 to 30. personally, i just really love my list lol! i tried to cut it down for about 2 months but ultimately couldn’t. my work output is decent, so i figured i could do it, and i only have about 5 supplements left to write! i might ultimately cut a few down now, though, since i got an offer from kcl.

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1 Can you afford OOS tuition for the UCs? If not, they can be dropped.

2 Even an applicant as impressive as you should have one safety - what's your safety?

3 For you, especially looking at your other LACs, I would recommend Pomona rather than CMC.

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yes, i can afford oos tuition! i got into king’s college london already, so i’ll be using that as a back-up, and other safeties include uw-madison and george washington. i hated pomona when i visited (absolutely detested it) but fell in love with cmc, which is why i chose that.

13

@spelledwithak,
I read your post on the Yale SCEA 2024 thread. Your qualifications are impressive. Don’t lose hope on Yale. A few sincere comments:

  • I think you are a very strong applicant and can apply to more top-ranking schools (if you like). Seeing only what you have posted (i.e., excl. references and essays), I would guess it could be a matter of competition (how many other applicants with a similar profile and background are applying to the same school) and match. So it could be helpful to try more schools--you only need one acceptance, right?
  • In particular, WWS, JHU, and Columbia also have strong IR presence. (You probably have done a thorough research already.) I know want to leave your home state and WWS will be very competitive since you are from the same state, but nevertheless, it is very outstanding and worth a try. (Fully understand if you want to go far away from NJ-NY area, or may prefer to live near Georgetown rather than in Baltimore.) But please reconsider WWS!
  • If you have not looked into it, also check out Brown/Watson. The open curriculum may allow you pursue your interests deeply, and/or explore new ones. It's not for everyone, but it seems like you have the maturity and know what you want to do. There has been an lot of recent development and investment into Watson. (You probably know Columbia has the Core. So the two are markedly different, in many ways.)
  • Stanford is very strong in most subjects, including outside of STEM. Worth trying, too. It will be a very good experience going to CA from NJ.
  • Quite curious about your choice of Turkish for the State program. That is a rather unique achievement/item in your application. If suitable, may be you could elaborate more on that in your application, together with your interest in middle-east studies, for example.
  • Suggestion (Summary): focus more in competitive schools, especially when you think you have some safeties. You do sound quite a competitive candidate.

Don’t give up and just try your best. You really have achieved a lot already. Hope you get a good break and wish you all the best. Good luck in 2020!