Chance me for Yale

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

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. Yale is one of my top two schools 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), Brown, 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!

2

An MIT Admissions Director probably says it best: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/939227-reminder-no-one-not-even-me-can-give-you-an-accurate-chance-at-mit-p1.html

Please read his thread to learn why it’s impossible to chance you for Yale.

FWIW: Here’s my take on it. Five years ago, my son was accepted to 10 out of 11 colleges. On every single acceptance letter was a handwritten note from either the Dean of Admissions or the Regional Admissions Director. Each note made mention of my son’s essay, as in “After reading your essay, the committee’s vote was unanimous” or “Loved your essay about your baseball coach” or “Welcome! Based on your essay, we feel you will be a huge asset to our school.” When my daughter applied to college six years ago, she received similar comments on her acceptance letters regarding her essays.

Not one comment on either my daughter or son’s acceptance letters said “Great SAT scores” or “What a wonderful transcript” or “Fantastic EC’s” or “Loved your GPA.” In fact, in all my time on College Confidential, I’ve never heard of any Admissions Officer making comments like that.

So, IMHO, after a student has reached a certain level – say 2250 SAT / 34 ACT/ with a top GPA – it all comes down to your essays and what your teacher and guidance counselor say about you in the letters of recommendation. Do your essays portray you as authentic, compassionate, articulate, likable? Do your essays show strength of “character?” That’s an old fashioned word; it means the way you develop your inner qualities: intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for community, tolerance, inclusiveness and love of learning. Do your letters of recommendation from your teachers and GC back-up what you have said about yourself in your essays?

Your chances have MORE to do with those subjective qualities than any of the quantifiables you listed above. Here’s a video from a Stanford Admissions Director saying the same thing. My guess is that Yale feels exactly the same way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UYhTylqC9o&ab_channel=CampbellHallCC.

Best of luck to you in the Admissions process!

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Thanks for the helpful advice! I realize that tons of people get turned away who have great academic and extracurricular qualifications, so I’m definitely working hard to make my essay great.

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But also don’t miss Gibby’s point about what the LORs will say about you. You can’t overnight become likable and a joy to teach and an asset to your classmates. Either you’ve been that already or not. Students don’t realize how important being likable is in the LORs.

5

You have already gotten good advice from parents, some of who, like me, are alumni and have students currently in the school. No one can calculate your chance for being admitted to a school that has a less that 7% admit rate. Most students that apply have the same exact attributes you do. Please listen to the advice that your LOC’s, counselor recommendation, extra-curriculars that you can show are near and dear to your heart and a outstanding essay is what will help you stand out. I always focus on the essays. My advice is to keep your parents out of the process (parents will gasp here). Adult intervention in essay writing is obvious to AdComs and can be a kiss of death. Write an essay that comes from a place within you. Though people may say that there is no depth in 17 year olds, I absolutely disagree. Whether it is sports, helping out in your community, doing research, playing an instrument or whatever, there is something that is dear to you and that you can write passionately about. I read an essay about the lack of sleep of a swimmer and how they went through high school in a fog because of early morning practices - yet managed to excel in school. I am sure that stood out to the committee. She was admitted to her first choice. My daughter wrote about stuttering and how she overcame it via public speaking and competitions.

If you have not started writing your essay, do it now!! It is hard to be creative when you have schoolwork and other activities competing for your time. Begin it now in the summer so that you can work on it and tweak it over the next few months. Let an adult read it before you send it for grammatical errors and to let you know if it flows. They should not “correct” it or write it for you.

Good luck!!

6

[QUOTE=""]
Let an adult read it before you send it for grammatical errors and to let you know if it flows. They should not "correct" it or write it for you.

[/QUOTE]

This is important.

That adult CAN be a parent, but only if the relationship works for that. If not, find a teacher or trusted family friend.

My kid let me look over his essays, and I would point out things like “I’m not following your logic here” or “you’re over-using that adjective” or “consider how this might read to someone who doesn’t know you well” or “consider including more specifics” but beyond that he was on his own – for better or for worse.

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@gibby On virtually all of my kids acceptance letters a couple of years ago there were notes from admission officers regarding their transcripts which included both high school and college classes taken while in high school. There was nothing about their essays. I think each individual case is different and no hard and fast rule applies. The application as a whole must show who you are as a person and a future student. The guidance counselor backed up my child as a strong student so I think that was important. I personally think essays are over rated but I have no evidence one way or the other to back it up

8

I’m inclined to think that LoRs (especially the GC) count more than essays, essays next, and then …

However, AOs forgot to ask me into the room while they were deciding on my kids’ cohort, so who knows?

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@Collegedad13: Fascinating, because evidence strongly suggests that the college applications process at schools like HYPSM et al IS NOT a meritocracy, meaning students with “the best” transcripts and test scores do not always get accepted over those students with lessor stats. So, IMHO, I think your kids experience are an anomaly and not the norm. To wit: very few high school students actually have college classes on their transcripts, so your kids have had a skewed experience that most (98% of students possibly) do not have.

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MODERATOR’S NOTE:
May I remind the above 3 posters that the comments made, while interesting, are off-topic. In a post like this, where the student is asking a question, s/he is really not looking for sidebar conversations, which are better handled in PM’s or in a new thread.

To the Original Poster, the above 3 posters, while offering excellent advice, serve to highlight the point that was made in the first response:

As knowledgeable as many other these users are, all are offering opinions only, since none of them are AO’s.

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@porcupine98 - if only all parents could do this it would be fine. I work with kids on essays and I find that parents will find a topic for them, write whole paragraphs, correct it beyond reason and then have them send it in with none of the child’s voice left in it. That’s why I tell today’s “bulldozer parents” to stay out of it. The advice you listed is valid and helpful, but in the end, I still think its best that a non interested party read it like a trusted teacher or counselor. Some students are lucky enough to be able to write their essays as an assignment in English in the 11th grade. This is a good move that more schools should have as an option.

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@skieurope - Thank you!!! There is no magic bullet that gets a kid into college, especially top tier ones with single digit admit rates. Even having gotten your own kid into such a school does not make one an expert (speaking for myself here). I think what’s helpful here is not absolutes, but the discussion that the student should be looking at schools that fit them, not applying to schools based solely on prestige, name or ranking.

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@Tperry1982 Our school did the junior year writing assignment thing, and it was a HUGE help. I never saw any of the personal essay until it had already blossomed as a teacher-reviewed assignment. I mostly reviewed the supplementary essays (biting my tongue all the way). I would have been happy to have someone else do it, but wasn’t sorry my kid trusted me with it.

And sorry for going off topic, moderators. But note for OP: Use your own voice in your essay and just get second opinions for possible misfires.