Chance Me Please :D

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>I like Yale a lot, and really hope to be able to get in. But I guess this can apply to the other Ivies as well, as there's a good chance I may get rejected :P</p>

<p>Anyway, here it goes...</p>

<p>I'm a Junior from Missouri at a competitive public school with 2400 students.</p>

<p>GPA: Currently, 3.85...<em>cringes</em> I expect it to be around 3.88 by the time I apply for SCEA, but it would be around 3.9~ if I apply regular (btw, should I wait for the RD round just to get my GPA higher?)</p>

<p>SAT: 2310</p>

<p>SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Physics, 800 Bio (Expected, but I know that doesn't mean much)</p>

<p>AP Courses: AP European History (5), AP Art History (5), AP Physics (5), AP Computer Science (5)
- Currently taking AP Environmental Science, AP Gov, AP Lang, AP Stats, and AP Calc AB (and hoping to get 5's)</p>

<p>Major Awards:
- National Merit Semi...maybe finals eventually?
- Selected among 25 in state for science academy
- Some Chinese speech contests
- Some local piano competitions...don't mean much
(Not much here...I'll work on it)</p>

<p>Volunteering:
- Volunteer at local hospital (200+ hours)
- Volunteer at Chinese school
- NHS volunteer work
- Going to China this summer to teach rural kids English
- Some tutoring</p>

<p>EC's:
- Mock Trial Co-President
- Science Olympiad President and Founder - very committed
- Debate Team (3 years now - very committed; teach policy)
- NHS member
- Have been taking private art lessons for 7 years now...love to paint for fun
- Played the piano (11 years); some local awards
- Make websites for fun...?
- Tennis (JV two years)
- Did research at WashU for the summer</p>

<p>Summer Activities:
- Went to Europe
- Went to the Harvard People to People program</p>

<p>Hooks:
- Antihook: Asian</p>

<p>Obviously things will improve by next year, as I'll be working on a lot of stuff this year. But I'm just wondering how I'm doing so farr?</p>

<p>THANKS A TON IN ADVANCE!!!!</p>

2

<p>Your situation raises interesting questions of strategy that you should think about carefully. As I think you know, your stats are in the zone for top schools, but they aren’t super-high for those schools. Your activities and achievements are very good, but again maybe not super-tip-top. Your grades may go up some, and your SAT may go up, too, if you take it again.
But if your stats are just like this when it comes time to apply, I’m not sure I would advise you to use your one early option on Yale. If you look at the results thread, the vast majority of students similar to you were deferred. You might want to look instead at other schools that use EA and apply to several of those instead. You could also, perhaps, identify a school that you like well enough to apply ED, which probably helps in terms of getting in–but if you do get in, you have to go there.</p>

3

<p>“btw, should I wait for the RD round just to get my GPA higher?”</p>

<p>I think your file will benefit from your knocking out a slew of As your first sememster Senior year. I would forego SCEA, if I were you.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for your advice!</p>

<p>And yeah, I might just go for UPenn ED or something else that’s more safe. I was deciding between those two.</p>