Chance me, please?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>Hi! I'm new to CC, and I'm wondering what my chances are at Yale (or any Ivy League, really). I know that it's all very subjective, and a lot of it is random, but I want to know if I'm at the very least in the ballpark, and where I can improve in my application. Thanks a bunch! I'll be submitting my ACT scores.</p>

<p>SAT I: </p>

<p>Composite: 2180
Reading: 790
Math: 670
Writing: 720</p>

<p>SAT II: </p>

<p>Math II 740
Math I 730
US History 710</p>

<p>ACT: [1st time/2nd time]</p>

<p>Composite: 33/34
English: 35/34
Math: 32/36
Reading: 33/36
Science: 33/30</p>

<p>GPA: </p>

<p>4.0 Unweighted
4.381/5 Weighted</p>

<p>AP SCORES: </p>

<p>Sophomore Year: AP US History (5)
Junior Year: AP Enviro (5); AP Gov (4)
Senior Year: AP Calculus BC, AP German, AP English, AP Economics, AP Biology</p>

<p>MAJOR AWARDS: </p>

<p>2-time Best Attorney Award (Mock Trial)
Best Witness Award (Mock Trial)
Outstanding Varsity Speaker Award
City-wide Poetry Contest Champion
Honorable Mention in Scholastic Art & Writing Awards</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULARS:</p>

<p>Speech/Debate (Public Forum Captain, 2-time Extemporaneous/Impromptu Captain, Team President) (4-time National Alternate, Top 30 in Nation in Impromptu Speaking, National Qualifier, 3-time State Semifinalist) </p>

<p>Mock Trial (2-time Team Captain) (3-time State Qualifier, 7th and 10th place in State)</p>

<p>Advanced Chorus (Vice President) (1st freshman girl to make Advanced Chorus in 15 years, 13 gold medals ISSMA Solo & Ensemble, 2-time ISSMA State Qualifiers, 6th and 10th place State, sang in Carnegie Hall)</p>

<p>Music Lessons (8 years of piano lessons, 6 years of vocal lessons)</p>

<p>Musical Theater (4 shows, 2 solo roles)</p>

<p>Creative Writing (Wrote 4 novels, Champion of a city-wide poetry contest, Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Honorable Mention)</p>

<p>Junior Class Vice President, Student Council</p>

<p>Junior Varsity Golf (2 years)</p>

<p>National Honor Society (Vice President)</p>

<p>VOLUNTEER/COMMUNITY SERVICE:</p>

<p>Environmental Community Service (20 hrs)
Special Needs Elementary School Tutor (40 hrs)
CASS Counselor (70 hrs)</p>

<p>SUMMER ACTIVITIES:</p>

<p>9th grade summer - Sang in Carnegie Hall with choir, Debate Camp at Stanford </p>

<p>10th grade summer - Debate Camp at Stanford (more advanced class), instructor at speech camp at my high school</p>

<p>11th grade summer - Internship at local Parks & Rec Department, National Speech/Debate Tournament, instructor at speech camp at my high school</p>

<p>OTHER NOTES:</p>

<p>I write good essays and have already written my Yale, UPenn, and UChicago ones. My teachers have already written my letters of recommendation, and they're excellent. I will be submitting my ACT scores, not my SAT scores, so consequently I will not be sending in my SAT II scores. 3 kids from my school have gotten into Yale in the past 2 years, so I feel we have a strong regional admissions officer. What can I do to improve my application? I appreciate anyone's help. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Since you haven’t won anything amazing and don’t have crazy stats (i.e. 2400 and 800s on all subject tests) you need GREAT essays. Good won’t cut it.</p>

3

<p>Also, forgot to mention it, and I’m too exhausted to figure out how to edit my post. My class rank is 5th out of 566. And thank you for your response :)</p>

4

<p>Sorry I can’t help too much, but here’s some advice as a fellow high school writer/drama department member:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>The 4 novels thing is prolly not something that belongs on your app. I work on a lit journal (more on that in a sec) and when people mention things like that in their bios it irks us to no end, so I imagine it might irk colleges too. Just a thought. From our perspective at the journal, it just means you can write volumes – not necessarily well – and you definitely don’t want to come across as pretentious. (I’m sure your novels are great though.) </p></li>
<li><p>Scholastic Honorable Mention Regionally or Nationally? (Makes a difference, obviously, at least in my mind. Plus if it was just Regionally and then you brag about writing 4 novels they’re going to assume that you just write a lot but not extraordinarily well.) (PS - Scholastic is <em>awesome</em> and you should def enter this year again because scholarship money.) </p></li>
<li><p>Try to keep entering (and winning) competitions (but make sure they aren’t scams!!!), because let me tell ya man there are some writers with crazy credentials (and academics) out there who will also be applying to Ivies. Or look into online publications. My lit journal Adroit accepts young writers submissions – send something in :slight_smile: </p></li>
<li><p>Solo roles as in sing a solo (as in lines or whole songs, at that?) or as in major part? </p></li>
</ul>

<p>Your speech/debate creds are very impressive though (in my opinion, moreso than the citywide poetry contest and honorable mention in Scholastic [again depends regional vs national]), and your academics are impressive as well. I think if you can really focus the speech/debate to link in with the theatre (seems like if you word things properly you can make that connection) that will help you a lot because it’ll give you as a candidate a distinctive marker, rather than you just being another student with a 4.0 and a plethora of extracurriculars. Best of luck to ye :)</p>

5

<p>Oops, it seems Scholastic <em>only</em> Honorable Mentions regionally – my bad. In that case, I’d emphasize the speech/debate and theatre (I’m still thinking especially speech/debate most of all) wayyy over the writing, because Honorable Mentions go to about 15-20% of those who enter Scholastic, so it’s not a particularly big deal. (Don’t mean to be harsh, but it just seems like you have some impressive stuff and you’d want to show that first and foremost rather than something that’s just fairly good.)</p>

6

<p>I can’t thank you enough for your feedback ^^ I was indeed planning on featuring speech & debate and mock trial over everything else, since it’s really the activity I’ve devoted the most time to. And thanks for the recommendation–I submitted a piece of flash fiction to Adroit. Also, I have a question. I looked on your website, but I had trouble finding it–what’s your policy on sim subs?</p>