Chance me? (Sorry in advance)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

know these chance me sites don’t really do too much in actually predicting admission decisions, but I would really like some feedback.
SAT I (breakdown): 2340 (one sitting), 800 CR, 750 M (only got 1 question wrong…), 790 (W)
ACT (breakdown): Didn’t take
SAT II: 800 Chemistry, 800 Physics, going to take Math II
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0 (don’t give weighted)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1%, at worst #2
AP (place score in parenthesis): Gov, Calc BC, Lang, Comp Sci, Chem, Physics 2, APUSH, Bio, Psych (taken over two years, all 5s)
IB (place score in parenthesis): None
Senior Year Course Load:
AP Euro
AP World
AP Enviro
AP Stats
Two orchestras
French 5 (no AP french at my school)
Health (graduation requirement)
Calculus III/Linear Algebra (Dual enrollment)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): President’s Gold Volunteer Service Award; AP National Scholar; National Merit Semi-finalist (predicted, PSAT score of 235); Bausch and Lombe Scholarship from U of R (10k/year)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Tri-high district council; Pit orchestra (section leader); Symphony orchestra (Treasurer), Chemistry Honor Society (President), National Honor Society, Bio Honor Society (Secretary), Science Olympiad (Captain), Student Council (Exec Board), Math Honor Society; Volunteer Organization (Advisory Board)
Job/Work Experience: Internship for two years at medical research institute (3 hours/week, 40 weeks/year); two interships this summer in genomics and cancer biology (2 hours/ week, 15 weeks/year and 34 hours/week, 15 weeks a year)-- writing a paper with mentor
Volunteer/Community service: two volunteer organizations, both with leadership and multiple awards, ~250 hours
Summer Activities: Previously mentioned internships; volunteering

Applied for Financial Aid?: I will be
Intended Major: Molecular Biochemistry / Computer Science
State (if domestic applicant): NY
School Type: Public - 1600 Kids, 400 Seniors
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: >150k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Women in STEM (especially for comp. sci)

Other Info:
have been doing a local gifted math program through a local university, so I have been accelerated two years in math. I was the top-scorer on the entrance exam to this program and have been one of the top students for the past 5 years (the program starts in 7th grade). I am most likely a recipient of the 1k scholarship they distribute to top students at the end of the year. I also skipped a grade (5th). I know this is not as important but it speaks somewhat to my intellectual maturity. Lastly, I am a member of JHU’s SET program, which I qualified for when I was 12 by receiving a 2150 (1500 CR+M). Since I achieved over a 700 in both critical reading and math, I was considered a double-qualifier (which is top 1 in 100k according to a letter from the program). This program is relatively well-known and this information will be communicated between SET and my counselor and put down in my counselor recommendation. I have also been talking to some SET counselors about college. This isn’t paid or anything, but they have told me about what each school I am interested in has to offer and have provided a valuable adult perspective.

Thank you in advance!! Yale is my top choice and I will be applying SCEA. I am also very interested in UPenn and Dartmouth.

2

Please take a look at this post from an MIT Admissions Director on chance posting, as everything in it applies to Yale as well:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/939227-reminder-no-one-not-even-me-can-give-you-an-accurate-chance-at-mit-p1.html

You seem like a wonderful candidate, as are the thousands of other students who apply and are rejected. As Yale receives more applications from qualified applicants than they have seats in the freshman class, Admissions uses a student’s essays, teacher recommendations, guidance counselor report (SSR) and interview report to select one high-performing student over another. As you haven’t posted that information (nor should you), the only way you’re going to find out your chances is by submitting your application. Best of luck to you!

3

Ditto everything Gibby says. I wanted to mention that DS was a bit miffed when one wrong math question got a reduction of 40 points (and he characterized it as a “count on your fingers easy question”), but your sitting was even more harsh. I assume that this is one of the things that they’ll fix in the new SAT, because one question wrong can range from 20 - 50 points off, which seems too wide on an 800 point scale. But, I digress…

Good luck. Go for CS :slight_smile:

4

[QUOTE=""]
writing a paper with mentor

[/QUOTE]

Was the paper published? If so, where?

Discuss your choice of major in your personal statement. If they will let you, get one letter from your advisor at the medical institute and ask h/her to write about your capacity to conduct independent research. You can also ask Yale to have your application read by faculty that are doing similar projects.

You have the math background to do well in CS. If you want to study computer science, make sure you tell them why you want to pursue that area and have a roster of potential faculty mentors (from Yale) ready.

5

@jsm2015 Since the paper is based almost exclusively on research I did over this summer, the paper is in the process of being written, so it has not been submitted to a publication yet. My mentor, however, has many publications to his name and is a well-respected professor. Thank you for the other advice! You are absolutely right. As for Yale, the supplemental material page even asks anyone who has done scientific research to submit a recommendation letter from the mentor, so I will do that.