<p>Im currently at a community college and Im going to apply as a junior transfer to Yale class of 2012. Here are my stats if anyone can chance me:</p>
<p>High School GPA: Very detrimental. Around 2.3 or less
College GPA: 3.87
SAT: 2300
SAT II's: Not yet taken, but Im taking Japanese, French, Spanish, and Math level II. I know SATIIs aren't given much weight but I can speak those languages fluently so yeah.</p>
<p>College EC's:
1) I have an internship at a neuroscience lab that published a paper (so my name was on it!) I worked around 20hr/wk for 6 months but I was only a lab tech.
2) I am going be a research student at a highly competitive biomed grad school. I also did intensive biomed research for another company for 10 weeks that worked w/ only CC students last summer.
3) I found the Independent Party club at my school.
4) I might go to Oxford to study abroad, although Im not sure this counts as an EC? Someone advise me about this please?</p>
<p>High School ECs: 200 hr of community service at a hospital</p>
<p>College Awards: None so far. Is this important? </p>
<p>Other info: Im a south-east Indian (does that make me a minority?) from Kashmir. Im also a first generation college student hoping to attend med school, hence all my effort in research.
FYI I'm also an English major, so should I do something w/ the newspaper? Or do more English related things?</p>
<p>What are my chances and what do you suggest I do to make my application competitive? HELP PLEASE! I know my chances of getting in are less than 3% but I'm still going to try my best!</p>
<p>Oh! And one last EC: I MIGHT (this winter break) volunteer at a hospital in India where I could do directly work with doctors in a leprosy clinic. However, I'm not sure I will do this because it is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. It is an EC I am considering though.</p>
<p>i would not spend your time applying there, its not going to happen</p>
<p>the type of applicant who gets into yale has a lot more ec's and a heck of a lot of awards/accomplishments...like you said, the top 3% got in, i think you would be in the very bottom class of applicants</p>
<p>you sound like a hard worker, but your high school gpa is so low. Schools like yale take kids who were top 5% in HS and went on to really prestigious colleges where they did remarkably, and even a ton get rejected because there transfer rate is so low. I know harvard sometimes doesn't take transfer at all, I'm guessing Yale probably does that as well (accepts 0% of transfers).</p>
<p>it sounds like you did terribly in HS and went on to become a really dilligent worker at CC. I'm sure you will find a good place to transfer to, but Yale is a really long shot. I feel your pain, I'm also planning on applying to an elite college (cornell) from nyu, and I know it's hard :(</p>
<p>wow i totally am in awe that you were shot down like that, it is true your hs gpa is bad but that is not a big deal especially if you can explain it somehow, yale tends to like cc students who wouldnt have otherwise had the chance to consider yale. i feel like what you are doing is great, you just have to right a killer essay conveying it and why yale and you need eachother.</p>
<p>Polska, are you confusing Yale transfers with Stanford? Stanford generally tends to accept mostly CC applicants in their transfer pools, while Yale transfers come from all over the place. Our resident Yale transfer, MagiTF, came from UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>MrX, your profile (at least college-wise) is actually very good. Nice extracurriculars...but I'm not sure what they have to do with English. If you were majoring in a research-based hard science, it demonstrates a high interest in an area and (hopefully) accomplishment in it. Definitely try to do something with the newspaper and other English-related things, and see if you can make your interest(s)? in English and research/medical can mesh more than they seem to be doing right now.</p>
<p>-Mention the Kashmir bit in your personal essay
-Try to do that Indian EC, but again it still has to make sense in your entire profile</p>
<p>It's going to take a lot, though, to make up for that high school GPA. I'm not sure if its possible. Try some other high-end, easier transfer schools (Georgetown, Cornell, Northwestern, Rice, etc.) Yale is a crap-shoot for even perfect students.</p>
<p>Your high school GPA is not as important given you are transferring as a junior. Your chances are as good as any if not better, so shoot for the moon and perhaps you'll land on a star!</p>
<p>I'm not saying don't apply to Yale, but I would just like to add that I'm applying to Cornell and that they have a lot more CC students who transfer there as juniors and more get accepted. I don't know if you're interested in cornell or not, but it's also a great college and cc transfers seem to have better luck there. Just a thought.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Polska, are you confusing Yale transfers with Stanford? Stanford generally tends to accept mostly CC applicants in their transfer pools, while Yale transfers come from all over the place. Our resident Yale transfer, MagiTF, came from UC Berkeley.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes, it's S that last year took about 15 of it's 20 or so transfers from CCs or non-traditional students. Haven't seen such a pattern with Y, last year there were at least 2 students on this forum from top 4-yr publics.</p>
<p>Well I have a lot of research based stuff because I'm a premed student. I also know Med Schools tend to prefer nontraditional majors, so it's not that odd I'm majoring in English. </p>
<p>Also, to Dufflebadjesus: although I don't have THAT many ECs, I have spent a ridiculously long time involving myself in them. I thought ECs were about quality, not quantity? Unless you're suggesting none of my ECs are worth much alone...</p>
<p>And since I'm applying as a junior, wouldn't they look at how I've improved since High School? I think I have a rags to riches story. I also know there was one girl on these boards who barely even showed up to high school, went to CC, and then transferred to Yale, so my High School gpa shouldn't kill me, right? </p>
<p>I already know my gpa and SAT score will get them to take me seriously, but I dunno if everything else I have is substantial enough.
As for the awards thing, how important is that? </p>
<p>Am I REALLY going to be at the bottom of the applications? I thought my app was fairly competitive...</p>
<p>I think your ECs are definitely competitive. Many of the transfer students I know here did a lot of research at their old schools, and you seem to be on top of that. Since you founded the IP at your school, I assume you're quite active in it? That's probably a good thing as you don't want to be completely research oriented (Yale probably wants students with lives too :P ). My application was balanced between competitive ballroom dance and lab research.</p>
<p>Your college GPA is in striking range, too. Even with your HS GPA, your stats suggest that you have a good shot (as much as anyone could possibly have with 3% acceptance). Now it comes down to your essays and sheer luck.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Polska, are you confusing Yale transfers with Stanford? Stanford generally tends to accept mostly CC applicants in their transfer pools, while Yale transfers come from all over the place. Our resident Yale transfer, MagiTF, came from UC Berkeley.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I can only speak for the 2008 transfers, but there weren't really many CC students at all at Yale. Most kids seemed to come from big flagship state schools... nearly 1/3 of the transfers in my year came from Berkeley, Michigan, and UCLA alone (out of the 23 applicants, there were 3 from Berkeley, 2 from Michigan and 2 from UCLA). There were also transfers from Wisconsin, Ohio State, Penn State and three of the military academies. I only recall one transfer from a CC, and he went to some bizarre CC in California that was communally run by the students or something.</p>
<p>ok so i was definitely wrong about that statement, i read this thread a long time ago and i think it gave me that impression though, it may be of use </p>
<p>It's obvious that since you are only interested in Yale, especially when you don't have the credentials to get in that you are obsessed with prestige. That will NOT help you at all, you need to have a really great reason for why you want to go to a school other than the fact that it's in the elite. </p>
<p>Being from south-Asia is not going to help you, SA's are overrepresented as it is anyways so I wouldn't rely on that. Start looking at other schools, you're not getting into Yale so start looking outside of prestige and you might realize that there is a LOT non-ivy's can offer a student.</p>
<p>I don't get it. Am I or am I not competitive? And if not can you be more specific?</p>
<p>Oh, and UC Berkeley is my first choice school because it's the most affordable for my family. But that doesn't stop me from applying to Yale. </p>
<p>I'm not obsessed w/ prestige. If you care to read, I'll explain why I want to go to Yale:</p>
<p>Although I actually attended a really prestigious high school for 2 years, I was forced to transfer to another public school with an atrociously low academic rank. Sometimes teachers wouldn't even show up to class for weeks! The differences between the two schools were remarkable; my new school completely denied me of an education and I ended up being truant a lot because I felt independent study was far more enriching than attending class. (hence my 2.3 gpa) I spent months just hiding out and reading everything I could in the library. (until of course, the school caught me and I was nearly expelled)</p>
<p>A few years later, I noticed how my friends from my old school were getting into Princeton and Yale and I just felt so...cheated of having a proper education. That could have been me in the Ivy League right now but I would never have been considered because of my school- EVEN if I got a 4.0. I couldn't even afford to go to a 4 yr university right out of high school, so I ended up at CC. </p>
<p>I just want to go to Yale because I crave that intensive educational atmosphere where I can be thoroughly challenged and pushed to bring out my best. I want to feel accomplished, like I actually expanded my mind and even changed as a person, when I get an A in a class. I think Yale is the school that can completely blow my mind because the professors are the best of the best. Sure there are other good schools, but I doubt academically they rank higher than Yale. </p>
<p>I seem to be offending a lot of ppl w/ this thread though. Ill gladly take Berkeley if thats the only school that accepts me, but why are most ppl saying I have absolutely no chance of being admitted to Yale? I don't mind ppl being pragmatic, but seriously, at least tell me what I can do to improve?</p>
<p>Oh, and one last thing about a potential EC:</p>
<p>I auditioned to be one of the 7 ambassadors in the Tournament of Roses Parade 2009. Basically, 7 girls are chosen as "royalty" out of 1,500 auditions and they're supposed to be the faces of the parade while attending over 150 public and media functions. It's kind of a unique thing and I've been called back; the judges told me I have a REALLY good chance of being the top 30 before they start cutting down to 7 girls. </p>
<p>Should I participate in this? If I get chosen, I'll have to drop doing some of my biomed research though.
Is it worth it?</p>
<p>don't really know much about this, but as a pre-med major, why would you want to drop something important like biomed research to be a face in a parade?
i'm sorry, don't really know much about the tournament of roses, so maybe I'm misunderstanding the situation. ultimately, the choice is yours as to whether you would prefer to do research or the parade, so if you really want to be one of those 7 girls, go ahead and drop some research. sorry i'm not much help.</p>