<p>I go to a top private school in Boston. It's crazy competitive, so my GPA is pretty low, but I've had an upward trend since freshman year and got mosty As, a few A- my junior year (most rigorous course load available).
GPA: ~3.73 UW
SAT: 2350
Sat II: Latin 790, Math I 800, Chem 770</p>
<p>ECs: Lit Mag 4 years (Editor-in-chief), newspaper 4 yrs (section editor), piano 11 years + school orchestra, I tutor middle schoolers twice a week (4 years), started creative writing club and community service program teaching underprivileged kids to write creatively (president + founder), interned at a lit mag + a newspaper, published in 3 lit mags + multiple times in a newspaper, independent physics research, physics lab internship @ MIT for a summer, some random community service clubs</p>
<p>I know I'm not a competitive applicant in terms of ECs + academics, but I'm wondering if you think I have any shot at all (EA or RD)? I want to major in english and minor in physics. This school is literally my dream, but I don't want to apply if it's a lost cause and I would fare better at a less prestigious school. Do you think there's any way the 3.7 thing can be amended?</p>
<p>Not sure what’s wrong with your EC’s. As for the GPA, grades are extremely important, but Yale does consider an upward trend. And it also depends how hard the grading is in your school (as determined by the GPA’s of top-achieving students in your school). The most recent common data set notes that 97% of admitted students were in the top 10% of their high school classes, but does not release admission statistics by GPA. ( Likely a sizable majority were in the top 5 %, so consider that when deciding whether to apply.)</p>
<p>I don’t think Yale is a “lost cause” if your class rank is OK, but Yale is a long shot for almost everyone, so make sure you have some other “dream schools” that you can happily see yourself at that have more reasonable admit statistics. Probably the most careful and thoughtful application choices you should make are not your reaches, but your safeties – financial as well as academic. I would not apply to Yale EA, as Yale only takes the strongest applicants in that round. You need to have really strong recs; also work hard on your essays, and make sure to show them to a trusted adult before sending them. Good luck wherever you decide to apply.</p>
<p>Your testing is great, and your ECs really tell the school what you’re passionate about. I think from that standpoint your doing fine. But as for the GPA, I think the school will look at how hard your school grades and compare you to other kids in your class. If you’re outside the top 10% in your class, Yale might be thinking youre a slacker :o</p>
<p>Does your high school use Naviance or something similar? If they do, you can check your GPA against fellow students from your high school with similar stats who applied to Yale. That might be a better indication than asking folks here at CC.</p>