Chance my AWESOME friend!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>My best friend doesnt want to waste time making a CC account she would never use (lol she's more of the myspace/facebook type) so she asked me to make a chances thread for her</p>

<p>anyways, she is VERY VERY nervous abt Yale SCEA admissions, and she would like to find out sooner rather than later if she had a good chance in the 1st place.</p>

<p>Ethnicity: African American
Income: 23,000/family of 7 (she mentioned this on her fee waiver request + her father’s occupation qualifies her as “very low-income” in the eyes of the admissions committee.)</p>

<p>GPA: 3.83UW 4.728 weighted
Rank: 2 out of 350</p>

<p>SAT’s: Superscore: 2110 (660 M/720Cr/730Wr)</p>

<p>SAT II's: 760 Spanish with listening; 720 USH </p>

<p>Course schedule: IB Diploma Candidate/most likely recipient (her courses include IB Math Methods SL, IB Philo HL, IB Chem SL, IB History of Europe HL, and AP Bio)</p>

<p>AP’s:
AP World History: 5
AP US History: 5
AP English Language: 5
AP Spanish Language: 4
AP Comparative Govt: 4</p>

<p>IB Spanish B SL 7 out of 7 </p>

<p>EC's, Awards, etc.-- relatively strong, but only “OKish” as compared with other CC’ers:
1. President of Key/Service Club 12th; Activities Officer; 11th; active member (9-12 grades); she ran/organized lots of activities for the school
2. VP of Spanish Club (11th-12); Service Officer 10th
3. Forensics/Speech; Last year’s State Qualifyer runner-up
4. Humanitarian/world Club (10-12)
5. Lots of hours (300+) of volunteer work
6. Field Hockey--- plans to join the club/intramural team (hopefully at Yale ;))
7. Harvard Book Award
8. National Achievement Semi-finalist
9. AP Scholar w/ Distinction
10. County Student of the Year Award
11. Admitted to Governor’s school program last summer
12. Questbridge Prep Scholarship Award</p>

<p>also, our school is quasi-urban; low quality in terms of education (as compared to the more wealthier schools in our district---- idk if our gc's actually state this, but they send a profile along w/ our transcripts that show the school's average SAT as compared w/ the county as a whole, plus the range of gpa's---- this doesnt look so pretty!</p>

2

<p>Well, overall, she does stand a chance. The only thing that would bother me is her SAT score. It's a little low. Not horrible, just a little on the low side. Also, Her UW GPA isn't outstanding, but its good. However, her W GPA does show that she took many advanced courses. Unfortunately, Yale does look at your school profile very seriously and that might reflect poorly. But since she made the best of everything your school had to offer (as it seems), that does mean a lot. Wow, i hope she gets in (coming from another urban-dweller). Honestly, I think it could go either way, but even if she doesnt get accepted, her family's "very-low income" should get her plenty of financial aid anywhere else she applies (so she shouldnt think that the Ivy's will be the only top schools to grant full-tuition) and she can definitely get into plenty of great universities.</p>

3

<p>thanks!!! alguien mas?</p>

4

<p>she's going to get in.</p>

<p>1) she's black
2) she's got great scores
3) she's... in</p>

5

<p>^^Not true bro...have you checked the 2012 and 2011 SCEA and Regular threads? No one's in for sure.</p>

6

<p>not to be racist but she will have a very strong chance- low income, black, academically active, well-rounded?</p>

<p>affirmative action won't fail lol</p>

7

<p>^^like I said before, not true. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>Yale doesn't want "well-rounded". They might have 5 years ago. Now they want well-rounded AND completely amazing at a couple of things - great depth as well as breadth, which (no offense) this person just doesn't have. I can't read through that list of activities and figure out what the person is actually interested in vs. what the person is doing robotically.</p></li>
<li><p>I'm not 100% sure, but I don't believe that the Yale adcoms have any idea how low-income you are besides the fact that you check the aid box. And if they're need-blind, they shouldn't even know that. I checked the aid box, and my family makes nearly $200,000. I don't think the people making these decisions will know the difference between my situation and the OP's friend.</p></li>
<li><p>Academically active? Are you joking? Please tell me one person who has been admitted to Yale who is not 'academically active.' Whatever that means...</p></li>
<li><p>Again, like I said before, plenty of black people with similar scores have gotten rejected or waitlisted by Yale. Please, AA cynics, do yourselves a favor and check out the past threads about Yale admissions, focusing especially on the people of color who got rejected. It proves that at this highest level, that there are enough people of every race and creed, enough high scorers, and enough overall amazing people for Yale to be able to really shape and choose it's class. They aren't so desperate for minorities that they would completely abandon their holistic process in lieu of scraping together some semblance of diversity. Yes, the standards might be a bit different for some "hooked" groups, blacks included, but they aren't completely tossed by the wayside. If you look carefully, nearly all the accepted black students embody the same ideals that Yale looks for in all its students, and those who are rejected likewise don't have the solid application that would have gotten them in, like the other rejects of every race.</p></li>
</ol>

8

<p>Though a little too harsh, "princessbell" makes a good point. Yale has absolutely no idea about the income level of her family and even if they did, they honestly don't care if you can't compete academically. Like I already said, she stands a good chance, but her color and income level are going to play a very little role in the admission process. I guess I'll summarize. Yale doesn't need to look for minorities! That, along with geographical distribution, are going to be the last things Yale will consider.</p>

9

<p>^^ Income level tends to be apparent (at least in a general range) with the parents' occupations. So the whole "they have no idea" is a bit false in regards to income.</p>

10

<p>I have to disagree with Princessbell and XYZ Affair.</p>

<p>Here's my prospective on this applicant:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>She's shown dedication and commitment to service as evidenced by her involvement in Key Club and this "Humanitarian" club in addition to having over 300 volunteer hours. </p></li>
<li><p>What's more she's shown LEADERSHIP in these organizations. As well as in Spanish Club.</p></li>
<li><p>She's obviously EXTREMELY proficient in Spanish, as her 7/7 on the Spanish IB and 760 on the Spanish w/ Listening exams evince. This right here, in and of itself, is a huge deal</p></li>
<li><p>Princessbell (you know I love ya to death and back) her financial situation will be quite obvious on her application - she received the Questbridge scholarship thingy which is something only people from VERY low income families can get. (It's also very competitive to get, so the fact that she received it is highly indicative of how she'll fare in college admissions.) This in addition to the fact that you indicate how many siblings you have on the common application will make it more than apparent to admissions officers what kind of family she is coming from. (Plus, who knows? She may have made it even more obvious by writing an essay about it.)</p></li>
<li><p>She's shown excellence in academics. While her GPA might, upon first glance, seem a bit low, she's ranked #2 in her class which is incredible. Additionally, her SAT is on par and her AP scores are slammin. AND she's won numerous awards for academics - things only one who is the best in their school can get (Harvard Book prize, National Achievement, County Student of the Year, Governors School..)</p></li>
<li><p>On top of all this, she's found time to do fun things like field hockey (which she's probably some what good at seeing as she wants to play on the, albeit recreational, collegiate level) and debate (which she's been recognized on a state level in).</p></li>
<li><p>All of this comes from a girl who goes to a bad school. Trust me, the admissions officers know which schools suck and they'll see that she truly took advantage of what was available to her -- this will work in her favor.</p></li>
<li><p>And NOW! She's black so this hook will at the very least cause them to take a second glance at her application - a luxury many applicants never get.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Like I said guys, I love you sooooooo much, but I honestly think that this girl is going to be accepted. Maybe not SCEA (though probably), but definitely in the regular round (if she happens to get deferred).</p>

<p>ps. I've found that it's so much easier to say "oh you're black, so you're in!" to other people than it is to say to myself. I'm totally with you princessbell because I know that black people don't automatically get in, but when you look at applicants objectively (yourself included) and save race for the last thing you consider, you see that it really can make the difference in an application. That said, I'm not going to get in... and that make me sad :(. hehehehehhe</p>

11

<p>calm down princessbell.</p>

<p>i've seen my share of affirmative action before through the class of 2006 at my school so you can't say yale never pays attention to race. i never said it happens ALL THE TIME. just that it does.</p>

12

<p>
[quote]
i've seen my share of affirmative action before through the class of 2006 at my school so you can't say yale never pays attention to race. i never said it happens ALL THE TIME. just that it does.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>This is a fair statement and I agree. Though you cannot blame princessbell because it is incredibly demeaning when people arbitrarily say things like "SAT/ECs/GPA don't matter if you're a minority because black/latino/native american = acceptance." And people DO say these things right to your face. It's annoying, hurtful, and what's more it's UNTRUE!</p>

13

<p>eating food! my cc bff...i get your point. you read her stats a lot differently than I did. I never said I didn't think she'd get in...but I don't think it's surefire at all. </p>

<p>and I really don't see how my post got labeled as so inflammatory! I wasn't angry,i just wanted to stick my point of view in...</p>

<p>just a couple more things, not really addressing anyone, just irritating things I see frequently on CC:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>didn't know she was questbridge. although, with that said, a lot of good admissions books have little tricks to get around the fact that adcoms do see your parent's jobs and can infer how much money you make. How to Ace the College Application tells you to be as vague as possible. I put doctor for my dad, so theoretically he could be a inner-city pediatrician making $80000 or a world-class surgeon pushing a million and yale couldn't guess. (although he is much much closer in income to the former, and we did check the financial aid box, which excludes the latter by a pretty large margin).</p></li>
<li><p>I never said that yale 'doesn't pay attention to race'. we all know it does matter, but being a certain skin color doesn't mean that all of a sudden you're an amazing applicant. i don't think that a white applicant with the same stats would have more than an okay chance at Yale, and a black applicant (i think) would have only a small boost. This doesn't take her app from just okay to surefire in. but again, this is just my opinion...I'm not big on chance threads to begin with.</p></li>
<li><p>I hate it when people say that "they know" something about the way the admissions process works just because they've seen certain people get in/get rejected blah blah blah. That's like saying "I know how cancer works because I've seen some people go into remission and some people die". (bad analogy, but whatever. It sort of works :)) The fact of the matter is none of us knows much besides the fact that people send in applications and get decisions a few months late. You may know a kid's SAT scores, GPA, and rank, but you don't know their teacher recs or essays or short answers or interviews or any of that besides what they tell you. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>You can't just say things like "a black kid with a 1200 got in and my friends with 1600's didn't" because 1) when you say stuff like "a black kid" instead of "my black friend" or "my asian bff", it implies that you don't even know them, which upsets me because you're talking about people you don't even know and 2) you most likely didn't read their essays/teacher recs and you definetely weren't at interviews etc. </p>

<p>this is why i hate chance threads! because none of us know!</p>

<p>*okay, i reread this before posting it and i realize that i do sound angry using words like "i hate" and "this upsets me". but i'm calm! I promise! :)</p>

14

<p>I have a very strong feeling the op's friend will be admitted.</p>

15

<p>I think this student has a very, very high chance of being admitted to one or more of the top Ivies. No student (well, almost no student) is a definite "in" at any particular school, but this student has a very, very good chance. She would have a reasonable chance at getting into Ivies even if she were not a URM. She should definitely apply to several top schools, in case one of them rejects her for some quirky reason.</p>

16

<p>She sounds like the poster kid for the type of income/background diversity Yale has been trying to attract in its latest campaigns. Just as the "we do not discriminate on the basis of race" statement only applies to discrimination against minorities, the "need-blind" statement only applies to discrimination against the poor, not the other way around.</p>

17

<p>Um, I see a big problem, that should be obvious?</p>

<p>She only took 2 SAT Subject Tests 0 0</p>

<p>I also only took two. Can or should I still apply?</p>

18

<p>you only need two SAT2s for yale.</p>

<p>only Harvard, Princeton, and Georgetown (plus a couple otha randoms) require 3</p>