Applying for Yale, maybe EA (between that and Brown).
Not taking SAT, ACT was 32 (first attempt, 35 E, 34 R, 26 M, 32 S, 12 writing) and I have a 4.0 UW Gpa and 4.86 weighted. I am also attending their university this summer for the Young Ivy Scholars on a full-ride scholarship and currently have an admissions counselor there alongside already receiving interest mail. I am my school’s speech and debate captain, have competed at the national speech and debate tournament for two years, have developed and run my own independent student journal, and am currently working on organizing for the Beto for Senate campaign. If I am to get my ACT to a 33/34 (fixing the math primarily) what do you think my chances are? I also will be taking SAT II USH and Bio M (I expect 770+ on both). I am a first-gen college student, I am from a poor economic background, and have also received scholarships and hope to be accepted as a Questbridge Scholar. What do y’all think? (Btw, I’m from Texas).
I understand these processes are iffy, hence the Ivy, but realistically speaking, what are my chances looking like? I wanna know if I should make Yale my EA decision.
You seem like a wonderful applicant, as are most students who will ultimately be rejected. As Yale receives more qualified applications than they have seats in their freshman class, Admissions uses a student’s teacher recommendations, guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR), essays and interview report to choose one high performing student over another. They look for wonderful scholars of good “character” – that’s an old fashioned word meaning the way you develop your inner qualities, intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for community, tolerance, inclusiveness and love of learning. Unfortunately, none of those qualities can be gleaned from a post like yours.
The best that can be said from your post is that your GPA and test scores are within Yale’s range (According to Yale’s latest Common Data Set: https://oir.yale.edu/sites/default/files/cds2016-2017.pdf, a 32 ACT is at Yale’s 25th percentile, meaning that 75% of admitted students had that score or better). Do you have a chance? Sure! How much of a chance is anyone’s guess. Will you have a better chance if you score a 33/34 ACT? Sure, as higher is always better – but again, as so much depends on other “soft” factors, no one can say what your chances are. Best of luck to you!