Chances of Admission

I am a sophomore in high school and I really want to know my chances of getting into Yale. It has been my dream school ever since I visited last summer and I really want to go. My grades are somewhat impressive. I am 2 years ahead in math and science and plan to have taken at least 9 AP classes by the time I graduate. I got a 5 on the AP Human Geography Exam. I rank in the top 10 of my class. I am the only student in my grade with a schedule as rigorous as mine and my gpa is 4.3 on a 4 point scale. I intend for that to go up as more AP, DE, and honors courses become available in Junior and senior year. My biggest weakness is foreign language and I struggle with it a lot. I want to know how badly only taking 2 years of Spanish will affect my grade. As far as extracurricular activities go, I am a member of math club, student life and I plan to take up business club by the end of this year. I am also a member of the National Honors Society and plan to run for president senior year. I did sports in middle school but I am aware those don’t count on my college application. I don’t participate in theatre either. I do however really enjoy the stock market and I am considering starting a finance club. I got an 1830 on my SAT at the beginning of freshman year and by the time I am a junior I plan to get a 2000 to 2100 although that is obviously not set in stone. I have yet to take the ACT. I also got a 192 on the PSAT and hope to get the national merit scholarship. None of my family graduated from Yale but I do have an uncle that went to Stanford and I doubt that is helpful, but just in case it’s useful I included it. I am a Caucasian male and come from a middle class family so I am pretty much the farthest thing from a minority there is. I want to major in finance. At my school, we get awards for being the best performer in a class and I got the AP Human Geography award last year and the Personal Fitness award and the Geometry award (I got it in middle school, but geometry is a high school class). Any info helps and I really want to know what I can do to set myself apart from other students. Thanks.

  1. I don't do chances, but I can give you a few pointers.
  2. "Generally speaking, you should try to take courses each year in English, science, math, the social sciences, and foreign language." DS hated foreign language, and it remains his weakest subject, but I would do what Yale suggests.
  3. To "set yourself apart" from other students, learn about punctuation and white space. I did not read parts of your post because it was too much like work.
  4. I would get the SAT and ACT prep books and take practice tests, but that's not something you need to get to right away.
  5. Why did you take SAT and PSAT freshman year?

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it. I took the PSAT because my school “highly suggests it.” They essentially force us to take it. I took the SAT because I was half way through Algebra 2 and that is the last math the SAT tests on.

First of all relax. Second of all please realize your stats are likely to change. School gets harder and more aps means more work and your grades might in fact drop. Right now focus on the immediate goal which is to get good grades. Don’t even take the SAT again sophomore year. I’ve gone to experts that told me not even to start prep until after sophomore year because it is important at that time to focus on grades not SAT scores. Plus, the SAT now is totally different from the SAT you need to take in 2017. The only reason your school “highly suggests it” is because they want their students to get national merit because it look good for them. The only thing I think needs work are ec’s, You only really have 2. Get involved in some more and/or show a lot of commitment to the ones you have. NHS is practically useless unless you obtain and officer position.

I agree about serial test taking the SAT and ACT. Yale requires all scores be sent and they will see that you have been taking the exams since ninth grade (way too early, imo). Your scores will naturally improve over the next two years so if you combine that with some prep work before or during junior year, you should be fine.

You should complete four years of a language. See if you can get tutoring help at your school if you need it.

Lastly, your uncle attending Stanford is meaningless to Yale so don’t even mention it on your application. Getting good grades, test scores, and joining some clubs only ensures that you will be “considered” along with the thousands of other applicants with similar achievements. You need to find something that interests you and do it exceptionally well so that you can stand out from the masses. Good luck with everything!

Yale doesn’t offer a finance major so if you’re set on majoring in finance you might want to look at other schools? Actually a lot of colleges don’t - I think in the Ivy League only Penn and Cornell do - so make sure you check the offered majors list before falling in love with a particular college.

Also I agree with the previous posters on preparing for your standardized tests later - since the SAT is changing in March, any work you do towards the current SAT is probably not going to really help. Instead work on developing your passion - e.g. starting a finance club. If you manage to singlehandedly get lots of people interested in finance and perhaps help your local community at the same time that would be a strong EC. Obviously keep up your grades etc. as well.

You’ve got plenty of time - don’t worry and just enjoy school! xx

As others stated you are just starting. At many schools kids kick it up with dual admission, and many APs to show they have the most rigorous schedule…

Have a thirst for knowledge - rather than mechanically memorizing material for quizzes, tests and assignments. Follow your passions and participate in activities you enjoy and care deeply about. Work hard, but also enjoy high school. Learn to manage your time so you can have a school / life balance.

Then when it’s time to look at colleges you can put your best foot forward. Find where you fit in. And prepare for the next chapter in life.

Best of Luck!

My suggestions to add to those above.
1.Take what you are passionate about (stocks maybe?) and do something with it. Start a stock club, think out of the box and do something that will take your passion and make it something you are proud of. Maybe something like using penny stocks to raise money for something good or teach others how to work with them. Do something productive and make it yours. But do it now because everything you start as a Junior will be taken as just something to get you into college.
2.Joining random EC’s are not what they want. They want to know what drives you- where your drive comes from and what you do with it. Busy work is just that.
3.At the end of the day, pretty much everyone that goes to Yale has taken a mass amount of AP classes and very few of them really help you once you are there. We were told that they don’t give credit for AP’s because you are expected to be taking rigorous classes and they want you to graduate with only Yale credits. Keep that in mind before you weigh yourself down with classes that overwhelm you for nothing.
4. The 4 years of language is pretty much a MUST. And be prepared for those not to count either. They will help with placement tests but you will not get college credit for them even if it was a college level class you took. (first hand experience)
5. Its truly a crap shoot- much of ones acceptance depends on who you are competing with in addition to what you have to offer. Grades are important as are scores because it keeps you in the running but there are many more things that they take into consideration. How many have applied to your major, where are you from, what makes you different, what will you add to the community etc? And yes a lot of that is subjective so you never know who will like you over many others. Imagine that there is a pile of 300 files… and you have to be the one that makes them want to read it again. What is it that will make your file different from the rest? It wont be grades or test scores. That is a given.
6. RELAX and look into many other schools. My daughter was stuck on one specific school until she was deferred and was forced to look into others. In the end it was Yale she loved the most and Yale she accepted.