<p>Hi guys. I am a Junior at a public high school right now and just wanted to know with my current grades if I have a chance at Yale. My freshman year I got a 4.0 with straight a's and I wasn't really active in sports. My sophomore year I took 2 AP classes and got a overall 3.6 unweighted gpa for the entire school year (sophomore year+freshman) I ended up getting 2 c's in my first semester and then getting 3 b's in my second and the rest A's. Right now I have about 200 hours of community service and I am the president of the first Red Cross club at my school as well as an officer at my Habitat for Humanity Club. At the end of my junior year I am planning on studying abroad in the summer in China to learn mandarin. I got a 1550 on my psat and my sister is currently attending Yale. I am also volunteering for 6 months as my local Sharp Hospital. I am also sponsoring a child in Cambodia and juggling 2 jobs. I know right now things look pretty bad, but what can I do to up my chance s at Yale? I am planning on taking 4 AP classes in my junior year and hoping to get a 1900 on my Sat.</p>
<p>Please read this thread, as everything in it also pertains to Yale (and to Princeton, Stanford and MIT): <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1420290-chance-threads-please-read-before-posting-one.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1420290-chance-threads-please-read-before-posting-one.html</a></p>
<p>Wow…your sister is “attending” Yale and you don’t know what it takes to get into Yale? I am in disbelief…</p>
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<p>A 1900 SAT is way below Yale’s 25th percentile, which is 2110. What was your sister’s SAT score?</p>
<p>Last year, Yale got almost 30,000 applicants and accepted 6.7% of them. No matter what you do, getting into an Ivy is tough. If your sister got into Yale, she’s probably a good person to ask.</p>
<p>Ive asked my sister a lot of questions. Her answers are always "I don’t know how I got in. Don’t worry you’ll be fine. Yale loves legacies, you’ll get in. " she wont tell me her sats scores, I’m guessing it was around 2000.</p>
<p>@gibby</p>
<p>Where is it published that a 2110 is 25th percentile? Do you have numbers for the 50th and 75th percentiles?</p>
<p>I believe he got it from here: <a href=“http://oir.yale.edu/node/773/attachment[/url]”>http://oir.yale.edu/node/773/attachment</a>
Page 9. </p>
<p>The 25% was actually 2120 instead of a 2110 (Not that much of a difference lol, Gibby must have accidentally typed a 1 instead of a 2). The 75% was 2390 or above. So this would imply that Yale’s middle 50% had a range of scores higher than a 2120 but lower than a 2390.</p>
<p>Because this is also a problem in this thread, I’m going to re-post what I did in another chance thread.</p>
<p>The common data set does not say that 25% of the students get 2390s or higher. It says that 25% (well, it’s probably more than 25%, as people in the 74th Yale percentile could also have 800s) of students get 800s on CR and 25% of students get 790 or 800 on math and 25% of students get 800s on writing. These 25% are not always the same students. </p>
<p>For example, a student would earn 800 CR, 740 M, and 760 W (a combined, more reasonable albeit uber high, 2300). Other students will get 740 CR, 800 M, and 690 W. What I’m saying is that students usually succeed in individual sections more than they do on other sections. The common data set isolates all three parts of the score. What this all means is that fewer than 25% of students scored 2390, and fewer than 25% of students scored 2120. As further proof, in 2008 there were 419 graduating seniors with 2400s or 2390s. There are 1,355 in the incoming yale class. If 25% of the Yale class, or 339 students, had 2390s or 2400s, that would leave only 80 students for Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, the LACs, state schools, etc. Seeing as Harvard itself has similar percentiles (790, 800, 790), it would be mathematically impossible for 25% of Yale’s class to have scores of 2390+.</p>
<p>A 1900 is still very low for a school like Yale if you’re not buying your way in or a highly desired athlete. (And even if you are, the score would not help.) Your extracurriculars do look quite good, though.</p>
<p>^^ nhdmaniac: The 25th percentile is the score that 25 percent scored at or below; the 75th percentile score is the one that 25 percent scored at or above. That is the standard definition of the 25/75 percentile. It’s the definition included in Yale’s C9 data, as well as Harvard’s C9 data: <a href=“http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/CDS_2011-2012_Final.pdf[/url]”>http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/CDS_2011-2012_Final.pdf</a></p>
<p>I understand what you are saying though. The SAT scores are broken down for M, CR and W – so, yes one student could have scored at the 75% for Math, but not at the 75% for CR and W. The data for The ACT does not break down individual sections, so 25% of students who took the ACT scored 35 or above and 25% of students who took the ACT scored 32 or below.</p>
<p>^^ Gibby, where in his/her post does nhdmaniac misunderstand what percentiles are? The point is the neither Harvard nor Yale releases percentile values for cumulative scores, only for individual sections of the SAT. Therefore a cumulative score of 2390 is not the bottom of the 75th percentile, and a score of 2120 is also not the top of the 25th percentile, since most successful applicants probably did not score at or below the 25th percentile in all 3 sections.</p>
<p>[Compare</a> ACT and SAT Scores | ACT](<a href=“http://www.act.org/solutions/college-career-readiness/compare-act-sat/]Compare”>http://www.act.org/solutions/college-career-readiness/compare-act-sat/)</p>
<p>My point – and sorry if I wasn’t clear – colleges do not break down the ACT score into sections, they just give the overall composite score. So, for purposes of looking at the 25/75 data, it may be more useful to look at ACT scores. 25% of accepted Yale students scored a 35 ACT or better, which according to the above SAT/ACT concordance table roughly translates a 2360 SAT. That is very close to the combined scores of M, CR and W in the SAT 75% section. That was the point I was trying to make (before I had coffee).</p>
<p>Before this thread gets further off topic though, I completely agree with nhdmaniac’s comment to the OP:</p>
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<p>I am still skeptical about this thread…how did the OP get 1550 on PSAT…it is scored to 240…and as far as I know siblings “usually” confide in each other, try to help each other… and usually genetics doesn’t fall far from the tree…especially in terms of test scores (notwithstanding GPAs may vary greatly)…</p>
<p>Gravitas, sometimes people add a 0 at the end of their psat score because that’s the way it’s supposed to converst to an SAT score. So really, OP scored a 155/240, which is equivalent to 1550/2400.</p>
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Ddereckl, if your sister got into Yale with just a 2000 out of 2400, that definitely means that there’s something fairly unique about her and/or your family as a whole. I’m assuming she wasn’t an athlete or something, but that legacy point is interesting. It does help I guess, so if your family is so looped in that you can just get in with grades/scores like that, consider yourself VERY lucky.</p>
<p>If you get into Yale without the flashy scores, it’ll have to be something you’re REALLY good at.</p>
<p>I know a girl who got into Yale because she was extremely skilled at violin and proficient in music theory. Her SAT score was around 2100-2200; I don’t really remember. All I know is that she’s been through lots of music competitions and that her music theory tests have perfect scores.</p>
<p>Yale has been one of my “dream schools”, but I feel fairly intimidated by the acceptance rate. People who go there have hooks, lots of talent, and/or valedictorian traits. </p>
<p>I’d say try to get that GPA up and put your SAT goal higher. As far as I’m concerned, if you like what you’re doing for extracurricular stuff, then keep at it. It seems like a lot to handle to me; so if you feel like you’re doing something that doesn’t appeal to you and you’re doing it just to be more flashy on your app, then drop it.</p>