Chances @ Yale

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>Junior; Asian male from Texas; not US citizen, international student, canadian citizen
SAT I: 2030; 700M 690CR 660W
Rank: 2/450
GPA: 4.0 (on 4.0 Scale) and 101.95 (on 100 point scale)</p>

<p>Plan on taking SATII: Math IIc, Biology, US History, and Chem</p>

<p>Hardest courseload; will have completed 11 AP classes upon senior graduation. Two foreign languages: 3 yrs in Latin, 4 yrs in Spanish. 4 years of sciences, history, mathematics, and english.</p>

<p>Freshman Year (2002-03)
· Church pianist and worship team keyboardist
· SWT Young Pianist State Competition-3rd place
· Baylor/Waco National Piano Competition- Honorable mention and half scholarship
· Invitation to Summer Baylor Piano Institute to perform at a Master Class with Prof. Bohlen
· McLennan Community College State Piano Competition-1st place
· Awarded an advance measure from CHS advance measure review committee for outstanding piano performance
· Summer- Volunteer at Hematology Oncology Associates of South Texas (HOAST)
· 2003 Musical Arts Center of San Antonio (MACSA) performance honor roll
· Active Tuesday Junior Music Club member/performer
· Spanish Club Reporter (Freshman Representative)
· Student Council- Spirit and Pride
· UIL Literary Criticism participant
· UIL Poetry Interpretation-2nd place at district meet, 4th place semi-finalist at regional meet
· UIL Solo/ensemble- 1st division solo at region, 1st division saxophone quartet at region, 1st division woodwind ensemble at region, 1st division jazz ensemble at region, 2nd division medal solo state, 2nd division saxophone quartet at state
· CHS Little Theatre Company (LTC) member
· Soloist in church musical
· United States Achievement Academy- Mathematics Award
· Who’s Who Among High School Students? Award
· CHS Theatre Award for Outstanding Poetry Interpretation
· CHS Band Awards: Solo Award and Ensemble Award</p>

<p>Sophomore Year (2003-04)
· Selection to be a member of Youth Leadership New Braunfels
· UIL Region Marching Contest Winner, UIL Area Marching Contest Winner, UIL State Marching Contest Semi-finalist
· Fredericksburg Marching Contest-1st place
· Harlendale Marching Contest- 1st place
· All-district, all-region, and all-area band; qualifier for state auditions (2nd chair)
· Spanish Club Secretary
· Student Council- Spirit and Pride
· Latin Club Officer- “fabres”
· UIL Poetry Interpretation, Science, and Math Participant
· CHS Little Theatre Company (LTC) member
· United States Achievement Academy- Minority Award
· ITS (International Thespian Society) member
· Active Tuesday Junior Music Club member/performer
· Pearl Amster Concerto Competition- finalist
· Baylor/Waco National Piano Competition- honorable mention (3rd place) and full scholarship
· UIL Solo/ensemble- 1st division solo at region, 1st division saxophone quartet at region, 1st division woodwind ensemble at region, 1st division jazz ensemble at region, qualifier for state on saxophone quartet, 2nd division saxophone quartet
· TMTA local level- 1st place winner and advancement to district level
· TMTA district level- 1st place winner and advancement to state level
· UIL District: Poetry Interpretation-3rd place and advancement to regional level
· National Honor Roll Inductee
· Who’s who Among High School students award
· National Achievement Academy award
· UIL Regional: Poetry Interpretation: 3rd place Semi-finalist
· Volunteer at New Braunfels Public Library
· Church pianist and worship team keyboardist
· 2004 Musical Arts Center of San Antonio (MACSA) performance honor roll
· CHS Band Awards: Region Band Award, Area Band Award, Solo Award, Ensemble Award</p>

<p>Junior Year (2004-2005)
· CHS Head Drum Major
· ITS (International Thespian Society) member
· CHS Little Theatre Company (LTC) member
· Spanish Club Secretary
· Student Council- Spirit and Pride
· Active Tuesday Junior Music Club member/performer
· Church pianist and worship team keyboardist
· Volunteer at New Braunfels Public Library
· CHS Band Assistant Quartermaster
· Harlendale Marching Contest- 1st place, including Best Drum Major
· UIL Region Marching Contest- 1st division
· Brackenridge UIL Tournament- 3rd place in poetry interpretation
· Member of CHS UIL “winner’s circle”
· UIL Poetry Interpretation, Science, and Math Participant·
All-district, all-region, and all-area band; (2nd chair); 1st alternate for Texas all-state band
·National Honor Society member
·UIL Solo/ensemble- 1st division solo at region, 1st division woodwind ensemble at region
·TMTA local level- 1st place winner and advance to district level
·TMTA district level- 1st place winner and advance to state level
·Pearl Amster Concerto Competition- finalist
·Discover Card Tribute Award Scholarship- Gold State Winner (top three in state)
·McClennan Community College State Piano Competition- 1st place
·Selection as a school representative for 2005 summer Boys State</p>

<p>Extra Curr. hours:
Band- Approximately four hours per day during marching season, and four hours per week during concert season
Public Library Volunteer- Two times a week, four to five hours per week
Church pianist- Twice a week, two hours preparing, two hours playing periodically through service
Church Youth Group- approximately fourteen hours per week
Separate Piano repertoire- approximately fifteen hours per week
Spanish Club Secretary- Approximately two hours every week
UIL poetry interpretation practice- approximately one hour per week
National Honor Society- approximately thirty minutes per week
Tuesday Junior Music Club- approximately three hours per month, 5 months each year</p>

<p>My essays will be pretty good; teacher recs will be exceptional, about 2 outstanding recs</p>

2

<p>Your SAT is a bit low, and applying for financial aid could hurt you as an international. Your race also probably won't help very much, either. </p>

<p>The "Who's Who" around should not be mentioned; it's complete bunk. The admissions officers will laugh at you, please don't put it on your application. </p>

<p>I have no idea what your chances are, but I'd say if Yale is your first choice you should apply EA. Good luck.</p>

3

<p>I disagree with fids. While Who's Who really doesn't mean much of anything, it certainly will not hurt you in the least to put it down.</p>

4

<p>Resume padding at best. What makes you unique to stand out of the pack is the key? If you do not have an answer to that question, you fit right into an ethnic sterotype. Sorry!</p>

5

<p>Adding the "who's who" thing will make him seem like an egregious resume padder, or, at the least, very naive. It will reflect badly on him.</p>

6

<p>are they replies supposed to be constructive or destructive, fids? I can't tell</p>

7

<p>o_o Dude that's a really long list. :] Try to find something you like to do. ^^ Hope you get in Apollo!</p>

8

<p>Yeah. Specialize interests is all I can say. A lot of the regional stuff I don't think matters, but that's me. I mean, how can Yale compare 1 region to another when 1 can have the ntl champion and the other doesn't? </p>

<p>I'm not sure on the EA thing. Is it better to apply EA to Yale if you have mediocre SATs b/c there's more of a statistical chance, or is it better to apply RD when you raise SATs? Yale is top school, so wouldn't want to screw up chances there...</p>

9

<p>hey. it's nice to see a fellow texas drum major around here. you have a lot of stuff going on, dude, but i think you might want to narrow down what you show colleges. i mean if everyone who got a 1 at s & e wrote that down, you'd have like 200,000 applications with that. choose what makes you stand out. you definitely have some things that make you stand out, so really drive it home with those. well, it was cool to read a post from someone who is like me. maybe i'll see you at tmea next year!</p>

10

<p>"are they replies supposed to be constructive or destructive, fids? I can't tell"</p>

<p>They're supposed to be constructive. Take the October SAT or the June SAT as a standby and don't mention the "Who's Who" thing.</p>

11

<p>Wow, you certainly don't waste your time do you?</p>

<p>28 hours of band, 5 hours at the library, 8 hours piano playing in church, 14 hours in the church youth group, 15 hours on "Separate Piano repertoire", 2 hours on spanish club, and 1 hour on poetry, among others each week. That totals more than a 73 hour work week during your marching season??</p>

<p>Pretty impressive when you also have to go to school and get some sleep eventually. </p>

<p>Watch out that your list of achievements and EC involvement doesn't seem too inflated to the adcoms. Listing every single competition you ever won is redundant. List your MAJOR achievements, and make sure your passions shine through the application. </p>

<p>things like:
"·TMTA local level- 1st place winner and advance to district level
·TMTA district level- 1st place winner and advance to state level"
Is simply a waste of space, and a waste of the adcoms time. It is the fact that you are a state-level participator that matters. at least you could cut it into a single sentence. </p>

<p>If you could edit your resume to look less inflated you would, at least to me look like you could be in the running for a place at Yale.</p>

12

<p>i dont really like your application. It seems you are writing down everything you've ever done in your life; you might as well include that you washed the dishes last night. I think your SATs are low for someone who has an above 100 average (how is that even possible?). Its cool that you like music, but try and convey it in a less pretentious way and without belaboring it to the extent that the admissions committee gets bored and throws your application out</p>

13

<p>The above was my gut reaction as well; it seems you are trying to inflate everything to appear qualified for Yale. Don't worry about having a long list of activities and awards - believe me when I say (from personal experience ;)) that it doesn't matter. Oh, and as for "Who's Who," don't mention it. It's another example of your inflation, and it won't let the admissions committee know anything about you. I didn't put those things (Who's Who, National Honor Roll, NSHSS, etc.) on my application.</p>

14

<p>Ugh, I know I'm completely out of my league, but I scored a 730 on the US history, and a 700 on biology; not really outstanding. Are these scores still competitive for a tier school such as Yale.</p>

15

<p>IvyLeagueORbust...</p>

<p>You're ridiculous. You're in no way out of your league; I'd say you're pretty much in it. So to answer your question, yes, your scores are still competitive. BUT, if you can do better than that, go for it. You'll be even more competitive. Study up and retake the tests, but only if you're confident your scores won't go down.</p>

16

<p>The real issue seems to me not only how the poster can distinguish himself in the Yale applicant pool but also in his ethnic pool. Being Asian American is working against him because he is a prototypical AA applicant as it relates to music, EC's, etc. There is nothing special here. In fact as we have all pointed out the resume is tedious and his SAT scores are conflicting with this GPA. My sense is to place emphasis on four or five special qualities and use the multitude of awards to qualifiy them. Also, one comment is correct, there are not enough hours in the day to do all the things suggested here so something does not smell right.</p>

17

<p>Your SAT score should be 2250+</p>

<p>Other than that, you have a really good chance.</p>

<p>Hopefully we'll both make it!</p>

18

<p>What about my chances at Yale? Do I need to spend time and money improving my standardized test scores?</p>

<p>I'm an Iranian female and bilingual in Farsi and English. I probably won't be applying for financial aid as my parents make too much.</p>

<p>4.0 GPA (unweighted--my school doesn't weight GPA)
Rank--1/436
2250 SAT (690 math, 760 writing, 800 critical reading)
Taking the SAT II's in a week
33 ACT (should I submit this instead of the SAT?)
APUSH sophomore year (4 on exam)
AP am gov, ap calc ab, ap physics b junior year
next year aps--euro, spanish, english</p>

<p>ACTIVITIES/AWARDS</p>

<p>Student of Today Award--Masonic Lodge (11)
I'll probably get national merit semifinalist at least, PSAT 223</p>

<p>Journalism
--Editor-in-Chief of school paper (11, 12)
--intern in entertainment section of town paper (11)
--dow jones summer institute for minorities in journalism (18 students selected for program from two states) (11)
--selected for the oklahoman's newsroom 101
--Scholastic Writing Award in Journalism (11)
--1st Place Journalism Category of Rose State College Writing Contest (11)
--Semifinalist--Hemingway High School Journalists Award (11)</p>

<p>Debate/Speech
--National Qualifier in Domestic Extemp Speaking (11)
--State Qualifier in LD debate and DEX
--Numerous Local awards
--NFL member of superior distinction (11)</p>

<p>Community Service
--As part of a committee, planned a 3-hour conference to bring teen issues to politicians' minds (approximately 25 hours)
--Communications Chair of School Speech Tournament (45 hours per year)</p>

<p>Leadership
--NHS Vice President (11)
--Young Democrats Secretary (11)
--National Forensic League Secretary (11) and President (12) </p>

<p>non-tangibles
excellent recommendations from my counselors and teachers
excellent essays</p>

<p>OTHER (maybe the most important):</p>

<p>I was accepted to the Telluride Association Summer Program for this summer. They accept about 9% of applicants each year, and it's sometimes seen as the humanities version of RSI. It's for six weeks, completely free, and one of the most prestigious summer programs in the country. Honestly, if I hadn't gotten into TASP I don't think I would've had a chance of getting into Yale or whatnot, but now, I think I have a good shot. </p>

<p>My main interest is obviously journalism, which I plan to pursue as a career. I need to know if I should retake the SAT I. My low score was in Math, but since I don't want to go into mathematics/science, should I retake it?</p>

<p>Anyway, thanks for the help.</p>

19

<p>omg i wish i had your scores...</p>

20

<p>Reading through it=extremely tedious. Why don't you separate it into sections such as "leadership positions", "awards", "community service", etc? at least, that's how i've been told to do it by every book i've read..</p>