Hey guys, I made this account just so I could make this post. So Yale is my absolute DREAM school but recently I’ve been having real doubts about whether or not I’m good enough to get accepted. Unfortunately due to personal issues I was not able to apply SCEA and am therefore stuck in the RD pile. Please give me any feedback you have. Here goes:
Old SAT I (breakdown): 780R, 670M, 700W; 2150C
New SAT I (breakdown): 760R, 790M; 1550C
ACT (breakdown): 36E, 36M, 33R, 33S; 35C
SAT II: U.S. History (800), Chemistry (800), Math II (800)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.21
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school doesn’t rank
AP (place score in parenthesis): Macro, Micro, USHistory, Chemistry, English Lang, USGov, World History (all 5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Bio, AP Calc B/C, AP Physics independent study, AP English Lit, AP French
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): none
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Student Government (President) 10,11,12
Rotary Interact 11,12
National Honor Society 11,12
Track and Field 9,10,11
Model UN (Officer) 9,10,11,12
Job/Work Experience: none
Volunteer/Community service:
I do some independent volunteering at a refugee center and some on the side tutoring, nothing special; maybe 100 hours total
Summer Activities: volunteering at the refugee center
Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Common app essay 7/10; about coming to america; some of my friends said it was too disjointed/didn’t have much of a central focus but I submitted it anyway because I liked it enough, have some doubts in retrospect though.
Why Yale essay: 9/10; maybe one of the best supplemental essays I have ever written, felt a bit constrained by the 100 word limit
Why do these areas appeal to you?: 6/10; wrote the night of, very vague and uncertain
Short takes: 10/10; I had a lot of fun with these, but I don’t know if they make a difference in the end
Community essay: 9/10; very good essay about my refugee center volunteering
Something I love to do: 8/10; about my passion for audiobooks
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Recommender #1: 10/10; math teacher and I was by far his favorite student
Recommender #2: 8/10; Chemistry teacher who I adored but I worry doesn’t know me very well
Counselor: 7/10; doesn’t really know me but said good things I’m sure
Interview: spent about an hour discussing the community at Yale and like 35 minutes talking about political correctness lol; very laid back, said he would put in a good word.
Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Chemistry
State (if domestic applicant): IL
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public, 300 people in senior class
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: >200k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none
Overall I feel like I’m a mediocre candidate. I have very good scores and a heavy transcript but feel like I fall short subjectively. I don’t have any special awards like Intel or anything and I never did any research/founded any clubs in my high school career and it seems like those are requirements for admission to ivies these days. Anyway, chances?