Deferred from Yale...chances for other top schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, everyone! I’m a senior and I was just deferred from Yale, my top choice. I realize that I’m applying to many selective schools, for which predicting an admit/deny is extremely hard to do, but I just wanted to get some realistic comments on where you all think I could potentially end up.

I’m currently applying to schools with majors revolving around political science/public policy (it depends on the school and what they offer).

ACT (breakdown): 36, one sitting
SAT II: 800 on Chemistry, 800 on US History, 780 on Math II
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 95/100 point scale, so I think this is either a 3.9 or 4.0? Never gotten a B in a class
Courses: AP Chem (5), AP Music Theory (5 - self-study), APUSH (5) , AP Lang (5) , AP Calc AB (5), AP Bio (5), AP Spanish Lang (5 - self-study), AP Physics C (current), AP Lit (current), AP Calc BC (current), AP Econ (current). All other academic courses are honors - essentially I’ve taken the most rigorous courseload allowed.
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Awarded premiere statesman at a MUN conference, State Seal of Biliteracy, AP Scholar/NHS/etc., MANY music awards (described below)

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses)
Sorry if I’m a little bit vague to protect privacy!

  1. Indian music (most important): performed over 20 concerts in the US and India, won over 30 awards and competitions, go to India every year to perform in music festivals, and performed with well known/notable artists. Some performances have been broadcast internationally. Performed a benefit concert in the USA in this music style and raised $7,000 for charity.
  2. Youth and Government: Elected Lieutenant Governor of 700+ person conference and oversee daily workings of 20+ elected officers, passed my bill through model legislature
  3. Model UN: Elected President of my assembly, Premier Delegate Award, President of school chapter
    -The leadership positions in these above 2 extracurriculars are significant commitments
  4. Race Relations (club which holds forums on racial equality, racial issues in the news, etc.): President
  5. Speech & Debate team: School Board, captain/coach of my event (for which I actually doubled the membership of)
  6. Through Youth and Government, I was selected as one of 25 from my state to attend a prestigious national conference to debate federal legislation (summer activity)
  7. Independent music activities: Musical director for school a cappella group, post covers online, etc.
  8. Summer internship in local government, involved fairly hands-on work in the season directly preceding elections
  9. Performed with various selective choral ensembles
  10. Volunteer work over the summer teaching coding to young children

[ *] Job/Work Experience: The internship mentioned above
[ *] Volunteer/Community service: Some hours through Model UN/Youth and Government, teaching coding, various individual projects
[ *] Summer Activities: Internship mentioned above, national debate conference mentioned above, went to science program at Smith after my freshman year
[ *] Essays: I think my Common App essay is fairly good and is on a memorable topic.
[ *] Teacher Recommendations: I got recommendations from my AP English & APUSH teachers, which should be strong but I’m not sure if they’re like, AMAZING (we weren’t best friends or anything)
[ *] Additional Rec: Choir teacher who has known me for 7 years. Although he knows me well, he has said he uses a template for every rec he writes, so I’m not sure how this will turn out.
[ *] Supplementary Material: I sent in a music supplement with recordings of Indian and Western music.

In my additional info section, I talked about my significant preparation for the AP Spanish test and how I essentially independently made an effort to learn a new language by talking with school staff in Spanish, video calls with native speakers from Spanish-speaking countries, etc. I think I demonstrated how I have a passion for learning languages beyond simple classroom requirements.

Other Info:
Location: VERY competitive area in the Northeast
Ethnicity: Indian
School: Very competitive public high school

It would be great if you could chance me for these other schools! They are: Brown, Harvard, Columbia, Georgetown, Duke, Pomona, Tufts, Barnard, Vanderbilt, Wesleyan, and NYU. Basically I want to know if I have a chance, or if they’re just pipe dreams.

2

Relate to this so hard, from the deferral to the intended major to the teachers who wrote my recommendation letters. If you look at the results thread, there’s no clear difference in application quality between acceptances and deferrals – I posted mine there, too. I would not have been surprised at all had you gotten into Yale.

3

If it is used at your HS, your best resource for chances is Naviance. FWIW, at son’s highly competitive NE public, there was a huge difference in acceptance outcomes at top 20’s between 95 and >96 GPA

4

You have a very competitive profile. Harvard, Columbia, Brown, and Duke are probably the toughest for RD but you could get into any of the other schools and perhaps get into one of these four universities

5

You definitely have a chance at all of them, don’t put yourself down. Here’s what I’m predicting:

Harvard: Deny. Your profile is strong but it might not be enough to stand out among Harvard’s extremely competitive Indian + Northeast pool.

Columbia/Brown/Pomona: Can be any of the three. These schools are frankly unpredictable when it comes to admissions and they have female acceptance rates around 6-7%. It depends on the impression the office makes of you, which can’t be predicted.

Duke: Waitlist or admit. Duke doesn’t seem to deny students with perfect test scores frequently. You can look at result threads from the past- those with a 1550+ SAT or 35+ ACT are largely wait-listed or admitted. You give off the energy and highly involved nature of a Duke undergrad, so I’m leaning admit.

Vanderbilt: Admit. Vanderbilt is very testing conscious, and you are as good as it gets.

Tufts: Waitlist or admit. It depends on the demonstrated interest you show. No interest = wait list because they’ll think you don’t want to attend.

Wesleyan: Waitlist or admit. If there have already been students admitted from your school for ED (seems likely since you’re in a competitive region), Wesleyan might favor taking students from other states/regions since they’re conscious about diversity. Otherwise, your stats are very strong for them.

Barnard: Waitlist or admit. I edited this from plain “admit”. Barnard also considers demonstrated interest. Your stats are considerably above their middle 50% of 30-33, but they are conscious about their yield and want students who genuinely want to attend, not those who see it as a backdoor for Columbia.

NYU: easy-admit unless you’re applying for Stern.

Georgetown: Admit. Another school that places more emphasis on testing/numbers. You’re golden.

Have you looked into Wellesley College?