Do I even have a chance?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>Hi. </p>

<p>I'm a Malaysian citizen studying in Raffles Junior College, Singapore on the ASEAN scholarship. </p>

<p>I'm taking A Levels there. For last years promotional exams, I got As for Math, Physics, Chemistry and Biology and B3 for General Paper. I'm now taking Special papers for Math, Physics and Chemistry. I heard somewhere that 3 As in the A levels is equivalent to 5 APs.</p>

<p>My New SAT 1 scores are:
Critical Reading / Verbal: 740
Math: 800
Writing: 730
My SAT 2 scores are:
Chemistry: 800
Math 2 : 800
Physics : 780 (should I retake this)</p>

<p>Co-curricular activities:
math club, computer science club (internet head) and film society (founder and president). I was also in Outdoor Activities club (quarter mistress) 2 years back.
Roughly 100 hours of community service, mostly from spending 2 weeks in Vietnam doing community service and organizing busking sessions</p>

<p>Achievements:
Singapore Math Project Festival: Best Overall Project
Singapore Biology Olympiad: Bronze
Singapore Youth Science Festival: Silver, Best Oral Presentation (Team leader)
Singapore Statistical Poster Competition: Honourable mention (Team)
Founded school film society
Raffles Top Scholar Award
Participated in a Science Research Programme at National University of Singapore
I made it to the interview round of the Stanford Book Prize in Singapore. That's 9 out of 90 applicants. </p>

<p>The education system here is such that we spend 4 years in secondary school and 2 years in junior college. In this list, I've only included my junior college achievements. Should I add the last 2 years of secondary school?</p>

<p>Yale is my top choice school at the moment. Although I've specialised in sciences all the while, I want to go to Yale for its liberal arts education. I'm planning to study biology there, though not medicine and perhaps minor in film. </p>

<p>What do you think? Do I even stand a chance? And should I apply EA?</p>

<p>Thanks so much.</p>

2

<p>Of course you have a chance and if Yale is positively your first choice then apply EA - and NOOOOOOOOO! don't retake a 780 Physics score - that would be an incredibly dumb decision.</p>

3

<p>You know you have a good chance, why even bother asking that?</p>

4

<p>I agree BrightFutureAhead. A lot of people know that they have a good shot but they just want to show off or get reassurance.</p>

5

<p>Well, I heard that only 7 people from Singapore get accepted into Yale each year. Hence, the question.</p>

<p>One of them who got accepted 2 years back is now one of People's top 10 most beautiful people on your block or something like that. Hehe. My mum swoons over him. :)</p>

6

<p>Yeah, it's pretty hard to determine international applicant chances. but you are right...it's difficult that yale will only admit a certain amount from each country.</p>

<p>You definitely fall into the range of students who have a 30-50% chance at Yale (if you were applying as a resident/citizen)</p>

7

<p>Did your parents go to Yale?</p>

8

<p>Hi, </p>

<p>I am Harvard/Yale cross-admit from Singapore last year, so fresh from the admissions process, perhaps you can benefit from some of the insights that I've gained. </p>

<p>First and foremost, you'll never know until you've tried it. There's no secret forumla for getting into Yale, or any of the other ivy schools for that matter. And no matter what some people say, no one and I mean NO ONE, can say for sure whether he/she will be admitted or not. So why not just give yourself a chance and go for it? Anyway, what do you have to lose except maybe an extra 75 US dollars compared to a chance of a lifetime? Don't be too deterred by stats, Singapore definitely has more than her fair share of successful applicants into ivy schools, I should know, I've seen the admit numbers for both harvard and yale from last year ;)</p>

<p>Your academics are certainly impressive, definitely when compared to mine when I applied last year. However, you should note that academics can only carry you so far. In my opinion, and this is actually reflected by one of the adcoms, that most Singaporean students do not make the cut because of their lack of extracurriculars rather than a shortfall in meeting their academic requirements. As such, don't bother re-taking your SATs, they are good enough as they are, so don't worry. =)</p>

<p>When I say good extracurriculars, there's no single interpretation, though I seem to get the impression that adcoms tend to brush aside school-based activities in light of other applicants who have founded state-wide theatre companies, been a national athlete, an accomplished musician etc. Still, sometimes it also important to note that its not only what you do, but also what you make of what you do. If you can demostrate a burning passion in one or two key activities that you've actively pursued over a substancial period of time, I'm sure that it will catch the eye of the adcoms too. </p>

<p>Yale is a fantastic school and I wish you all the best in your application. </p>

<p>PS: Don't worry about whether or not to apply EA. I applied EA to one sch and then went to another. Perceptions and ideas will change, though I must admit that the chances for EA at yale seem to be higher than regular dec.</p>