<p>Hi. I'm a high school junior this year, and now considering if I should apply SCEA to Yale. </p>
<p>Academics (not accurate numbers because I still have two years...)
- GPA: around 3.5 - 3.7
- SAT: around 1800
- # of AP classes in total: 10 - 11 (there's one that I only took the AP exam but not the class, because our school doesn't offer the course. Does that count?)</p>
<p>Others:
- 2 years at Art Club, including 1 year as a president
- National Honor Society (pending)
- National Arts Honor Society (pending)
- volunteer as an advertisement painter at YMCA (Freshman year)
- volunteer as a technological staff at my church (junior year)
- volunteer at art museum (pending)</p>
<p>As you can see from my info. above, I'm not special at all. But I've heard that Yale likes to see students who have a specific interest and focus a lot of energy on it, is that true? (that's one of the reasons of why I chose yale...) I've been doing Arts for almost 12 years, but haven't received any awards yet because I didn't have a reason to try to achieve one. (well, for now, I may need to try getting some for Yale...) But seriously, I haven't heard of Yale at all before I got into 10th grade. So I don't think I will even have a chance to get in if I don't apply SCEA. By the way, I am an Asian. </p>
<p>Please give me some advices, about anything, like "try to do this..." will help a lot as well.</p>
<p>Try to get your GPA to a 3.9 and your SAT to a 2150 if you want your app to be looked at seriously. I know that’s a lot easier said than done (sorry).</p>
<p>SCEA will give you no tangible benefit in the admissions process - they only accept people who they’re confident they’ll accept in the RD round.</p>
<p>@Jazzed Thanks for your reply. Actually I didn’t do well in my freshman and sophomore years, which I only got 3.7 and 3.65 GPAs. So even if I get two 4.0 in these two years, it still can’t be higher than 3.85… But can I still make it possible to make my app look better at some point of achievement in interests? And what is the RD round?</p>
<p>‘Regular decision.’ A strong upward trend in GPA will always look good (4.0 junior year), especially if it’s accompanied by an upward trend in course rigor (APs). Yale’s 25-75th percentiles for GPA and SAT can both be found via a quick Internet search. As long as your scores are below the 25th percentile, it isn’t really feasible for you to get in, unless you have a hook (recruited athlete/legacy/URM)–which it seems you don’t.</p>
<p>Thanks Jazzed, I will work hard anyways. So they probably like to see those recruited/top athlete, then how about for artists? They want the talented ones for sure, but do you know which point should I get to, to be at least in their interested area?</p>
<p>“But can I still make it possible to make my app look better at some point of achievement in interests?”</p>
<p>“But can I still make it possible to make my app look better at some point of achievement in interests?”</p>
<p>Yale’s admit rate is below 7%. With your less than 1800SAT and your only modestly successful GPA, even if your artistry was at a point where you were doing gallery showings, you’d be an extremely unlikely viable candidate. Plus, your artwork has had no independent objective evaluation – you have no real basis to expect to ply that into something attractive to colleges.</p>
<p>Please speak with your guid counselor on developing a broad list of schools where students of similar academic achievement have been successful in getting admit decisions. Also go get an objective professional artist’s opinion on your work. Good luck to you</p>
<p>^^ I agree. For me, the OP’s 1800 SAT is a deal breaker. OP, speak with your GC about broadening your list of potential colleges that have acceptance rates above 10%. With your SAT score, no matter how talented an artist you are, Yale is a very high reach school for you, as an Admissions Officer will wonder, if admitted, could you actually do college-level work at a high end school like Yale.</p>