Do I have a good chance at Yale?

My cousnelor told me Im basicaly going to get in due to my profile. Please let me know! I have a 34 ACT (99% percentile) and also am high ranked at chess and the co president of my math club, a tier one extracurricular. gpa is 3.8, in range. Am I in if I have good essays? any thing else i can do?

For the moment, you might want to consider that you have loaded up your original post with at least ten spelling and usage errors, as well as with some subtler transgressions (you wouldn’t have good essays, for example, you would write good essays). In selecting colleges to which to apply, carefully evaluate where you are academically in relation to the expectations of schools of potential interest.

No one has “a good chance” at Yale unless your family has donated millions or you have some other amazing hook. It’s a reach for all applicants and is a long shot even for students with 4.0/36.

Sorry to say, but your counselor should be sacked for telling you that. Your test scores and grades are good, but unless you are hooked, they are not special for Yale. Students in the highest 75th percentile of those accepted at Yale will likely have a GPA closer to 4.0 and a test score closer to 35. Even those stats guarantee nothing.

Your odds are not good, even with a 4.0 and a 36. They could fill the class with those students, but they don’t want to. They deny thousands of applicants with perfect grades and test scores. They are looking for fit, they are looking for diversity, they want students form all over the country and the world, they want kids from low SES backgrounds, or from inner cities, or who work on their parent’s farm, or they want kids who keep bees as a hobby or who work after school everyday to support their family.

My point here is that maybe you will have what they want, but there is zero chance that your counselor or anyone can say with confidence that you WILL get in. Unless you are a D1 recruited athlete, or your parent donated a huge amount of money (millions, not thousands), there is almost nothing that will guarantee admission to Yale, especially when the acceptance rate is 6%.

Make a realistic list of match, safe, and reach schools based on your GPA and test scores. You want to be in the top 75th percentile of accepted students to have the best odds of admission. And you want to apply to colleges with a much more generous acceptance rate to be sure you have a college to attend.

One of 3 things is true:

  1. You are missing something very important from your description.
  2. You misunderstood what your counselor said.
  3. Your counselor doesn’t know what they are talking about.

my bad, I was in a rush.

yea you’re right, I’m also in 2 more clubs, sorry I forgot to say that.

which school is more realistic?

Missing something very important isn’t two additional clubs.

There are match schools like Tulane, Emory, Skidmore, Brandeis. There are safe-ish schools like Muhlenberg, u Vermont, Lawrence. Without knowing what you are looking for, we can’t begin to help you. Apt to Yale? Absolutely. And then craft a list of schools you can afford and are easier to get into than Yale.

What are you looking for?

If you state your intended major, even if tentative, posters may be able to offer helpful suggestions for colleges to research.

The very competitive publics in NYC use Naviance. That would be the first place to look to get some idea of what your targets should be.

That said, at the two “very competitive” public high schools in NYC that I’m familiar with (Hunter and Stuy) the unhooked students who are accepted to the IVYs, MIT, Stanford, UChicago, Williams, etc., typically have significantly higher GPA’s combined with notable national level (as opposed to state level) accomplishments.

“My cousnelor told me Im basicaly going to get in due to my profile.”

Ignoring the imprecise typing.

I am wondering why your counselor could possibly have said this. I do not see anything in your post that would suggest that your chances of acceptance are as high as the overall acceptance rate at Yale.

These schools aren’t a match for an applicant with a 3.8 GPA. Acceptance rate to Tulane for the class of 2024 was 11%, that of Emory is 15%, and the OP is in the middle 50%, and Brandeis has an acceptance rate of about 30%, and the OP is also in the middle 50%.

So Tulane and Emory are reaches or higher, and Brandeis is more of a low reach than a match.

Skidmore may be a high match, since it has an acceptance rate of about 25%, but the OP is close to the top 25%.

Prestige talks louder, but money always wins. You’ll want to talk to your parents about a list of schools you can afford. Right now, uncertainty is the new normal. Even if you can afford prestige now, there’s a chance you might not be able to afford it 4 years from now. I would apply heavily for scholarships. That’s guaranteed money in writing for 4 years. Southern and southwestern states are underrepresented, and tend to offer excellent scholarships. Check out Univ of Alabama, Univ of AZ, ASU, Baylor, TCU, and Texas State Univ. There are plenty more, but you have to research school-by-school.

““My cousnelor told me Im basicaly going to get in due to my profile.””

Your counselor is incompetent.

Not a singular school. A list. We need more information. What is your financial status? What’s your desired geographic location, major, vibe, size, etc…?

MWolf- if OP is at Bronx HS Science or Stuy (aka one of the competitive NYC public HS’s) indeed his profile is a match for Skidmore, Brandeis, etc.) These schools dig very deep into the classes at the top public HS’s. There is very little grade inflation, the adcom’s responsible for the region know the curriculum very well, etc.

not bxsci or stuy but its close

then what is? just curious lol