Do I stand a chance? Am I too much of a cookie cutter applicant

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>-GA resident
-Private School
-Male
-Ethnicity: mixed Hispanic (Spanish) and Asian (Filipino)
-GPA (on my school's scale): 4.13
-UW GPA: 3.89
-school doesn't rank, but I got an award for being the junior with the highest weighted GPA, meaning I'm a would-be valedictorian.</p>

<p>SAT I's
Math: 800
CR: 730
Writing:710</p>

<p>SAT II's
Math II: 800
Chem: 720
U.S. History: 710</p>

<p>AP scores:
US Gov and Politics: 5
APUSH: 5
AP Chem: 5
AP Eng. Lang: 5</p>

<p>Senior Load-grades (This schedule is considered suicide at my school.)
1. AP Calculus BC: A
2. AP Statistics: B
3. AP Biology: B
4. AP Physics: A
5. H British Literature: A
6. Economics (I wish my school offered AP.): A</p>

<p>-school doesn't offer honors classes, but mentions "due to the rigorous curriculum of the school, no classes are designated as honors" in school description.</p>

<p>My only other B's have been graphic design freshman year, AP Gov last year(will a 5 on the exam atone for this), and a mandatory composition class at our school this summer? I got straight A's junior year.</p>

<p>-will mention Math, Economics, and Chemistry respectively as my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice majors. I want to be an investment banker or hedge fund manager when I grow up.</p>

<p>EC's:</p>

<p>Boy Scouts
-Eagle Scout (just did my board of review). My project was building benches, pressure-washing old ones, and putting sealant.
-Senior Patrol Leader during 10th grade, Patrol Leader during 9th
-broke a national record for hiking. I hiked the Bartram Trail (100 miles/5 days, has a lot of elevation): honored by Governor Sonny Purdue and national head of boy scouts for this feat
-LOTS of community service projects
-raised money for inner-city kids to buy scout uniforms
-Philmont Summer 2010-completed trek 34, the hardest trek Philmont has to offer (Only 5 crews this entire summer out of the 1000+ that come to Philmont did trek 34).</p>

<p>Tennis (all 4 years)
-private lesons
-varsity tennis</p>

<p>Academic Quiz Bowl team (10-12)</p>

<p>Food Critic Club (wrote my essay about this)
-Founder
-President
-We evaluate stuff like food quality, service, and atmosphere/location. </p>

<p>Trumpet
-Superior Rating (9,10,11) at Solo Ensemble Festival
-Community Jazz Band (9-12)
-GISA all-select band member (11th grade) (top band members of private schools in GA)
-played for church on Sundays
-invited to play at school's open house 10th grade</p>

<p>Piano for 11 years
-invited to play at several concerts</p>

<p>Duke TIP summer program (summers after 9th and 10th grade, I respectively studied macroecon. and robotics)</p>

<p>Academic Awards:
-Georgia Certificate of Merit
-Phi Beta Kappa Award (given to Junior with the highest weighted GPA in class)
-National Merit Semifinalist</p>

<p>My opinion: I feel like everything is okay, but I don't feel like I have the X-factor that will get me in.</p>

2

<p>Saints: here’s my honest advice to you. You’ve achieved a lot and no doubt, will have successful collegiate career. Strive to leave this nervousness behind. What value is it to you to get strangers’ predictions of your Yale chances? really? Statistically, no one has a good chance. So what?</p>

<p>Stay off of CC until April. Go enjoy your family and friends. Enjoy your final semester in HS and have fun.</p>

3

<p>Having read practically every admissions book available – the one tid-bit that sticks out in regards to your post is from Michelle Hernandez’s book “Acing The College Application”:</p>

<p>“At a certain level, the only way to distinguish among students with excellent records is to judge the student on personal merit – that impression comes directly from the student’s writing in the application.”</p>

<p>To that, I would also add: the impression that comes from your teacher’s and guidance counselor’s recs.</p>

4

<p>Really, one of the adcoms at Princeton at an info session told us that the essays very rarely make or break an application.</p>

5

<p>OP, thank you for that “I want to be an investment banker when I grow up”. It evoked an image in my head that really made my day.</p>

<p>As to your chances, I would second T26E4. Your achievements certainly put you in the “qualified applicant” ballpark and I would say that other factors than your stats - say, how well you could convey those stats, or how well an Asian/Hispanic boy scout would fit into the Class of 2015 mold in the highly subjective opinion of the admission committee - will influence the ultimate outcome.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

6

<p>“. . one of the adcoms at Princeton at an info session told us that the essays very rarely make or break an application.”</p>

<p>Two years ago, my daughter was accepted to Harvard. At a reception for admitted students in our area, the adcoms went around the room and identified each student by their essay. My son, who was just accepted EA this past December to Yale, received a personalized letter from his regional adcom that mentioned her love for his essay. Essays may not “make or break” an application, but they are what adcoms truly remember – and often the essay is what makes an applicant stand out from the cookie-cutter mold!</p>

7

<p>“. . one of the adcoms at Princeton at an info session told us that the essays very rarely make or break an application.”</p>

<p>That is silly Saints. How do they make their decisions? Only on scores and ec’s that all seem alike unless you’ve written a novel or found a cure. Essays are a way to stand out and a way for the adcoms to get to know you. See gibby’s post.<br>
You didn’t hear right.</p>

8

<p>I second gibby’s post. When D1 was admitted SCEA to Yale a couple of years ago, her adcom sent her a personalized letter and specifically said she loved her essay. D2 was just accepted EA to U Chicago and her letter also talked about her essay. A well crafted essay is what will give you your own identity among the tens and thousands of highly qualified applicants.</p>

9

<p>The essays are more of a way for the adcoms to know you, right? It’s about the stuff you put in it and what comes out of it, right? Unless it’s bad enough to the point where nobody can understand what it says, it’s not really a test of grammar, punctuation, spelling and the like, right?</p>

10

<p>Saints: here’s my honest advice to you. You’ve achieved a lot and no doubt, will have successful collegiate career. Strive to leave this nervousness behind. What value is it to you to get strangers’ predictions of your Yale chances? really? Statistically, no one has a good chance. So what?</p>

<p>Stay off of CC until April. Go enjoy your family and friends. Enjoy your final semester in HS and have fun.</p>

11

<p>Saints: The adcoms are reading essays looking for clues to “character” – an old-fashioned word that means the way you develop your inner qualities, intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for the community, tolerance, and inclusiveness.</p>

<p>But to paraphrase T26E4: You’ve already submitted your application, so you need to find a way to leave your nervousness behind and enjoy the last semester of your senior year.</p>

12

<p>I love how pretty much all your threads come in sets of like three or four in the different forums</p>

13

<p>And I love how you keep asking the same unanswerable questions every month.</p>

14

<p>^ I love how you guys are always able to identify pretty much every OP on these forums by some pattern of posting… </p>

<p>Honestly, who cares if the OP posted on more than 1 forum with same message :O… YES I went there (XD).</p>

15

<p>Of course you stand a chance.</p>

<p>…</p>

16

<p>Love it, My daughter also SCEA admit to Yale got a letter from the admissions officer with a hand written note that said “loved your essays!” Must be something they do at Yale, unless they did really love them! Bottom line, I think essays can help!</p>

17

<p>Na, I got a very similar thing; “really enjoyed reading your app and talking to you, feel that you will really fit in at Yale” written under my letter.</p>

<p>I assume that in your daughters case they did really love her essays though :slight_smile: It is a nice thing that they do.</p>