Yale REA AR: 14.7%
YALE RD AR: 4.7%
Does Yale REA give an advantage to unhooked applicants?
I am applying to Yale engineering REA and am an intel isef winner in engineering, could this possibly give me a small boost because usually isef winners’s top choice school is MIT, not Yale?
Thoughts?
The short answer: Yes, if you are high-end student!
The more nuanced answer: SCEA is not for everyone – it is SUPER competitive.
If you have a 1560+ SAT, with lots of AP classes and AP tests (all with 4’s and 5’s) and an unweighted GPA above 95 (on a 1-100 scale) or an unweighted GPA of 3.9 (on a 1-4 scale), and are ranked in the top 1% to 3% of your graduating class, then you should apply to HYP or S in the SCEA round. Pick a school, whichever one is your favorite, and apply, as the odds tend to be better for high-end students in the early round, no matter what Admissions says otherwise.
If you have a sub-1560 SAT or the ACT equivalent, and are ranked in the top 4% to 10% of your high school’s graduating class, then you should NOT apply SCEA, as there is a high probability that your application will get buried by the polly-perfect’s of this world, and there is a high probability you will be deferred.
Instead, student’s with sub-1560 SAT’s, and ranked in the top 4% to 10% of their graduating class should apply to a broad range of non-binding colleges early and apply to HYPS in the RD round.
Ok, thanks! I have a 1600/800/800 and I am ranked 2/1433. Also, do you think applying engineering could give me a boost based on what I said above to Yale REA, or nah.
^^^^That’s one opinion, I tend to believe the University on this question and they unequivocally say that it does NOT give any advantage. This is often a point of contention on this forum, but after taking out all the hooked applicants you tend to arrive at the RD number.
I tend to agree with @CU123. Also the applicant pool for the EA round tends to be stronger. There are also probably very few “lotto” applications that instantly get tossed into the circular file. Where there might be an advantage is if you have a special, almost niche skill, e.g. the concert bass bassoonist that they need 1 or 2 of each year. Better to be up for consideration when all spots are open.
BTW, the engineering school is not a separate admissions process. You will have to submit an additional short essay on your interest in engineering.
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/01/16/gap-persists-between-early-and-regular-applicants/
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/01/24/early-programs-not-created-equal/
It’s a mantra that Admissions repeats over and over again, which is the reason why really high-end students tend to do well in the SCEA round at HYPS.
I guess we’ll never know unless we get access to the files of EA accepted students and RD accepted students. I would say that since there are quite a few deferred EA applicants who get in RD, it means some group of kids “on the fence” don’t get in until they can be compared against all applicants which means applying EA by itself did not give them the needed boost but they made the cut by the end of the day. I definitely agree that unless you are a high end student, applying SCEA is probably a waste.
@gibby, how does Yale calculate the unweighted GPA? I understand the old way is: A = 4.0, A-=4.0; B+=3.0, B=3.0, B-=3.0; … Now there is another way: A+= 4.3, A=4.0, A-=3.7; B+ = 3.3, B=3.0, B-=2.7; …
@Boswind: Much of how Yale Admissions (and any Admissions office really) is far from transparent. As far as I know, Yale has not shared with the public how they calculate a student’s unweighted GPA.