<p>I applied to Yale SCEA last year, and it was my absolute first choice: I'd always wanted to go to Yale. Unfortunately, I was rejected, a depressing (and surprising, given my admittedly high qualifications) decision. I was seriously worried that there was some major flaw in my application of which I was unaware and that I wouldn't get into any of my other top schools.</p>
<p>The wait from December 15 to March 31 was definitely long, painful, and nerve-racking... but in the end I got into a bunch of schools I was really really happy with, and after a seemingly impossible decision I ended up choosing Harvard, where I'm now a happy freshman!!!!</p>
<p>The moral of the story isn't that a rejection for Yale means you'll get into Harvard... and it also isn't that you're better off without an acceptance from Yale... or that you "weren't meant to get into Yale"... or anything like that. I can't even say with 100% certainty that I'm happier and more satisfied at Harvard than I would have been at Yale. Instead, the point is just that you shouldn't give up hope. The whole college process is a crapshoot, and facing rejection is obviously tough... but an early rejection for Yale doesn't mean you won't get in anywhere, and the chances are that you'll end up at a school that you love. </p>
<p>Good luck with the rest of your applications, and find a hobby that will keep your mind off of college for the 12-week wait ahead. Happy holidays!!!</p>
<p>I’m astounded at just how varied these admissions can be for people. The fact that the OP was rejected from Yale and accepted to Harvard would denote some radical difference in evaluations and yet, they seem to be looking for the same thing. The application season really is a terrifying time for students. While this does not necessarily apply to me, I feel that the OP’s words are an inspiration and a boon to any applicants feeling down on their luck.</p>
<p>yeah im bugging still… i thought i was a good applicatn (2280 + 1000 comm serv hours + URM) and i got flat out rejected. this gives me hope haha</p>
<p>This gives me hope too!!! But I can’t help thinking that the Yale SCEA rejects radically changed their app before sending to Harvard or else they wouldn’t have got in? But your story is so inspirational to me right now!!!</p>
<p>You’re a smart, savvy person with good taste in music, right? So make a list of your ten favorite musicians. Now ask your friend, who is also a smart, savvy person with good taste in music to make a list of his/her ten favorites. Are they the same? Almost certainly, they aren’t.
This is one reason why Yale and Harvard don’t admit the same people. The decisions involve subjective evaluations made by human beings. The fact that one admits you and the other rejects you doesn’t suggest that there’s anything wrong with you, or that there’s anything wrong with the decision process. That’s just how it works.
And this is why you’ll probably end up at a school you’ll love–you’ll be on the top-ten list of another school for good reasons. That’s what “fit” is all about.</p>
<p>My boyfriend was rejected EA and accepted in the spring last year. EA is when they take care of athletes, people they’ve been recruiting etc but there is still hope!</p>
<p>^^ It is so easy to make that mistake. Deferral feels a lot like rejection. Though I’m sure for the rejected people, it doesn’t feel like deferral.</p>
<p>i think the 5% acceptance rate, while statistically valid, is a bit misleading in evaluating a deferee’s chances. please, please, please correct me if i’m wrong (after all, i only have a 770 math :P), but here’s what i think:</p>
<p>by being deferred, i think it’s valid to assume that your application effectively “beat out” 35.5% of early applications (the rejected ones) overall. these rejected ones generally were ones that yale was not interested in and knew it wouldn’t be interested in come april or ones that just had no chance. if the early pool is a microcosm of the regular pool, then by being deferred, you’ve already beat out 35.5% of the regular pool. of course, it’s not a microcosm, because early rounds are more competitive! so you’ve already beat out more of the pool–but let’s keep it at 35.5% to not go even more overboard on assumptions.</p>
<p>since apps were 26,003 last year, and they could potentially go up, let’s go all the way up to 28,000. you’ve beaten out over a third of the applicants, leaving 18,060 left (these are a mix of deferred-level applicants & future acceptees). yale will probably admit around 1950 like last year, so the “acceptance rate” is approximately 11% (which i calculated to be an underestimate). </p>
<p>the acceptance rate appears to be 5% because there are many applicants (about a third) who are the first ones out, and it gets a little lower each time a no-chance-applicant applies. by getting deferred, it’s a sign that you’re not one of them, and that yale wants another look at your application, meaning: you have a good shot.</p>
<p>^yes, right on
i think we can also assume that for the regular round, about 50% of the people could be automatically rejected compared to the 36% flat out rejected early</p>
<p>they probably have set criteria for “rejected” applicants</p>
<p>god oh god I hope chair2 is right. I mean, I had thought about that before, but then WHY would yale say something like “we estimate deferrees chances to be the same as the regular pool” I mean that’s just discouraging</p>
<p>Collegestress16: I submitted by CommonApp to Harvard and Yale simultaneously, and my optional supplemental essay for Harvard was my required supplemental essay for Yale. In other words, my applications for the two schools were literally identical.</p>
<p>Some more positive thoughts about a Yale SCEA rejection: I’m guessing you didn’t want to spend your four college years at New Haven, where the chances are you’ll get mugged at some point. Also, a rejection is (in a weird way) kind of nice, since it lets you definitively limit your options. My friends who were deferred from various schools (including Yale) were really just subjected to 12 more weeks of agony. Also, not one of my deferred-from-Yale-SCEA friends was accepted into Harvard, so there’s no strong correlation there.</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about my experiences or need help/advice with anything!</p>
<p>My point was just that, if you were rejected SCEA, you shouldn’t feel like those who were deferred/accepted will necessarily get into Harvard RD ahead of you – different schools are looking for different things and will look upon your application differently!</p>
<p>I think after reading this thread, the only definite conclusion I can come to is: THE COLLEGE APPLICATION PROCESS IS A CRAPSHOOT. It’s very likely, if you’re the average strong applicant, that you’ll get into one of your say, 3 top schools. It’s highly unlikely you’ll get into all 3.</p>