<p>Any feel-good stories of people with UW GPAs of, say, 3.8 getting into Yale? People who, for whatever reason, did not have STELLAR -- but good -- stats, ECs? Who perhaps had amazing essays and recommendations, and/or interesting backgrounds?</p>
<p>I got in with a 620 M (2180 total) and really good essays to balance out the horror that was that math score. SAT scores are not everything!</p>
<p>I got in with a 2060 no subjects in the 700s and lackluster ECs, im sure many people have a chance at yale that don’t even realize it</p>
<p>I got in with a 1980, didnt take the most rigorous courses possible. I also didnt do that many EC’s, although i was very passionate and committed to what i did do. But yeah anyone can get in, its just a roll of the dice.</p>
<p>My SATs were pretty good (around 2300, give or take 10 points - sorry, I’m too lazy to bring up collegeboard right now to check). My SAT IIs were all 800s. My APs were 5s and one 4. However, my GPA was probably around 3.5 for senior year and inconsistent - read: worse - before that due to personal circumstances, but with a very rigorous course schedule. And I didn’t have that many ECs or anything at the national level apart from National Merit, although I was passionate about what I did. In comparison to most students in the US, I probably looked okay, but when I read these chance threads on CC of super achieving founders of nonprofits with 2400s and 4.0 GPAs for all four years of high school, I start to wonder why on earth the admissions committee ever gave my application a second glance. </p>
<p>But I did get in.</p>
<p>Sometimes I question why I got in, and I can only put it down to the combination of my excellent essays/recommendations and my decent hook. But in the end, it doesn’t really matter. As supereagle10 says, it’s practically a roll of the dice. I’m just happy my roll was lucky.</p>
<p>florilegium–are you an URM?</p>
<p>^I hope that was sarcasm.</p>
<p>no, it was not. and while it was very generalizing of me (as in, all URMs are “underqualified,” which i already know is not true), you can’t deny that URMs do get a little benefit.</p>
<p>No, I am not. On second thought, I am underestimating myself a little - my school doesn’t do GPA, so I don’t know exactly what my GPA was; it was mixed A’s and B+'s though - so perhaps that is part of why you are making that assumption.</p>
<p>Oh it wasn’t in reference to that. I was talking about the scores but I just reread and saw that part about the person having a ‘decent hook’. I’d rather not go into the URM thing again. I’m just really tired of hearing about it but yeah, just noticed the hook part.</p>
<p>Yeah, what’s the “decent hook”? You can’t write a post like that and neglect to go into detail about any type of hook…</p>
<p>I don’t want to go into the hook because I know for a near-fact that it will benefit nobody here (fine, almost nobody… don’t want to make too many sweeping statements) and perhaps reveal my identity. I know, I’m paranoid, but still. </p>
<p>I wrote the post because I wanted to share that, on the off-chance that my acceptance had little to do with my hook (which might be true), sometimes people who don’t have perfect grades do get into Yale. I included the part about the hook as a disclaimer just in case my acceptance did have something to do with it after all.</p>
<p>Sorry I cannot be of more help - just wanted to offer my personal story and perhaps some hope.</p>
<p>Now I’m uber curious.</p>
<p>i think we need to substitute “perfect grades” with “3.9+ UW” because it’s obvious a 4.0 isn’t at all necessary.</p>
<p>reapthenightmare, can you elaborate on your background/extracurriculars/what you think got you in? Details, please! :)</p>
<p>
I don’t know…this has got to be the only CC poster ever who doesn’t know exactly what his SAT score was.</p>
<p>I took the SAT 6 months ago and I have trouble remembering my exact score.</p>
<p>Once your accepted and are getting ready for college, you realize your SAT score doesn’t matter now and it’s easy to forget.</p>
<p>If you say so. That’s contrary to my experience, though.</p>
<p>The more I look at admissions decisions threads on CC, the more I realize that scores don’t matter all that much, once you’ve reached a certain point. There’s more to me, as an applicant, than just my scores, and I literally had to log into the CB website to get the exact numbers for when I started filling out the Common App a few days ago.</p>