getting into yale

Hello, i am going into my junior year of high school. I failed my freshman year of high school, took all honors classes except for two. They weren’t hard, i just didn’t care. sophomore year i took all average classes and one honors class, i got A’s in every single one and a B in the honors class. My current GPA is a 3.5790, i am aiming for a GPA of 4.0-4.1 by senior year. I am taking one AP course junior year and the rest will be honors courses, plenty of room to boost my GPA. i also plan on taking 3-5 AP classes my senior year of high school. I’m embarrassed by my PSAT score, i got a 730, which is really bad. I know i cannot boost it enough in time to qualify for the merit scholarship, but i do plan on taking the SAT four times in order to get a goal score of 1480-1500. Is this even possible? i want to get into Yale university. They will obviously see my improvement, (if i improve a lot). I also am planning on starting a climate change club this year upcoming year. Do i still have a chance? :confused: i hope i do, and if i don’t get into Yale as an undergrad for freshman year, i want to try and transfer while in college.

To be honest, it is unlikely that you will get into Yale given the information you told us. Even if you had good grades and more APs etc. since your freshman year, admissions to Yale are very tough.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t go to a good college- there are thousands of great colleges in the US and plenty of them will be a good fit for you. Start looking for schools you can realistically get into with your stats, but don’t depend on boosting your GPA before it actually happens. You should study diligently (look for tips in the SAT/ACT forum) in order to improve your SAT score, but also don’t depend on increasing it by over 700 points.

And Yale doesn’t give merit.

I don’t want to be a Debby Downer here, but I don’t think Yale is a possibility here. A movement from a 3.~6 GPA to a 4.1 in three semesters (as admissions only considers your first semester senior year towards your application) is difficult especially with only one AP next year. Yale also looks for more of the 4.4-4.6 range. Doubling SAT scores nearly never happen (expect ~100 point boost every time you take it). That being said, I do think with your dedication you could look at transferring in.

Just curious, what peaks your interest in Yale? I live near Yale and it’s not what everyone thinks it is. I’ve personally never been interested. While it’s great to go to a reputable university, there are plenty of others and even those matching your stats where you’d have a great name within your field.

I personally don’t recommend only attending a university for the name (if that is the case).

The good news is that there are over 3,000 non-Ivy colleges in the US for you to consider.

yeah…i was thinking about about transfer student, graduate school or the yale school of forestry, I also live near yale and the architecture is absolutely amazing. :slight_smile:

yale does take merit, i saw a girl on youtube who got in and she was a merit finalist

@envo16, I think you’re confounding National Merit Finalist (NMF) with Merit Scholarships. Two different things. Of course Yale will accept NMFs, although it probably wouldn’t make much difference to admissions. Most of Yale’s accepts could be NMF, but some aren’t (my son, for example, didn’t take the PSAT very serously, and didn’t qualify in NJ) and still get accepted. There are also many NMF who are not accepted at Yale.

I join some of the other posters here who strongly advise widening your group of schools.

Wishing the OP much success in the college process.
P.S. Yale doesn’t give merit scholarships (our son was a NMF and so were two of his suite mates)

@envo16 - Yale does not do merit scholarships. It is totally need blind. You will fill out the FAFSA, it gives you a parent contribution. Yale then takes the parent contribution, some money from your summer earnings (depending on your family income) and then they give you the balance. This is the same for everyone. If a student gets money from the outside (as in merit scholarship money), there is a formula where they may reduce somewhat your student contribution. After that, they will use that merit money instead of the financial aid they gave you. The theory being that they can then put that money back into the pot to use for another worthy student. It does not reduce the amount of money owed by your parents.

My D got an outside scholarship once while she was at Yale. They sent her a notice of it, never told her how much it was, and asked her to send a thank you note to the sponsor. We never knew how much it was.

For most students, even 4.0 students with perfect scores, Yale is a stretch. I would suggest you look at what about Yale you like - urban location, top tier liberal arts school, New England location, major that you want to take, etc. - and then find other schools that fit these criteria. If you type in - common data set [name of school] - the information for most colleges and universities will pop up, including the range of the GPA’s, test scores, class rank, etc. It will also tell you about housing, whether they are a big sports school, or if it a school heavy on Greek life. Once you have a geographic idea in mind, I would use this to find schools that you have a realistic chance of getting into. Each student can dream and your list should consider reaches, matches and safeties. But even for a reach, your stats need to be somewhere close to the ballpark.

Wish you luck on your college search.

The OP wrote this "I’m embarrassed by my PSAT score, i got a 730, which is really bad. I know i cannot boost it enough in time to qualify for the merit scholarship, but i do plan on taking the SAT four times in order to get a goal score of 1480-1500. "

I think many are interpreting this as “to get a merit scholarship from Yale.” I’m pretty sure the OP meant “to qualify for NMF” scholarship.