I’m a German student in my junior year, currently studying abroad. I read on the Yale website that Germany is one of the most represented countries for international students (together with the UK, Canada, etc.)
I was wondering - are there really THAT many Germans at Yale? And if yes, does it mean that there will be more competition within the German applicant pool or does it mean that I’ll have more of an advantage, since Yale already has a good relationship with German applicants?
I just looked at the statistics Yale publishes and it says there are currently 18 German undergrads at Yale so that’s roughly 4 per year. There’s no way to answer your question because the data doesn’t exist how many German students apply but it’s fair to say that competition for any international student is pretty stiff.
Just checked our “Yale Facebook” and it looks like there are currently 14 German undergrads. This may sound like only a few students, but in my experience, there are quite a few people of German heritage who have spent considerable time in Germany and are fluent in German.
Germans have a pretty good representation (most seem to be from Munich) but lots of people with German ancestry who speak German
I’m a German from Munich and applied to Yale RD. 
First of all, your German citizenship puts you into the international pool and with that you have a huge disadvantage. Furthermore, I don’t think Germans are an underrepresented minority; that is, you have no hooks.
So in conclusion, being a German doesn’t entail any siginificant advantages. The only one would be that Yale does take Germans, so you do have a good shot (OK, realistically nobody has a good shot; you have a shot with similar chances as any other international). I hope I didn’t discourage you from applying!
German citizenship in and of itself does not put one into the international pool. It is based solely on where you went to high school. An American citizen living in Germany would be considered international while a German citizen living in America would be considered domestic.
@Bulldog2017 This is not correct. Applicants are sorted according to their country of citizenship, not country of residents. But all of that doesn’t matter to Yale
@InfinityMan Thanks, but I’m not wrong. I had the international vs domestic question when I was applying and emailed the admissions office. I went and dug up the email and it literally starts with “Since applications are read by region, international versus domestic status is determined by where you went to secondary school, rather than by residency or citizenship status.” So unless you have evidence to the contrary, I’m going to stick with what I said before.
@Bulldog2017 You mean besides the quote taken directly from Yale’s website? Here is another one, taken from their FAQ section:
Yale clearly states that “International” is defined through citizenship , not location of school. I took the e-mail you received as meaning that U.S citizens’ abroad applications would be read by the same AO that would read applications from foreign born applicants in the same country, hence putting the US Citizens in the “international” pool in a sense . Point still remains that nationality has little bearing on admissions decisions, although I’m sure there are certain exceptions (like the unspoken of 10% international student quota).
Hope this helps 
Okay so out of curiosity, I emailed the admissions office (slightly misrepresenting myself) in order to satisfy my curiosity and get to the bottom of this inconsistency, despite the fact that I’m already a junior at Yale. I said that I was an international student living in America and I was wondering if I’d be considered international or domestic. This is what I got back:
"Since applications are read by region, international versus domestic status is determined by where you went to secondary school, rather than by residency or citizenship status. By applying as international students, applicants supply admissions officers with needed information included on the International Supplement to the Common Application, namely, an explanation of the respective high school grading system. Bear in mind that there is no advantage or disadvantage one way or the other, applying international as opposed to domestic.
You will report your citizenship(s) on the Common Application. We will consider your citizenship(s) along with your experience abroad in our holistic, context-based application review. Rest assured that it isn’t “better” or “worse” one way or the other. At Yale, because we offer need-blind need-based aid regardless of citizenship, the admissions process for all applicants is the same."
This is very similar to the email I received when I had the opposite question (US citizen applying from another country) way back when.
So here is my conclusion: it doesn’t matter. Applications are read the same regardless. Readers are assigned based on location of secondary school and you can find your admissions officer at admissions.yale.edu/staff. I didn’t go through this comprehensively, but the vast majority of admissions officers have regions that are domestic and regions that are international, so it’s not like there are specialty international readers who are extra scrutinizing for applicants. The email that I received was pretty cut and dry that your admissions officer (and thus your “area” and thus the domestic vs international distinction) is based on location. The FAQ from the website actually doesn’t say anything about whether you are domestic or international or who reads your application first. It just says that citizenship is considered in the holistic evaluation blah blah blah.
tl;dr. Not exactly clear who is right. Ultimately doesn’t matter because “admissions process for all applicants is the same.”