<p>gasp, cry. ok. thanks for the honesty yalie. </p>
<p>(i'm under no pretense. please don't mistake my determination as entitlement.)</p>
<p>I think you have some pretty interesting/unique things that give you a good shot. Don't listen to yalie343's pessimism. Granted, I don't think you have a shoo-in or anything, but you have some pretty impressive stats. I think it'll come down to your essays and recs (more so the former, in my opinion). I do agree with him/her in that you do need to find back-ups that you really like, and not just ones that you'd "settle for" in case you didn't get in to Yale.</p>
<p>Yeah, sorry, I'm a pessimist. I think you have good stats, I just wanted you to make sure you apply to a wide range of schools.... b/c I am pretty darn sure that very elite schools a little less competitive than yale would take you and I wouldn't want you to miss out from them if you're rejected from Yale...</p>
<p>no no, i appreciate the honesty guys. thanks. i'm doing a whole lot of searching for other awesome schools, because obviously yale is far from a guarantee for anyone, especially for me. </p>
<p>i'm curious, though: does anyone think applying EA would -hurt- my chances?</p>
<p>It won't hurt your chances at Yale, but does take away the opportunity to apply early anywhere else with ED or EA. If you are certain Yale is your first choice, and that you don't want to spend that early ticket somewhere where the odds of admission are better (and you would also be happy: see posts 22 and 23), then you should click the "send" button to Yale.</p>
<p>I think you are a prime candidate to apply EA, since you are so determined to go to Yale. If anything EA would improve you chances because the college would know that it was your first choice. </p>
<p>Overall, I think you have excellent chances. You EC's, SAT's, and service are all pretty strong. However, your GPA is low, even considering your courseload and school. If anything you ethnicity will work against you because as a Pacific Islander, you are considered Asian, and therefore over-represented. Again, as many before me have commented, try not to sound too desperate to get into Yale, because AdComs will find that unappealing.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>is it better for me not to list anything for "race" than? i am also part spanish... so that's european but do they count it as hispanic? if i check "asian/pacislander" "white" and "hispanic" is that valid/would that make the asian part less disadvantageous?</p>
<p>again, thank you all so much for responding</p>
<p>According to wiki:
"The U.S. Office of Management and Budget currently defines "Hispanic or Latino" as "a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race".[7]"</p>
<p>I guess that means you can put it down. My friend is 1/4 Puerto Rican and she put down hispanic on her applications as her only identified race. I consider that a little shady...</p>
<p>FWIW, Pacific Islanders aren't considered the same as Asians. They're the same census category, but if you check the Asian/Pacific Islander Box and then write "native Hawaiian" (or whatever it is you are), that will be considered differently from a Chinese or Japanese person.
On the other hand, worrying about ethnicity is silly. Apply, fill out everything honestly, and if you get in, you get in.</p>
<p>I don't go to a private school, but I went to a very prestigious public school, and every single student I know who went to Yale (from my school) had at least a 3.9 GPA (on a 4.0 scale). </p>
<p>Therefore, do you have a legitimate reason for your GPA being that low? I mean, if it were due to the difficulty of the course load, it will raise questions to whether you will be capable of handling the classes at Yale. Although your SAT score proves that you are definitely intelligent, your work habits will be in question. </p>
<p>Actually, it almost seems like your extra curriculars may have prevented you from getting a higher GPA. So whatever you write in your application, don't create the impression that you had trouble being well-rounded.</p>
<p>However, on a personal note, does being a minority actually help you get into Yale? What if I'm not a minority (I'm East Indian, so that probably correlates with "Asian") but no one in my family has ever attended college before?</p>
<p>Your behavior and demeanor seem Yale-worthy. IN.</p>
<p>I remember reading somewhere that 80% of Yale applicants with perfect SAT scores are accepted.</p>
<p>If that's so, then you should start packing and checking out the local hangouts in New Haven =)</p>
<p>
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I remember reading somewhere that 80% of Yale applicants with perfect SAT scores are accepted.
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</p>
<p>Could you find the source for me? Do you know if the same thing applies with the ACT?</p>
<p>
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I remember reading somewhere that 80% of Yale applicants with perfect SAT scores are accepted.
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</p>
<p>This is inaccurate. Yale does not release these numbers, and there is no source that verifies what percentage of perfect scorers Yale accepts. I'm sure there's a higher rate of acceptance among perfect scorers than there is among the rest of the applicant population. But that's not just because perfect scores are prized in and of themselves. Perfect scorers typically bring lots of other accomplishments to the table. GPA and curriculum trump scores. And GPA, rigor of curriculum, and scores just get you over the threshold at schools like Yale. After that, ECs, recommendations, and essays are carefully evaluated. </p>
<p>80%? With an admission rate of just over 8% this year, that figure simply doesn't pass the reasonableness test. High scores are never a guarantee of admission, let alone for 80% of applicants.</p>
<p>I read somewhere that 100.00% of people named "caiacs" create inaccurate statistics without knowing what they are talking about. I think I saw it on factcheck.org. :)</p>
<p>I think you're an interesting candidate between the perfect score, debate, and writing. However, you're up against veeeerry stiff competitive coming from a top prep. Schools like Yale take fewer and fewer of these schools' students each year in trying to diversify their student body, and being Asian with a low GPA will be detrimental (they really won't care about the difficult of your school). I would apply EA. Even if you don't get in that round, I think you application may just need to sit with the adcoms for a bit if you want them to realize your full potential.</p>
<p>wow thanks for all the insight guys! </p>
<p>as to the comment that said that my extra curriculars may be the cause of my low gpa, that's kind of entirely true :(</p>
<p>it's a decision i made early on: to follow my passions in high school and take full advantage of the EC options available to me. i am fully involved in the most prominent campus publications as well as an active and high ranking debater. and i love doing it all, i wouldn't have it any other way. well.. or so i thought. in retrospect would it have been smarter to focus on my GPA? pick up only the extra curriculars which seemed impressive but less time-consuming? sure. that's one way i could have gone about it.</p>
<p>but it's not the path i chose. and i may have to suffer the consequences for following my passions but if yale is the kind of school that cannot accept me because of my sophomore physics and ap euro grades, despite my flawless, A+ english record, then it's not the school i believe it to be. </p>
<p>so yeah. i'm going to take my chances, i'm going to apply EA, and i'm going to hope against all odds that yale isn't just about having an above-perfect gpa and cookie-cutter extra-curriculars that fit nicely into their application boxes.</p>
<p>as per my SAT score, i'm very very happy about it, but i don't expect it to be the focus of my application. i got that score without stressing, and i do not intend to stress over the score now that i have it. </p>
<p>and also: why on earth would a school reject someone because of their ethnicity??? for some reason, i don't know, that seems a little itty bit racist.</p>
<p>so, we'll see, yale. here's hoping you're bigger than that, here's hoping you won't reduce me to a gpa that doesn't quite make the cut and here's hoping you won't discriminate against me based on my prep school pedigree.</p>
<p>because THAT, ladies and gentlemen, would be a gosh darned shame.</p>
<p>(phew.)</p>
<p>ps again thank you to everyone who's responding. sorry if the above rant sounds slightly upset, i'm not, i'm just sort of frustrated with the reality of the system.</p>
<p>more comments always welcome :)!</p>
<p>Yale won't discriminate against you for coming from a prep school. However, as a graduate of a different (but equally well-known) prep school who just went through the college process, let me add my two cents:
You'll be up against very stiff competition from within your own school. A significant portion of the kids from my school that are headed to Yale (and Harvard and Princeton) are athletes, legacies, or otherwise connected. This, unfortunately, leaves very little room for the kids who hope to get in on academic merit. At least one person in the top 5 (that's top 5 people, not top 5%) of my class was waitlisted by Yale. It's ridiculous.
The good news is that Yale will know what your school is like, and will understand the reason for your GPA. However, if they've got 10 other kids from your school who have slightly higher GPAs and strong test scores and ECs, then...well, it doesn't look good.
You certainly have a chance. Apply early. Make your essays the best thing you've ever written. Give them a compelling reason to accept you over your classmates. Then cross your fingers and hope for the best.</p>
<p>Firstly, I stated "I remember reading somewhere", not "I'm sure that".</p>
<p>Secondly, I stated "if that's so", denoting a degree of doubt.</p>
<p>Thirdly, I ended the post with a smile, meaning it's not exactly the most serious of posts.</p>