<p>Hello and welcome :) Thanks sooo much for reading this! :) Here's the deal:
My whole life I've been doing everything in my power to go to Yale, but I'm afraid I have no chance, because education system in Poland (where I come from) is very very different. First of all: grades. My school is rather specific, it's one of the best in country (this year we've moved to second place) and in order to get a good grade you have to go through pure hell. And I'm not talking about studying whole night or something. I know that in EVERY school it's hard to get a good grade, but here teachers like to show us they are superior and/or have sense of humour... For example once I had to write a poem about the rectum on my Biology test... Or explain in drawings how I would perfrom angioplasty! I'm really determined to be accepted to Yale so I'm studying all the time and doing my best and my grades are considered here very good, but they don't sound good at all if converted to the international system. The usual Polish scale is 1-6, 1 being the lowest and 6 being totally exceptional, only for students that won e.g. international contests. In my school there are no 6s, because ,,only God could get a 6" ;) My GPA in last (and also my first) year was 4.0, but this year I'm hoping it will be better. I know this doesn't sound good, but here it is impossible to get a 5.0 ! So do you think this will be even taken under consideration? Because in U.S. system that would be what? 3.0? Or even less!! Also: here we have no choice, we have to learn all the subjects (at least 2 times a week) and we can only choose which ones we want to expand (I have chosen Polish, History, Philosophy and Italian <i also="" speak="" french="">).
I'm taking SATs this year, and have lots of extra-curricular activities I'm very passionate about (most of them are connected with human rights violation and cinema). Hypothetically, if those (SATs, EC's, etc.) were good (I'm an optimist :D) will my grades be a huge problem? Please help :)</i></p><i also="" speak="" french="">
</i>
<p>Admissions for international applicants is extremely, extremely competitive. Especially since Yale is one of a handful of colleges that offers full need-based financial aid to international students who are accepted.</p>
<p>Realistically, the number of students from Poland who are accepted in any year is probably in the range of 0-3. I’m sure there are lots more applications than that – lots and lots more. But they do accept some Polish students. So the admissions people ought to have a good sense of what Polish high school transcripts look like, and also what a great student from Poland looks like. If you ARE a great student from Poland, one of the best in the country, and you do well on your SATs, TOEFL, and every other aspect of your application, you will have a decent shot. (Not a sure thing, but a decent chance.) If you are not quite a great student comparatively in Poland, it will be very difficult.</p>
<p>One thing that isn’t a good idea: getting too personally invested in one particular college. “My whole life I’ve been doing everything in my power to go to Yale.” That’s a really bad attitude, because you may not get to go to Yale. Spend your life trying to be a good, valuable person, and trying to get the best education you can. You have a much better chance of success that way.</p>
<p>Thank you for your answer 
Unfortunately I know that admission for international applicants are extremely competitive 
Of course I agree with you! About the ,Spend your life trying to be a good, valuable person, and trying to get the best education you can’ part This is the way I try to live, what hopefully my ECs would show. What I meant was just that Yale was always my dream, but I’m definitely not one of those people that would do this at all costs or break down if I didn’t succeed. I work very hard to be accepted but I do realise that I may won’t
Thanks again! :)</p>
<p>Hey agata1993,
I’m an international applicant and I’m almost certain I’ll be applying to Yale, so I feel you! My situation is very different from yours though-I’m doing the full IB right now and I’ve been in 6 different schools across 4 different countries in my life, complicated isn’t it? I’ve been talking to Yale alumnis here in Belgium (I got interested in Yale after 2 reps from the Yale club visited my school) and they’ve given me a great insight into what it’s like as an International applicant and such. I think you should try contacting someone of the sorts in Poland-there may be a Yale alumni club there as well. I’ve asked one alumni all my questions and she’s been very helpful, so I encourage you to look for someone as well.</p>
<p>That said, I would like to reassert what JHS said-don’t devote your life into getting into Yale. It’s really not a healthy attitude, because honestly, it’s most likely that you won’t get into Yale. Period. I’m not saying this by looking at your grades and judging your worth as an applicant (In my opinion, you getting a 4.0 in a system as rigorous as you say it is is pretty impressive!), I’m saying this because the odds are stacked so completely against you (and me too, for that matter). They have over 20,000 applicants for 1,900 places, and their acceptance rate is around 7%. If you look at the Yale Class of 2014 regular decision acceptance thread here on CC, you’ll see that almost all the applicants accepted are brilliant all around, yet at the same time there’s a lot of absolutely brilliant candidates who didn’t get in, for no apparent reason. So you see, the acceptance is basically arbitrary and in a way it’s like a huge lottery. I would suggest looking at some other great target schools that you’d absolutely love to attend (I’m sure you’ll find some, I did and I wouldn’t care if I got rejected by Yale if I got accepted by them), and when you do send off that application to Yale, don’t stress about getting in. After all, 2 random people sitting in an admissions office thousands of miles away aren’t the best ones to decide your worth :)</p>
<p>Thanks so much, arunemo I’m currently 17, so I hope to became an undergraduate student in 2012 (not necessarily in Yale), how about you?
6 differents schools in 4 countries?! WOW!
I know, I know- I meant I’ve always been dreaming of Yale, but I do have other plans for my future than this university. I’m fully aware that this may not work, but dreams are dreams :)</p>
<p>I’m applying RD this year, so I’ll be joining the class of 2015 I was going to take a gap year, but I decided against-for me, it’s best left for before Grad school.
Yes I know it sounds absolutely amazing, but it’s been a crazy life moving around so much; sometimes stability is a huge gift.
Yes dreams are dreams, Yale is the only Ivy I’m applying to because it takes a lot of effort to write a good solid application for the Ivies, and with the IB and all I barely have time as it is (I don’t really understand people who apply to all 8 + almost Ivies like Stanford and MIT-they’re all so different from each other, aren’t you basically proving you’re doing it for the name and prestige and not really for what they offer you? Feel free to correct me). It’s odd when you look at some cases here of people who get rejected by Cornell and UPenn (two of the least selective among the Ivies) but get accepted by Yale and Princeton! Like I said, completely arbitrary. Oh well, if I get into any of the other schools I’m applying to (Middlebury, Williams, Wellesley, and Colgate), I’ll be so ecstatic I won’t particularly mind if I got rejected by Yale, especially since I know there’s a higher chance of me getting hit by a car than actually getting in 
Good luck for your application!</p>
<p>In my opinion, you need a champion at Yale, someone who will speak up for you in order to get accepted.</p>
<p>If you send a cold applications, your chances seem very limited indeed!</p>