<p>I couldn't find any writing on this elsewhere. </p>
<p>I'm a standard college confidential person, overachieving and whatnot. I'm also a white male attending one of the best boarding schools in Connecticut as a day student -- so I live in CT. I was discussing Yale with my college counselor and she said that sometimes Yale likes to admit students "from their own backyard" (even though I don't live close at all to New Haven).</p>
<p>Can anyone speak to this? I know Yale admissions is grim for just about anyone, but does being a CT resident help in the slightest? </p>
<p>Also, one last question: my counselor also said that being a white male with an 800 on writing makes me very competitive, much more so than a female with 800 on writing. Is there any truth to that statement as well?</p>
<p>I agree with what T26E4 said. When I applied to Harvard in the fall, my interviewer talked about how a high percentage of Massachusetts kids are admitted compared to other states, however this is mostly due to the comparably high number of Harvard employees and alumni in Massachusetts. I assume it’s a similar case with Yale in Connecticut.</p>
<p>Many selective colleges have an unofficial “backyard” policy for admissions as some private schools also do. But those are generally for disadvantaged kids in school around these elite institutions. Also, there is sometimes outreach for depressed and under represented areas in a stare. I don’t think you fall in either category, nor do I know if Yale has any such programs. I understand “town-gown” is not the greatest in New Haven.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse, I’m lower-middle class as CT goes; my dad is unemployed due to cancer and my mom is a fourth grade school teacher. I also live in Eastern CT (opposite side of state as Yale), and I know that my public high school of around ~1000 kids sent only one student to an Ivy last year. I know I’m coming off as obsessive, which I guess I am, but do those details make me a more competitive candidate?</p>
<p>Also, I did a little research comparing Lawrenceville and Hotchkiss, two comparable top prep schools in NJ and CT respectively. </p>
<p>Lawrenceville in 2011 sent 14 to Princeton and 3 to Yale.
Hotchkiss over the past four years has sent 21 to Princeton and 28 to Yale.</p>
<p>Could those statistics be explained by Princeton and Yale having a bias towards in-state applicants? </p>
<p>Thanks for the great replies, everyone, btw.</p>
<p>Yeah, the statistics for prep schools do not correlate to statistics for public schools. Some prep schools have ties with top schools like Harvard, Princeton, etc. and I think many of these kids are legacies.</p>
<p>“do those details make me a more competitive candidate?”</p>
<p>The contents of your application, specifically your teacher recommendations and essays, in addition to your course load, GPA and SAT/ACT scores are what makes a candidate competitive. Yale reads applications without regard to financial need, so it will have no bearing on your application.</p>
<p>“My counselor also said that being a white male with an 800 on writing makes me very competitive, much more so than a female with 800 on writing. Is there any truth to that statement as well?”</p>
<p>Having an 800 in Writing – white male or not – is a blessing and a curse. Because of your perfect writing score, Yale will be looking for your teachers to comment on your superb writing skills and they will be looking forward to reading your brilliant essay. It’s a curse because you now have high expectations to live up to.</p>
<p>gibby, there are thousands of Yale applicants who are perfect in all of those components you listed – for most of those applicants that isn’t enough, though: they need a hook. I guess I should restate my question: does being poor (with a disabled parent) from a very underrepresented area of CT count as a “hook,” to some degree?</p>
<p>Also, I guess as a sidenote…And this may or may not apply to you, I don’t know!
When I applied to Harvard this fall, (which was my top choice), and people told me I was a shoe-in, I believed it no matter how many times I told myself that no one was a shoe-in. I subconsciously began looking for small details of my application that I thought would give me an even better advantage, like my work experience, or my cultural background, as well as hidden statistics for things like URM admission rates. Though, on the surface, I was telling people I didn’t think I had a chance, in my mind, I had “seen” enough of what I thought were positive, hidden clues about the ways of Harvard admissions, that I subconsciously convinced myself that I was going to get in. Needless to say, when I was deferred, I was more upset than I would have been if I had never looked for these “hidden” statistics or advantages.
Yeah, so I don’t know if that makes any sense at all, or if that was just my experience, haha. And I don’t know if you are a junior, or if you applied to Yale RD this year, but if I were you, I wouldn’t look for things like admission biases that you think might be to your advantage. Because whether you realize it consciously or not, you will expect more out of the process than might come out. On the other hand, if you don’t expect much and you get good results, the surprise will be even more awesome! Sorry for the long rant!</p>
<p>shelly, that’s actually helpful. I mentioned above that I am kind of becoming obsessive, and I can own that. I’m actually a Junior, and the reason I’m pursuing those “admission biases” is because I am considering applying early to either Dartmouth or Yale. If I could choose, I’d go to Yale. The reason I am torn is that 1.) I don’t want to waste my early decision application Yale if there’s not a good chance, and 2.) I want to apply early to a school where I could realistically get in and thus avoid the increasingly grueling college process.</p>
<p>Definitely apply to Yale then. I mean, I don’t know how much you prefer it over Dartmouth, but if it’s a good deal more, and you get into Dartmouth ED, you literally can’t apply anywhere else, and you’ll be left wondering if maybe you would have gotten into Yale also, which was your actual first choice.</p>
<p>Certain schools in the “independent” category are very selective high schools. They send an inordinate number of their students to ivies and other highly selective colleges because they preselect top students themselves. The average SAT scores at these schools tend to be very much like those of selective colleges. Also the curriculums at these schools are rigorous and prepare their students for challenging college work. Not to mention that there are many families at these schools who have a history of sending kids to top colleges along with more than the usual number of celebrity and legacy families. So right there, these kids as a group are good prospects for selective school admissions. THese schools often have outreach programs like Prep for Prep or ABC where they accept kids who show academic and intellectual promise who are considered disadvantaged and give them scholarships. Such kids are often accepted to elite schools as well because the colleges know that they are prepared and able to do the work, and often are in URM, first generation, economically/culturally challenged families that these colleges want but want such kids in shape to succeed which is an issue in many high schools where those kids would have otherwise gone. </p>
<p>So given that schools like Andover, Exeter, Lawrenceville, et al are considered top high schools with curriculums and preselected kids it makes sense that the top colleges will be accepting a disproportionate number of kids from such schools. And kids tend to like to go to schools closer, rather than further. NYU gets so many kids from within an hour or two away applying and wanting to go there,. The same with other name schools. It’s not that the colleges give students from these schools a break; they are top flight kids prepared superbly for top flight colleges.</p>
<p>My husband grew up in an area of a state that is considered disadvantaged. He and I found out much later that there are actually “agreements” that the state medical school accept at least one kid from the area, and that the elite school in the state also does give these kids, like my DH some preference. Not many of them, and not a huge preference that one would glaringly notice, but a preference nonetheless. With a single mom, low income, graduating from a not so great high school in a depressed area did give him a leg up. Ironically, he was in a category where he was “pseudo disadvantaged” in that he was the son of two highly educated parents, came from a cultured household, and a well to do family who was suffering from the aftermath of a terrible vindictive divorce. He had far less in common with his high school classmates than his college ones despite where he lived for during his high school and middle school years. But his address gave him a boost along with the fact that his academic stats were impressive that made him a shoo in. A different address, he would have been in the "maybe"group for admissions.</p>
<p>Well, this isn’t really a “chance” thread – I was just curious about how Yale considers instate residents. </p>
<p>I feel like geography does count a whole lot, like, arguably more than test scores. My prep school recruits kids from obscure states and countries who tend to have lower GPAs, while tons of qualified Asians and NYC kids regularly get rejected. Having seen this, I just had the thought that my geographic location might work for Yale, and my college counselor brought that up herself; but it sounds like you guys are saying any help it might offer, if any, is negligible. </p>
<p>Also, someone said that since Yale is “need-blind” they wouldn’t see that my family is poor during the admissions process. Is that really true? I feel like Yale would eagerly recruit poor and disadvantaged students, often by looking at their parent’s income.</p>
<p>Need blind does not mean that Admissions doesn’t consider the applicant’s economic and therefore, educational context (i.e. attend a HS with huge poverty rate; parents’ income/education level; # siblings; other extenuating circumstances).</p>
<p>Admissions does take those factors into consideration</p>
<p>The Class Divide between Yale and Southern Connecticut</p>
<p>"Mullen examines two four-year colleges located within two miles of one another: Yale University and Southern Connecticut State University. In racial terms, the two institutions are not all that different. Yale is 69 percent white, while Southern is 70 percent white. But as Mullen finds in interviews with 50 Yale students and 50 Southern students, the class divide is significant, and that difference has enormous implications for the attitudes, experiences, and expectations of students.</p>
<p>Over 90 percent of Yale students were from out of state, while over 90 percent of Southern students came from in-state. The Southern students never thought of applying to Yale, and the Yale students have never even heard of Southern."</p>
<p>I read that yesterday before I made this thread! I wasn’t quite sure what to take away from it. Perhaps Yale is conscious of this class disparity and interested in taking in more lower-class CT residents? Or just the opposite, perhaps, as the article might suggest.</p>
Sorry for the long rant!</p>