Ivy League (specifically Yale and Harvard RD) Chances? ~Class of 2020~

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I applied Yale SCEA and was deferred, but I was wondering about my chances overall for the Ivy Leagues? Thanks and I’ll chance back!

Objective:

SAT I: 2300 (took once, didn’t send): 800 Math, 790 Writing, 710 Reading
ACT: 35 (took it once)
SAT II: 800 Math II, 740 Biology (didn’t send)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.93
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School doesn’t rank. Not sure, maybe top 10%? The average GPA of my class is a 3.66.
AP (place score in parentheses): School doesn’t offer APs.
IB (place score in parentheses): Haven’t taken my IB exams yet, nor have I received predicted grades.
Senior Year Course Load:

IB2 Mathematics HL
IB2 Biology HL
IB2 French HL
IB2 Chemistry SL
IB2 History SL
IB2 Literature SL
IB2 Visual Arts SL
IB2 Theory of Knowledge (one semester)

All of the HL and SL classes are equivalent to their corresponding AP classes.

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Semifinalist, North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad-top 1.5% in North America

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): My school doesn’t offer sports (I KNOW RIGHT?)

Muslim Student Association (treasurer): raised $130,000 for Syrian refugees in one dinner, in charge of managing a second one this year.

Psychology Club (founder/president)- Psychology isn’t offered at my school, but it’s my passion and I wanted to “teach” it to people who were also interested.

Science Olympiad- team placed 3rd in the state competition

French Honors Society- tutor underclassmen, host events, etc.

Didn’t join NHS because at my school, all they do is 10 hours of community service at the same place every year (waste of time in my opinion while comparing it to my existing areas of community service).

Personal Endeavor: trying to write and illustrate a French children’s book as a gift for my French teachers. I plan to get it printed, and have it available as an e-book too.

Job/Work Experience: co-founded a tutoring business with my father, 16 regular students and counting (kind of like Kumon, but I have to design custom lesson plans for each student and teach it to them).

Volunteer/Community Service:

Teacher at local Sunday School: since 7th grade, 1000+ hours of service, I teach elementary school kids Arabic, religious studies, etc.

Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital Volunteer: Neuroscience/stroke department-over 50 hours

Teen Board at local library: organize library community events, choose books to order, etc.

Summer Activities: not many, started hospital volunteering after 11th grade, visited family in Pakistan for entire summer after 10th grade.

Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common App essay was really good I think, talked about a turning point in my religion and how that changed my personality and outlook of others, as well as how I decided to face adversity from now on. I actually wrote this in 11th grade for a Common App essay school assignment and my English teacher gave me full marks on it, so I’m confident in that aspect. Why Yale essay was focused, talked about how I loved the nature of Yale alumni and the availability of resources in relation to my intended majors. In the supplemental essay, I talked about my personal struggles as an aspiring self-taught digital artist and my growth related to art.

Teacher Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):: Not sure, the teachers at my school say that if they agree to write you a letter of rec, then it’ll be a good one.

French teacher’s letter of rec: 7-8 maybe?
Biology teacher’s letter of rec: 8-9, mainly because she’s a leader of the Science Olympiad team

Counselor Rec (rating 1-10, details):: Didn’t know her too well, but was impressed with my extra-curriculars: maybe 7-8, don’t really like her too much because she tried to tell me at first that the Ivies were a little too high for me.

Additional Rec (rating 1-10, details):: No additional rec

Interview: Interview went really well, it quickly turned into a smooth conversation, talked about my passions (psychology and art) mainly, but we touched on everything. I got to know some things about him, it was super chill. Went for an hour; could have gone longer, but he came after his daughter had a really bad allergic reaction and had to leave to see her at the hospital. One thing though, is that I mentioned that I didn’t want to apply for Harvard and that I really preferred Yale over Harvard (which were my true feelings at the time), and he made a special note of that. Would that have any effect on the deferred decision?

Other:
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Majors: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Biology
State (if domestic applicant): Michigan
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: Public (Nationally recognized), 146 in my class, about 600 students total.
Ethnicity: South East Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: $70,000-$100,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM, religion? (idk), focused passions

Other notes: I was accepted to University of Michigan Ann Arbor EA to their LSA college, but it was honestly my safety school.

I think the main issue with my application was my slowly declining GPA over the past 3 years, the drops weren’t significant, but it slowly collected into my current GPA. If I have an improved GPA this semester (which I’m expecting), what would my chances be? Thanks!

2

DEAR LORD I wish I was you. This is seriously incredible. Go you. All the best, wow.

3

UMich is a great school, so you already have one good acceptance under your belt. I don’t know what your chances at Yale will be, since you got deferred, but you can probably get into Brown, Dartmouth, or Cornell (at least one of those). Best of luck!

4

“SAT I: 2300 (took once, didn’t send)”

That’s bizarre.

5

@NickFlynn It might be because of her “low” critical reading score

6

I’m sure that was the “reasoning” but it’s completely absurd.

Probably won’t make any difference because of the 35 ACT, but it is still ridiculous, in my opinion, to “hide” a 99.5% score. I’d wager more admissions people would be impressed by a 2300/35 combo than would possibly be turned off by the CR score.

In the same vein, the decision to not send the Biology SAT2 score is odd, given that schools recommend/require 2 SAT2 scores.

7

^^ I thought the same thing. A 2300 SAT I and 740 in Bio aren’t bad scores.

8

@redrubies1224 You’re not a URM if you’re from southeast Asia mate. But you’re a competitive applicant which is the all I can say.

9

You’re very competitive. Send those apps. Don’t let the deferral cause you to overthink this. You’re a great candidate who will likely make it past the first reading.

10

Thanks so much everyone! I feel a little reassured after that deferral lol. About my SAT scores, I didn’t send them because I thought they were bad (which I don’t), it’s just the overall comfort level of SAT vs. ACT. Out of all the ACT and SAT practice tests I did, I always did better on the ACT, so I kind of just formed an ACT-preference mentality. I didn’t send my SAT II scores to Yale because they didn’t require it, but I will definitely send them to colleges that do. Thanks again everyone!

11

Redrubies1224 - did you get into the ivy leagues? curious.

12

Seemchat-Yes, I did! I got into Dartmouth, which is incredibly lucky seeing as how my first semester senior year grades were absolute crap lol. I wasn’t really expecting to get into Harvard, Yale, etc. because I didn’t really work hard for them, but the acceptance from Dartmouth came as a huge shock!