Hello, I am a senior in high school,
I have a 4.93 gpa weighted, and 3.955 unweighted. I am in an IB program. My SAT is 1460. I have legacy at Yale through my mother. I do a lot of theatre and music very seriously and have one an international enviromental competition. Do I have a good chance to get into Yale?
If you mean that you won the international competition you actually have a slightly better chance. If you meant that you went to the international competition, it is just a normal competition. Legacy counts but your SAT is really low compared to other students so you need to work on that.
As long as you have good SAT and a little more extracurricular activities than just one international competition, I think you will be fine.
If you can get that SAT up above 1500 and apply ED (if it is your clear top choice) you’ll improve your chances. Yale would still be a reach, though, so be sure to add more reaches, matches, and at least one safety you like and can afford.
Yale is an SCEA school, and it is up for debate if there is any advantage at all for early applicants. There is some speculation that legacies may have a better shot in the EA round, but certainly not like Penn which affirmatively tells legacies that their legacy status is given more weight in the ED round. In a recent conference call with the head of admissions, he disclosed that the majority of legacies applied early, but that there was no advantage in doing so.
No one has a good chance of getting into Yale. The admissions rate is about 20% for legacies (much higher than the overall rate of 7% – but it still means 80% are rejected), and remember legacies probably represent one of the strongest pools of applicants given their likely SES advantages and familiarity with Yale. Your SAT score is probably at or below the 25th percentile which makes standing out with your essays, LoR’s and EC’s that much more important.