My chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>All the seniors know where they will be attending next year, and now it's time for the juniors to start worrying about admissions! Please be honest; what are my chances for Yale? It's my dream school.</p>

<p>I'm a white female from IL (Chicago suburbs)</p>

<p>Stats:
SAT: 2350
Math: 790
Writing: 800
Reading: 760
SAT II: Bio (E) 700
Bio (M) 680
Chemistry 750
World History 750
Math II: havent taken yet
Class Rank: 4/604
GPA: nonweighted 5.00/5.00
weighted 5.25/5.00</p>

<p>Classes:</p>

<p>8th grade (I took an algebra class and received high school credit; I'm a year ahead in math from my classmates, got an A)</p>

<p>Freshman Year
Honors Biology A
Honors Geometry A
Honors English A
Journalism A
Honors Social Science A
Spanish 2 A</p>

<p>Sophomore Year
Honors Precalc A
Honors English A
AP World History A
Journalism A
Honors Chemistry A
Spanish 3 A</p>

<p>Junior Year
AP Calc BC A
Spanish 4 A
Journalism A
AP US History A
Honors Physics
AP English Language</p>

<p>Senior Year
Calc 3/Differential Equations (a class offered by my local community college)
AP Spanish
AP Physics
Journalism
AP English Literature</p>

<p>ECs</p>

<p>Job: work at Consumer Surveys (5 hours/week)
Do some odd tutoring jobs (math/badminton)</p>

<p>Journalism
Sophomore year, youngest chief editor ever as Chief Features
Junior, Chief news
Senior, editor-in-chief</p>

<p>Athletics
Been playing badminton since freshman year, this year (junior) I am #1 singles, will find out tomorrow if I make it to State
Freshman year I played on the sophomore volleyball team (decided I didn't want to come back)</p>

<p>Misc:
National Honor Society
Environmental Club
Peer Counseling (give new students tours of the building)
Spanish Honor Society
Class secretary for past 3 years
Mentor of Student Talent (hang out with a fourth-grader)</p>

<p>Awards:
National Merit Semi-finalist
NISPA (a journalism organization) Blue Ribbon in feature writing</p>

<p>Community Service:
Every summer, I travel to rural Appalachia with my church youth group to repair homes for the needy
Volunteered at a nursing home one summer
Helped out in my school's chem lab after school
Part of my school's volunteer club
Was a counselor (unpaid) at a daycamp for the children of the migrant workers at a nearby racetrack last summer
Volunteer 2 hours a week at an animal shelter</p>

<p>Major:
Not entirely sure, something in math or physical sciences, maybe engineering</p>

2

<p>I've been looking at other people's chancing, and "focus" seems to be a theme. Do I have "focus"?</p>

3

<p>Forgot: </p>

<p>ACT 35
Math 36
Science 34
Writing 35
Reading 35</p>

4

<p>Oh yeah and I got a 5 on my AP World exam, have yet to take the AP exams for this year</p>

5

<p>You know you have competitive stats(!), but Yale is going to be interested in knowing about the person behind the numbers.</p>

<p>In terms of having a "focus", find out what you're passionate about and try to present yourself through the lens of that activity. It seems like you've done a lot of service activities - that's one possible route to take.</p>

6

<p>Thank you!</p>

7

<p>Your stats look impressive, but do you mind me asking why you're applying to Yale for engineering/sciences?</p>

8

<p>Do you ask because 1) my ECs aren't in the math/science area or 2) because Yale is not a good place for engineering/sciences?</p>

<p>If #1, I really like math/science and just never got around to joining that type of activity.</p>

<p>If #2, I have since decided not to do engineering and just stick with science/math. But my counselor told me that Yale had great science programs. Is this not true?</p>

9

<p>Yale does not have the best science rep, but a lot of money is being put into the science program, and a lot of great professors are going there. For engineering, don't go yet, but a math or physics major, etc. will most likely be fine at Yale.</p>

10

<p>
[quote]
Yale does not have the best science rep

[/quote]

This is entirely untrue - in biology Yale is probably top-5 nationally, in math it's top-10, in the physical sciences it's top 15, all at the graduate level. At the undergrad level, there won't be any big enough differences to distinguish between it and anywhere else (with the exception of tech schools like Caltech and MIT, where the culture of the university makes the academic experience in the sciences even more intense, in both good and bad ways).
The broader point - that Yale is fine to go for as a pure science major, and weaker as an engineering major, is probably true. It does have a substantially weaker reputation in engineering than some of the other top schools.</p>

11

<p>How is it for physics and economics?</p>

12

<p>I'm not majoring in either, but economics is VERY popular. Lots of econ majors... so they must like it.</p>

13

<p>also, as a bio major, the bio dept is quite good. I can't speak in an educated way about other science depts, but the advanced intro chem class i took was pretty good.</p>

14

<p>And, as was alluded to above, yale's putting 3 billion dollars into the sciences, and there's a huge focus right now on enriching the science departments at yale. President levin has made sciences at yale a top priority, i'd say his top academic priority.</p>

15

<p>I think it is fair to say Yale is not up there with Caltech, MIT, Stanford, etc in engineering but it is surprisingly good in sciences. </p>

<p>With regards to some of the concerns mentioned, according to [url=<a href="http://www.stat.tamu.edu/%7Ejnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41.html#area12:%5DNRC"&gt;http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41.html#area12:]NRC&lt;/a> Rankings in Each of 41 Areas<a href="one%20of%20those%20stupid%20rankings%20kids%20on%20CC%20like%20to%20cite">/url</a>:</p>

<p>-Yale is 1st in physiology, 6th in biochem, 2nd in neuroscience, 1st in pharmacology, 10 in cell bio, etc so it is definitely very good at biology stuff.
-Engineering is notably lower, but it is improving.
-Mathematics it is 7th, which is good (1 below stanford, several above Caltech so it has fine company).
-Pure physics it is 13th, so that is still good (behind very engineering focused schools but still high).
-Economics it is 6th (1 below Princeton) and the program is pretty well known.</p>

<p>Obviously this is below the stuff Yale is best known for (e.g. 1st in English, 1st in Comp. Lit, 1st in History, etc), but it is certainly high. Considering that the NRC stuff is focused more on grad -- and Yale puts its emphasis on undergrads -- I was surprised to see how highly Yale ranked across all areas. Yale haters often use the same statistics to try to show that Yale is weak but when I actually looked at the stuff I was very surprised to see the opposite.</p>

<p>My main suggestion is that you choose to attend or not attend based on the Yale community, not on whether someone tells you "they have a good/bad program in X area." Obviously if you are entirely focused in one area like engineering, that may make slightly more sense, but I don't think you should pick undergraduate schools based upon whether some kid tells you they are weak on CC or even on any kind of an arbitrary ranking...</p>

16

<p>And what is Yale's policy with dual majors?
I heard that H and P do not allow dual majors and that Columbia and Penn do</p>

17

<p>Double majors are allowed.</p>

18

<p>Our guide on our tour this spring was double majoring in film and molecular bio/biochem, so it can definitely be done.</p>

19

<p>And by the way, Harvard has something along the lines of a double major, but as usual they do it a bit differently:</p>

<hr>

<p>Joint Concentrations</p>

<p>Some students find that their interests are better accommodated by pursuing a joint concentration that combines two fields. The two fields combined in a joint concentration must each be an undergraduate concentration offered in its own right. A joint venture is meant to integrate the two fields into a coherent plan of study. Joint concentrations ordinarily culminate in an interdisciplinary thesis written while enrolled in the thesis tutorial of one concentration only.</p>

<p>For students who do not wish to integrate the work of two separate fields into one coherent program, a secondary field option may be more appropriate (see "Secondary Fields," on page 35 and in Chapter 4).</p>

<p>Students who wish to combine two fields in a joint concentration must file with the Registrar a Plan of Study that designates the two fields and has been approved by both concentrations. One of the concentrations is designated the primary concentration. To grant approval, both of the participating concentrations must be satisfied with the coherence and merit of the student's plan and be prepared to supervise the program in detail. Nevertheless, students who undertake joint concentrations often find that they themselves must take some initiative in ensuring communication between the advisers of the two fields and in keeping these advisers apprised of their progress and their needs. Any student combining fields who wishes to change or eliminate one of the fields must file a Change of Field of Concentration form with the Registrar by the degree application deadline in the student's final term at the College.</p>