<p>um, long story short, i loved yale my entire childhood, but in high school kind of gave up. but the way things are looking (HYP et al= crapshoot), maybe anyone, even me, has a chance. what do you think? possible SCEA.</p>
<p>female
english major? chem major? both?
gpa: 3.7 unweighted, 3.8 weighted, junior year = first C ever :(
sat: 2340 (800 CR, 770 W, 770 M)
sat ii: bio-780, lit-740
aps: chem-4, bio-5, lang-5, world-4, took phys b, but didn't take the test.
ec's/honors/intrests: i write to live. newspaper ed-in-chief 08-09, crappy local writing awards, a notebook full of ink and dreams. nhs, model un, smiling, drinking coffee, reading great literature, GENERIC PROZAC, writing crap stories, theatre, volunteering, running with my dad around dc and living my life.
essays: hopefully okay, if i can get my yacht sized personality to squeeze into a common app text box.
strengths: i'm awesome, passionate about my writing, i have good standardized scores because i'm a test-taking robot, i'm smiley and a good talker, i'm black (actually kind of a detriment in, oh, real life.)
weaknesses: i don't take high school seriously because i'm too busy championing the underdogs and trying to glean good writing skills from the new yorker. i have a problem with sarcasm.</p>
<p>does yale even want a crazy/happy/writer bulldog? or should i stick with maryland :)</p>
<p>oh, forgot...
work experience: professional water rescuer/crime stopper at an inner-city dangerous pool, and laboratory technician/mouse tamer at a super-cool NIMH lab. it's just like mrs. frisby! except not as evil...</p>
<p>This is probably the most personality-conveying chance thread I've ever read on CC. Admissions is a crapshoot, but somehow fit that into one of the commonapp textboxes, and I wish you the best of luck!</p>
<p>I think Yale would love to have someone as charming as you [seem to be]. The only issue with your application is your GPA (which isn't even THAT low), but your personality and everything else you have to offer may well make up for it.</p>
<p>Where does the 3.7 put you in terms of class rank? I hate to be downer, but your GPA is low for anyone but a top pick recruited athlete unless your school has crazy grade deflation and regularly sends a large percentage of each class to Ivies/top tier schools. I think people tend to overplay the URM card on this board. I also think Yale forgives low test scores much more easily than low (for Yale) GPAs.</p>
<p>All that being said, definitely apply or you'll regret not doing it. Your choices are not Yale or Maryland (which has much to commend it, by the way). The vast majority of schools would do backflips if you chose to attend, so I'd apply to other places that sound great but are a notch less selective. Good luck!</p>
<p>yeah, admissionsaddict, i totally know what you mean, but surprisingly i'm still in the top 10%, albeit just barely. but since we don't do class rank, only deciles, i don't think yale will know just how close i was to being in the 2nd decile : )</p>
<p>Well, to jump on the bandwagon, writing+urm+personality+scores+top decile, and your chances are pretty good! Have you won any non-local writing awards like Scholastic?</p>
<p>I've always meant to do the scholastic thing, but I never liked the idea that your teachers had to sponsor you. I ask my teachers for a lot of things, and I just never felt comfortable adding something as trivial as a writing contest to my daily list of demands. Maybe I should have...I might enter a couple of my old works to Teen Ink or something...</p>
<p>My GC verbally acknowledged to both my mom and I that the teacher (of an AP World course) was uncertifed to teach the class and was a poor instructor, plus the tests were written by another instructor who used a completely different book..she was also placed under inspection or something by county school officials and had her classes observed...it was all very dramatic, and a lot of good students got their first B's and C's in her class...but that's not the sort of thing you can put on a recommendation...</p>
<p>I got a four on the exam, if that means anything...and believe me, it took a crapload of self-preparing because our teacher sure as hell didn't give us any useful information :)</p>
<p>My grades dropped junior year in general, which kind of sucks because you're 'supposed' to have an upward trend, but I still have mostly A's. I could 'blame' it on depression- something my gc already knows about as well- but i'd rather not...seriously, with the number of americans taking antidepressents these days, it's not even a legit excuse.</p>
<p>If you have a real reason for depression -- e.g. parental death, then it is fine. Otherwise you are probably right that it is not worth mentioning; I don't want to cheapen depression by saying that it is a "cheap" excuse, but I don't think it would help you to mention it without a reasonable stimulus and it could possibly hurt you.</p>
<p>You have a strong personality and very high scores for an URM. That doesn't mean that they won't reject you, but you are correct that they don't want to hear "excuses." From admissions' perspective, it makes more sense to take the kid who actually did do really well as opposed to a kid complaining about how they screwed up a little but "promise" they can do better.</p>
<p>Make sure your personality is as strong in your app as in your CC page and you will have improved chances... I might even use some of the same terms you used on the previous page if I were you....</p>
<p>^^^Exactly right, yalie...about the depression and the excuses and everything. I'm definetely not planning on mentioning it...at least not directly (i may allude to it in my essay if it is relevant to the main topic)</p>
<p>I'm kind of stuck on how to display my personality without seeming like i'm trying to be quirky (i actually try really hard to be normal :)) or 'original'...the essay is going to be the hardest part of the is entire process. I'll have to figure it out somehow...</p>
<p>haha, what terms are you talking about though, yalie??</p>