<p>I am a high school senior interested in attending Yale. However, my grades have been bad all throughout hs. Not failing, but few a's or bs. Before HS started I knew I wanted to attend a good school, like Yale. This years I am not taking many classes and for the 1st quarter got a 73 in english. Will Yale even look at me. I may have ADD, and am getting that checked out in the process. I feel I am very smart but cannot pay attention. If I somehow do well on the SATs again, do I have a shot?</p>
<p>Does Yale even look at kids who have bad transcripts?</p>
<p>^IDK how many times GPA and SAT’s have been stressed in this forum. I have to come to realize that the adcoms look at an applicant holistically. There are no clear factors that can balance your grades not because there aren’t any but because we don’t know what kind of factors Yale is looking for within students. Your best bet is to apply and hope for the best. Good luck with your future endeavors.</p>
<p>You have to keep in mind that Yale gets tons of applicants with perfect 4.0’s and SAT’s, etc. Why would they accept you over them? If there is a valid reason or you have amazing EC’s or awards, then there might be a slight chance. Otherwise, it’s a long shot. Also, I just feel that Yale is an academic institution; in the eyes of the admission officers, how will they know you would be able handle the curriculum and courseload once you got there, if your transcript is what you say it to be? Just my two cents…</p>
<p>If I managed to get a 2400 on the SAT’s, what would that do? I read somewhere that the Dean of Yale said SAT’s can help gauge if an applicant can do the work at Yale. I feel that when I am treated for ADD I will be able to do exponentially better in school in the coming months.</p>
<p>To be honest, you have almost no chance of getting into Yale if you have gotten few As and Bs.</p>
<p>Yalie099: My best advice to you is to sit down with your school’s guidance counselor to seek an honest evaluation of where students with your performance have placed as far as college goes. Given what you said, you’re not a viable candidate in the Yale pool. “a few As and Bs” means mostly Cs and Ds, right? 90% of Yale students are in the top 10% of their HS classes. Yale will turn down 28000 applicants this year – I’d say 99% of these will have had better academic performance than you. I would certainly dissuade you from applying to Yale and peer institutions.</p>
<p>You’re a senior and time is of an essence. Have you not even taken any SAT/ACT tests? Have a good sit down w/your counselor and take his/her advice IMMEDIATELY – AS IN TOMORROW.</p>
<p>However, if you’re in the USA, you’re fortunate that many opportunities for 4 year degrees abound.</p>
<p>Yalie099: In addition, have you spoken with your parents about your general college plans? They’ll be crucial in your formulating your future because 1) they may offer suggestions and 2) they likely will be needed in paying for college. Have you spoken with them about any of this?</p>
<p>let me explain my transcript. Freshman year was very bad in terms of grades. Soph was a b average. Junior year was the same. This year is alright in terms of grades. If I get a 2400 on the SATs, what will that do for my chances?</p>
<p>also, has anyone gotten into yale with poor grades thats not a legacy or a recruited athlete?</p>
<p>The only reason I’m even looking at Yale is because I feel that admissions will be impressed with my essay and other parts of my application.</p>
<p>Yale is an academic institution, you are not academically desirable from the sounds of it. However, if you really do have a problem that you feel needs to be fixed. I recommend going to perhaps a community college, get your associates degree while you get that problem fixed and then apply to transfer to a four year school. Yale might still be a long shot, but if you do really well in community college, then you will be looked at more seriously by schools of decent academic caliber. Maybe some of the nice liberal arts schools such as Bowdoin, Amherst, or such. They have been good about accepting qualified transfers. However, if what you say about having low grades in high school is true, I wouldn’t set my hearts on a school like Yale, but that’s not to say you shouldn’t try. I also recommend not assuming you will get a 2400 on you SATs. It’s a grand assumption to make, and even if you did get 2400, it’s not going to guarantee you get in. I had a friend to got a 2400, and was valedictorian of the class get wait listed at Harvard and Yale. He ended up at Brown in the end. For now, try to do your best in school and find out if you really do have a problem that it holding you back. Get it checked out and consider your options.</p>
<p>My poor grades are one of the reasons I will stand out to a school like Yale. Also what exactly are you saying about Yale. It’s an academic institution but your friend with 2400 on the SATs didn’t get in? I’m just saying if I manage to do well on the SATs it will show Yale that I’m qualified to do work there.</p>
<p>Something like 300 kids worldwide get 2400s on the SAT. Even if you were among that minuscule group, it probably wouldn’t help you. High scores and low grades are generally not advantageous; applicants get the “slacker” stamp. </p>
<p>Essays and other parts of your application will NOT make up for poor grades. Admissions is not likely to even consider those elements unless you get past the first gate with respect to GPA, curriculum, and test scores. With few As and Bs on your transcript, it will be virtually impossible for you to get past that gate.</p>
<p>You have gotten good advice on this thread. I hope you’ll take it.</p>
<p>[Applying</a> to Yale College | Frequently Asked Questions | Office of Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.yale.edu/admit/faq/applying.html]Applying”>http://www.yale.edu/admit/faq/applying.html)</p>
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<p>I feel that I have a learning disability, and once it is corrected I could be doing phenomenal work. What would Yale look upon something like that?</p>
<p>Unless you are diagnosed, I don’t see how they can believe your claim. I’m not sure that would help that much anyway if you have mostly C’s.</p>
<p>It’s not like getting a 2400 would hurt you, exactly. It would help you. But it wouldn’t help you enough to give you a meaningful chance of being accepted. It would show that you are probably capable of doing the work at Yale – but a 2200 would show that just as well, and almost all of the 30,000 or so people who will apply to Yale this year are similarly capable of doing the work there.</p>
<p>You are not going to be able to fix your big problem. You have not shown the ability to deliver top academic performance with a challenging curriculum on a consistent basis. Even if you are doing really well this year, all Yale will have is half a year’s worth of grades, and that alone will not be enough. Furthermore, you yourself have said that part of the reason you are doing well is that you are taking fewer, easier classes. Going to Yale is like taking more, harder classes, even if you had already been taking the hardest classes available in high school. Maybe you ARE capable of doing amazing work with the proper therapy – I hope so – but you haven’t come close to proving that yet, and it’s too late to prove that in high school.</p>
<p>A 2400 on the SAT wouldn’t compensate for that. If anything, it would show that you have underperformed your potential year after year (until this year), and that is a very, very tough story to sell to a place like Yale. You would have a much better chance of being admitted if you had a high GPA in tough courses, but a much lower SAT score.</p>
<p>Your essays could possibly be good enough to give you a chance. But, honestly, based on your writing here, I don’t think so.</p>
<p>If you want to apply to Yale, you shouldn’t let us dissuade you. Plenty of people apply like that. But you should probably have a backup plan, because it’s very unlikely that you will succeed at Yale. Luckily for you, there are lots of places that someone with your record can get a great college education even without 2400 SATs. Not getting into Yale will be pretty unimportant in your life as a whole, but you have to have the maturity to develop realistic plans, not just dreams.</p>
<p>I really appreciate your response, JHS. What is the best post secondary HS option that I can take in order to get into Yale, class of 2015?</p>
<p>^You can always go to a state univeristy and then transfer to YAle for Grad school. But that really doesn’t answer your question does it now? :)</p>