Hi guys, I’m an international student (over-represented demographic) currently studying in a high school in the US. I planned to SCEA to Yale, but consider the scores I’ve got (1500SAT and 33ACT), I don’t know what to do. I know 33 is not a bad score, but consider how competitive Yale is (especially for overrepresented international students with on average high academic performance), is it true that scores matter significantly more in this context?
I’ve only taken the ACT/SAT once and will likely improve my score the next time I take them, so is it better to SCEA now with this score or to send in (probably) a better score for the RD.
I know my chances are close to none, but I really like Yale, so whichever one is a better option I will take it.
Thanks!
your scores aren’t a problem imo—a 1500 is good—but I think your chances really depend on your essay, your extracurriculars, and your letters of rec, which are hard things to qualify on here as to how good they are.
How are your grades/class rank and other components of your application? Will applying SCEA to Yale preclude you from applying EA to a match or lower reach school that you also would be happy to attend? If you feel your app is strong overall, and you are not giving up a real opportunity elsewhere, I’d go ahead and apply SCEA. If you don’t get in, chances are you will be deferred, in which case you will still be able to submit another SAT or ACT score (actually you will have to submit all scores of the test (SAT or ACT) you choose to submit/report).
Thanks! I think my other stuffs are definitely unique enough (I really can’t judge them in terms of strong or decent or weak like other applicants on this forum seem to be able to). But thanks, I think I will give it a shot.
My grades are definitely nowhere near amazing, I estimate that I have a 3.85UW (Our AP teachers are notorious for grade deflation)? But in the context of our school, my gpa is strong (most rigorous courseload; we don’t rank but judging from the class profile I’m at least within top 5%, I’m estimating around 2%?). I don’t know if my ECs are good, but my ECs are unconventional for sure (I don’t think other high school students are doing the things I do). I’m also applying with a relatively unconventional major so my school choices are already limited, therefore I don’t have to worry about applying EA to anywhere else.