<p>Yes, Yale looks at many other factors besides GPA, but unfortunately, you can’t pull those factors out from a bunch of statistics. They are unknowable.</p>
<p>Gibby:</p>
<p>I’m sure you don’t mean to say those factors are unknowable - perhaps they don’t lend themselves to quantitation where you can see the 25-75 percentiles. Some kids are clearly at their limit pulling down those A grades and stellar SAT scores where others have so much reserve capacity as to be in a bewildering number of activities and performing in those at a top level. Those types of students certainly do better. Perhaps there are specific institutional needs (a first basement or harp player) that are unknowable year to year.</p>
<p>I should have said that those factors ARE knowable only to Admissions Directors. As we are not in the room when decisions are made, we cannot know why one student is accepted and another is rejected.</p>
<p>I agree that the pool will be very competitive SCEA, but wouldn’t there also be the factor that no Harvard, Princeton, etc. early applicants would apply and many may take an overreach chance early to as a complete crap-shoot?</p>
<p>With HYPS all having SCEA, applicants have to choose their favorite school when applying early. Just because there are no Harvard, Princeton or Stanford applicants in Yale’s early pool, does not mean the competition for a slot is diminished or somewhat less intense. I think there are plenty of competitive students to go around. </p>
<p>Yes, some students may overreach early at all of those schools, but I imagine that those overreaching students are easy to weed-out because they seem so out of place. It’s not a crap-shoot for the over-reachers.</p>
<p>The crap-shoot aspect of admissions, at least from my viewpoint, comes into play with competitive applicants. Yale and HPS, in theory, could fill all of their seats from the early pool, but they don’t. So, it’s more of a crap-shoot for competitive students. You just don’t know if you will be accepted or deferred.</p>
<p>Regarding CT applicants–</p>
<p>A fairly recent analysis done for attending students based on state of origin of applicants:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/6973073-post6.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/6973073-post6.html</a></p>
<p>As you can see, CT students lead the nation in per-capita representation at Yale, and at more than six times the national average.</p>
<p>Does this mean they are favored in selection? We have no way of knowing since we don’t know how many CT applicants there are nor the quality of the pool of these applicants. If CT students apply to Yale at six times the national rate–and the CT applicant pool is on-average like the national pool–then a six-fold increase in the concentration of attending CT students would be the result we would expect if no additional favoritism is in play. And if CT students actually apply at (say) ten times the national rate (and otherwise match average credentials), then we could conclude that an anti-CT bias exists. But we really can’t tell.</p>
<p>My point here is to cast some doubt on the alleged anti-CT bias. We really can’t conclude whether or not CT students are or are not favored by Yale admissions, but the available data at least requires some additional explanation before the presence of anti-CT bias can be concluded.</p>
<p>Geographic distribution is a possible factor working against CT applicants, but consider what might be working in favor of CT applicants:</p>
<p>-- Some applicants are children of Yale faculty, administration, and staff. Historically many colleges have extended preference for these.</p>
<p>-- A wider number of applicants will have familiarity to the admissions office simply because of proximity, local media, established networks, etc. Admissions staff are also more likely to be familiar with the teachers and curricula of CT high schools and able to make more accurate evaluations. Selection preference often favors the known applicants.</p>
<p>-- CT applicants probably yield at a higher rate than those further afield. Knowing that an applicant is more likely to attend is also a source of preference.</p>
<p>Also CT has a greater density of alumni so a greater no. of legacy applicants.</p>
<p>There is also the New Haven Promise program to consider as brought up by gibby.</p>
<p>^^ Don’t let that stop you from applying early though. One of my son’s roommates last year was from CT and so is his current girlfriend, who is a Yale sophomore.</p>
<p>Haha thanks gibby! Yeah there definitely is unhooked CT representation. My on-campus interviewer was also from CT. I am 99.9% going to apply SCEA as there is nowhere I would rather go, and am willing to take a chance to get in early.</p>