I am a current high school junior applying that hopes to apply for Yale this fall. I heard that Yale would be accepting significantly more applicants in 2021 because they would be building two new residential colleges.Yale is my top choice school and I would love more than anything to go there. Would a gap year to boost my chances? I was thinking about doing some really cool stuff with an journalism internship and/or doing some travel to India and blogging/corresponding about it. What about transferring? I could try and go to somewhere like UNC CH (a very fine school in its own right) for a year and then transfer.
Interesting question. You’re right that starting with the Yale class of 2021, there will be about 200 more students per class, so roughly another 275 will be accepted (with the exact number depending on expected yield). An unknown is whether applications will also increase as word gets out about the expanded class sizes.
My sense is that it may be best to just go ahead and apply in the fall, unless you feel like you can really make great use of a gap year . . . often times students take a gap year after they’re already admitted but before they enroll. When you’re in high school you have a lot of momentum to apply and I suspect it’s harder for many after a year off. And in terms of transferring, I believe the numbers show the chances of admission to Yale are much lower for transfers than for potential freshmen.
Just my thoughts though . . .
Not worth it. The actual chances of getting admitted won’t go up significantly. If you don’t get in this fall, you wouldn’t have gotten accepted in 2021 either.