<p>yale doesnt ask for college ecs, grades are the most importent for all</p>
<p>drumaholic, it depends on the college; Yale looks for a compelling reason as to why a student wishes to attend. Once again, do not rest your future or hopes on applying to Yale, as only 27 out of 691 applicants were accepted last year. Do not expect anything, even if you are the best applicant since potato chips.</p>
<p>But does anyone know EXACTlY is of required of an applications as far as tests, grades, etc.? I mean, who has tranferred here?</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe that none of the schools look at EC's in college. So it was that important in HS but it doesn't even matter now? It still reflects you, doesn't it? So Stanford, Cornell, Dartmouth -- none of those guys even look at stuff outside of college grades?</p>
<p>Not every school does not look at your ECs. However, if I recall correctly (I did not apply to Yale), the application only asks for your currently enrolled courses, transcripts, recommendations, test scores, and two essays. There is no space for extra-curricular activities.</p>
<p>Edit: Some colleges will look at your high school GPA. It depends on how many hours you have accumulated.</p>
<p>Does this all apply for a junior transfer as well???</p>
<p>nspeds, I have heard that colleges look for compelling reason to transfer over and over again and I really dont buy it</p>
<p>Stanford has published the schools that the most transfers came from and for the years I looked at one was havard (4) and the other year was northwestern(7).</p>
<p>Now if the colleges wanted the best reasons we would see alot from ccs and perhaps really specialized schools like caltech, not from these similiar schools. I dont think reasons play any part beyond a minor role in assessing a students character, perhaps understanding what they value. I would say the main reason colleges have the "why do you want to transfer?" question on the apps is because they know transfer students want to talk about that and they dont want it filling up the other essays.</p>
<p>If you are accepted to a top school they think you are a smart movativated kid and therefore if you choose to go to the trouble of transferring it must be a good reason, why would they try to use their own standerds for deciding if it is good?</p>
<p>I think all transfers (including myself) are tempted to put great weight on reasons because this is a huge step, especially for cc transfers, and we have probably started the process and come up with reasoning for entirely it by ourselves (no expectation like there was for college after hs) but I see no reason for it to be a major role in admissions.</p>
<p>and test scores....for....H.S. , college, and which ones? Are H.S. EC's still looked at if you transfer? Are college EC's looked at by graduate schools?</p>
<p>I am hesitant to make a blanket statement about the distinction between junior and sophomore transfers. Suffice to say, if you have enough hours under your belt, beyond a certain threshold, the high school GPA will only be used as an indicator. What this threshold is, is beyond me.</p>
<p>
[quote]
nspeds, I have heard that colleges look for compelling reason to transfer over and over again and I really dont buy it</p>
<p>Stanford has published the schools that the most transfers came from and for the years I looked at one was havard (4) and the other year was northwestern(7).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I disagree for numerous reasons (edit: no pun intended).</p>
<p>1) Students coming from Harvard and Yale may actually have good reasons.
2) I never argued that reasons are the sole basis for admissions, of course there are other factors that can hold just as much weight. For example, if there is a Harvard applicant with good reasons and a CC applicant with good reasons, the former will likely be accepted.
3) Specifically regarding Yale, the application is structured in such a way as to make it conducive to explicating your reasons. </p>
<p>Those are three just off the top of my head. If I recall correctly, 1/3 of the 27 applicants accepted into Yale were community college applicants.</p>
<p>Why is that?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Why is that?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Because they probably had a compelling reason.</p>
<p>A compelling reason from a community college...the article sounds like a compelling reason from life...but why community college? Are these students who had stellar H.S. EC's but maybe didn't pull the 4.0 off and rather than going to prep school they chose Community College and then transferred?</p>
<p>
[quote]
stellar H.S. EC's
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The article was an example of a compelling reason. Also, once again, Yale does not look at ECs. There is no location on the application where it asks for such information. You may submit information if you wish, but whether they will weigh it is doubtful.</p>
<p>All the stuff that I have read, including that yale article and your data, suggusts that if colleges look outside of your grades and academics they will look to see if you can bring anything unique to the university. I think this is true for some cc students and nontraditional students. Students will natually have very unique reasons from these situations but that is not why they are admitted.</p>
<p>For the average college transfer I think that anything and everything is more then your reason, unless of course the reason does something like exposing negitive character traits. Also if you can show positive character traits like the passion to meet a certin professor it matters some. But to say that they grade reasons to a scale with lower chances if they dont buy or identify with your reasons is silly.</p>
<p>
[quote]
But to say that they grade reasons to a scale with lower chances if they dont buy or identify with your reasons is silly.
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</p>
<p>Ostensibly, you are arguing for some sort of "reason-based relativism," but that could be far from the truth. Reasons that do convey negative character traits are looked upon as bad reasons. This includes reasons for wishing to attend a college because of prestige, while a good reason may constitute wanting to work under a professor. Perhaps character traits are an underlying standard for weighing applicants, I am not certain.</p>
<p>But, once again, though many Harvards and Yalies were admitted into Stanford, many more were probably rejected. The college probably looks for a combination of good reasons as well as stats. I am not familiar with Stanford, but this thread on Yale might help:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Most of the students we do take are people who have a very compelling story over people who look like our normal freshmen applicants.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Directly from Jim Nondorf, Associate Director of Admissions.</p>
<p>
[quote]
if they dont buy or identify with your reasons is silly.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Perhaps Mr. Nondorf is suffering from a case of the silly-willies.</p>
<p>Ummm...wow, very interesting. So...if I have my heart set on attending Yale undergraduate school, the best mode of attack is to wait it out a year and re-apply as a freshman? That's what it is looking like. My GPA in high school is a 4.0, I have pretty good EC's (nothing TOO prestigious though), but I'm only graduating with 5 AP's. This isn't going to change. I was really hoping to follow my passion at CMU with activities/research while maintaining a 4.0 ... but if colleges aren't going to even look at it....</p>
<p>I think this is why a lot of individuals do not like disgruntled high school seniors posting here. You need to relax and be happy that you were admitted in an excellent institution and enjoy yourself. Perhaps your dream school is Yale, but fate plays a cruel game, which may turn out better for you in the end.</p>