<p>I'd like to know why, so I can improve on my other Ivy applications. </p>
<p>Objective:</p>
<pre><code>* SAT I (breakdown): CR 760; M 800; W 750
* ACT: none, im international
* SAT II: WH 800, Chem 800, Maths2 780
* Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): international, so dont have one
* Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): teacher estimated me on top
* AP (place score in parenthesis): -
* Senior Year Course Load: -
* Awards: 2 academic awards for A levels and O levels
</code></pre>
<ul>
<li>Volunteer/Community service: -</li>
<li>Summer Activities: i visit my country of origin</li>
<li>Essays: i got really good feedback on them</li>
<li>Teacher Recommendation: Good, I'd imagine</li>
<li>Counselor Rec: Good</li>
<li>Additional Rec: Good</li>
<li>Interview: -</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<p>Other</p>
<pre><code>* Applied for Financial Aid?: Duh
* Intended Major: Undecided
* Country (if international applicant): Singapore
* School Type: Public
* Ethnicity: Asian
* Gender: Male
* Income Bracket:it doesn't matter
* Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none
</code></pre>
<p>Reflection</p>
<pre><code>* Strengths:My essays and scores
* Weaknesses: ECs?
* Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Prolly because I didn't really have anything majorly leadership-ish in my ECs. Otherwise, I dunno. I had pretty high scores, wrote good essays and received good words from teachers (i think)
</code></pre>
<p>Agreed… other people may have trumped you on extracurriculars, plus had your amazing scores. Keep your head up though, there are many other great schools out there!</p>
<p>haigpark I am quite surprised u were rejected
I had low sats and I got deffered ;(
It’s true your extracurriculars probably played a significant role on your rejection
But to be honest I think it has to do with your nationality
I’m from brazil and there are not many of us there, but there are a lot of asians at Yale…
and that counts more than we think</p>
<p>haigpark if I were u I wouldn’t stress out at all
you have great sats and I’m sure you’ll get in a great college
it’s impossible not to with such great scores</p>
<p>The applicant pool from Singapore is really competitive. The two people I know who got into Yale from my JC basically got 3 or 4 golds at the national olympiads (Math, Physics, Chemistry, Informatics) - making them the Top 10 in Singapore for all of those subjects.</p>
<p>But, in short, the point is: Yale did not think you were the best match out of the whole applicant pool. Hair picking through your application to see what could have been better won’t help too much because you can’t change much of it.</p>
<p>The only thing I can say is make sure your essays radiate with who YOU are and what makes YOU special. Let other schools feel your passion and want you in their student bodies. Unfortunately, it’s too late for Yale. But there are other great places out there for which you still have a chance. Your stats are fine - there’s nothing “wrong” with them. Now, it’s about you selling yourself as best as possible.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear that you got rejected. But if want to see what top notch schools like Yale want, go look through the decision thread. Look at the profile of applicants who are accepted, deferred and rejected and perhaps you might have a better idea of how to shape your RD application package. All the best!</p>
<p>Welcome to the “I applied to an Ivy and didn’t get in and wonder what I can do to improve” club.</p>
<p>All the Ivies get so many applications from so many excellent applicants who are qualified to do the work that for almost everyone they are crapshoots.</p>
<p>So all you can do is try your best and hope that it works out . . . and love thy safety schools.</p>
<p>This is why you were rejected:
Students from Singapore usually have scholarships from the government. It comes with conditions, and yu have to be sharp. Yale and Penn have students like these, and I know them personally. They are HEAVY scholars!! One of them graduated with a dual degree at age 19 turning 20. Dual degree in engineering and finance.</p>
<p>It does not have anything to do with SAT. Yale is needblind for everyone too. Internationals generally have to compete harder. </p>
<p>Yale also has a significant Singaporean community, as does Penn and Carneige Mellon. Do not know how that helps.</p>
<p>I think what you need to do now is be sure that you have a list of schools to apply to that include matches and safeties. This result from Yale suggests that you need to apply to some non-Ivy schools for sure.
As for what’s lacking in your credentials: I think it’s common, especially among international students, to be surprised when very high scores like yours do not result in admission to competitive schools in the U.S. But the most selective schools in the U.S., like Yale, are also looking for significant achievements both in school ECs and in activities outside of school. Many of their admits do activities in the summers during high school that are themselves selective, for example.
Your credentials are what they are–there are many excellent schools in the U.S. that would be happy to have you. Just make sure you look realistically at the level of selectivity of the schools on your list.</p>
<p>You also have to consider the numbers: Yale’s stated goal is to have about 10% international students in each entering class. That’s about 120 entering students; assuming a yield of 70%, that’s about 170 students admitted.</p>
<p>Those 170 admitted students have to ‘represent’ the whole world of non-US citizens (actually, I’m not clear on whether non-US citizens residing in the US are considered ‘international’ for these purposes). Even if Singapore produces far more seniors with perfect SAT scores and perfect GPAs from rigorous high schools than, say, Kenya, Yale is interested in having at least <em>some</em> representation from Africa. So I believe your real competition as a Singaporean is for one of the few (?maybe 10? just a wild guess…) admissions spots that will be granted to Singaporeans this year. Also, Yale is interested in preserving a large percentage of spots for RD, because just possibly the Singaporeans they really want applied EA to Stanford, or MIT, and they don’t want to foreclose all possibility of those kids being offered admission. So I would guess that the number of Singaporeans offered EA is probably less than 5. (all numbers above are invented by me, but the point is that there ARE real numbers, and they are pretty small). Lets say they defer another 10 (you wouldn’t want them to defer more than twice the number they could <em>possibly</em> end up accepting on April 1, would you?)</p>
<p>So in the end your question is not really, ‘how come Yale rejected me’, but rather, ‘out of all the Singaporeans who applied to Yale EA, was I among the top 15’. Those top 15 are not necessarily the ones with the top 15 SAT scores and GPAs, although I would bet that they mostly do have very very good SATs and grades.</p>