<p>
</p>
<p>No they will not. Your accomplishments are viewed in the context of your ability to succeed. To see that you know your stuff, there are these tests called the SAT, the ACT, SAT Subject Tests, and AP Tests. If you get good scores on those, and you have a good transcript, going to a bad high school will not be held against you.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You’re wrong. Please stop yelling at everyone else. Yale also looks for potential, a student (perhaps URM) who attended the worst school in the country with a 2400 could be considered in some ways, much better than a student who went to a private school with a 2400. </p>
<p>As long as your test scores are high, Yale will not discount you for the school you were placed in.</p>
<p>my school offers none, I still did 8 and am going to do 4 more in may 11 so you really have no excuse for not being able to do more APs.</p>
<p>Another way of looking at it: a student from a great school might also come from a really competitive area in the US, where Yale receives tons of applicants. That means more competition.</p>
<p>A student from an awful school in a geographical wasteland has less outstanding applicants to compete with.</p>
<p>Both arguments are right to some extent. Yale says it won’t hold your school against you and that you’re evaluated in your own specific context, but I still think it realizes that an 4.0 GPA is not the same everywhere. This does no mean that a 4.0 in a lesser school isn’t impressive, just that a 4.0 in an elite school is better. It’s pretty much impossible for Yale not to be influenced by where a student comes from.</p>
<p>^With that said, I don’t think giving hypotheticals comparing two different students is fair.
When they evaluate each application, they’re looking for potential. I think they’re pretty good at judging quality, and the student with the most quality should get in.</p>
<p>The student who goes to that underprivileged and/or rural school likely would not be able to afford/have heard of online APs, let alone the idea of self studying. This is only more true when it comes to USABO, USAMO, etc. (I can say right now that even though my school is in a city, nobody has so much as an inkling of the existence of Olympiads). There are numerous issues with cost and accessability when it comes to CC/University courses. The point of all this is: Many, many schools are a lot more limited in their advanced academic offerings than the typical CCer might think, and it takes stumbling across here as a freshman to create the same opportunities that might exist at somewhere in the US News rankings.</p>
<p>First of all, it’s misleading to assume that it’s all the “run down” schools in the countries have few AP offerings. There are some average high schools that simply do not offer that many AP courses, and there’re a few top high schools that have courses as rigorous as those designed by CollegeBoard as AP but rather label those as something else, so those schools also technically don’t have that many APs. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not only that, being a high achieving student from a low income family living in an area where students rarely apply, and of course are even more rarely accepted, to top colleges can actually be beneficial to a certain extent. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The purpose of the secondary school report is for the admissions office to gauge the opportunities available at your high school. Are you a Yalie GOP? It’s very surprising that you’ve never met anyone at school who’s not from a great high school. (I attend a college that’s very selective, and I’ve met a good percentage of people who attended “some F school in some South Central”.)</p>
<p>Have hope, OP!! 
</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, Yale definitely evaluates you in the context of your school.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Um, what? Kudos to you for self-studying and all, but “because I did, you should’ve” is pretty presumptuous.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>To add on to that, I attended what you would consider to be a fairly normal high school in a rural/suburb area, and the first time I heard of these competitions and of the possibility of self studying and signing up for APs as anything but a senior was the day I signed up for an account on CC. No one in my high school would have the slightly idea what the USABO even is. </p>
<p>Not having taken that much AP classes is a disadvantage, but it is one that can be easily remedied in other ways. Btw, I applied to Yale, as well as many other very selective schools, with only one AP from junior year, and was accepted to many of my top choices (not Yale though :P). In my junior year I’ve asked admission officers from Yale, Cornell, and MIT whether I would be at a disadvantage because my school didn’t offer that many APs, and the answer I got from all of them was an absolute “no”. In any case, if your schools don’t offer that many OPs, then you don’t have those, and it’s too late now to self study so there’s no need to worry about it at this point. I really think having taken the “most rigorous courseload” at your high school is all that matters.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>By the same logic, if I scored a 2400, does that mean you have no excuse not to? And if Yale recruited me for athletics, does that mean you have no excuse not to be an athlete?</p>
<p>Self-studying for APs, studying for perfect SATs, and being a recruited athlete all require motivation, commitment, and discipline, yet many accepted students do none of them.</p>
<p>@chelsearox</p>
<p>No offense, but I haven’t been prepping myself for Yale since birth. I’ve been doing what I can, and I’ve been able to handle it. I’m not going to drown myself in AP study when there’s so much more out there, so maybe I’m not right for Yale in your eyes. Lol.</p>
<p>Self-studying for APs is impressive, and could certainly be a plus to the applicant, but there also other ways to distinguish oneself. Chances are, a few 5’s on some APs are not going to be the thing that makes someone stand out from a pool of academic superstars in SCEA.</p>
<p>what it comes down to is pretty much what I’ve said already: you’ve done the best you can with what you’ve got…and in the end, they can’t ask much more than that, you don’t need a stellar resume, a list of AP’s and awards amile long, or to have gone to the top 10 list of HS’s in the world, what will determine it for you, and pretty much everyone else, is a heavy dose of luck.
What you’ve done puts you in the running, it’s all you, or anyone else can do about it. You’ve done great, and you’ll do great no matter where you’ll end up. That said, relax a bit, and wait. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Self studying for anything takes money and I know alot of CCers have parents ready to shell it out but some of us don’t. So self studying may not be a option for low income family who have bills to pay.</p>
<p>In this thread; uninformed people talking like they know facts.</p>
<p>^
Un(in)formed?</p>
<p>GOP is talking through his hat. Yale spends hundreds of manhours and mucho money expressly recruiting at schools that traditionally, NOT A SINGLE IVY admit has occurred – such as urban and rural schools.</p>
<p>Is it likely that bunches of great apps come from these? No. But Yale actively searches for “diamonds in the rough”. </p>
<p>"uninformed people talking like they know facts. " Who’s uninformed, GOP? You? Or me, who’s DONE the recruiting for twenty years?</p>
<p>In post #6 you said: "YALE CONSIDERS THE QUALITY OF YOUR SCHOOL WHEN YOU APPLY.</p>
<p>If your school doesn’t offer rigorous and difficult college level classes, there is no way you can show them that you are ready for the level of difficulty you will encounter at Yale. "</p>
<p>You are shockingly ignorant about how Yale evaluates candidates from these lower quality high schools .</p>
<p>Also, explain Yale’s fervent adoption of Questbridge where almost universally, every applicant comes from these lower tier high schools.</p>
<p>^ IMO GOP is plain “shockingly ignorant”…</p>