Would I have a decent chance at Yale? It's my dream..

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>I've either accomplished or am on my way to achieving most of the things mentioned. Imagine that I have achieved everything mentioned (these are realistic goals for me). The point of this for me is to know whether I'm on the right path to achieve my bigger goal (Yale)</p>

<p>Race: Caucasian
Religion: Jewish
Background: 2nd generation Moroccan, 4th gen. Russian
School: Public, CT, around 2,300 students, sends some to top schools
(Random facts) Dad's a foreigner, parents are divorced, struggled w/ depression freshman & some of sophomore year</p>

<p>Stats: (Upward trend)
Freshman UW GPA: 3.4 - 2 Honors classes
Sophomore UW GPA: 3.7 - All Honors
Junior UW GPA: 4.0 - 3 AP's, the rest H's
Senior UW GPA: 4.0 - 4 AP's</p>

<p>SAT I: CR: 800 M: 710 W: 760
SAT II: Lit:800 US Hist:800 Spanish: 770
AP's: Lit: 5 US Hist: 5 Psych: 5</p>

<p>EC's: Writing, Literary & Arts magazine, 3 yrs, (Co Editor-in-chief) Sr yr. (National creative writing [non fiction] award) (Regional poetry award) (Regional playwriting award)
Environment, Environmental Club, 4 yrs (President) Sr yr. (Started a nonprofit), (organized my city's 1st Earth Day Fair), (youngest member of EPB of my city), (Spearheaded a community recycling initiative) International/social issues, Amnesty International, 2 yrs (Founder & President) (Organized a benefit)</p>

<p>Volunteerism: Volunteer almost every Sunday & member of Teen Board, special friend to special needs children ages 2-18, 3 yrs, Northwestern volunteer trip over spring break</p>

<p>Work experience:
Waitress, Started my own translation service in my area for native Spanish speakers- very low cost so it's affordable for them (throughout jr & sr summers/yrs)</p>

<p>Summer activities:
Unpaid intern at TV. production company (summer going into soph)
2 weeks at Brown Leadership Institute, class on entrepreneurship for social change <a href="summer%20going%20into%20jr">My teacher served a mentor for me & helped me develop my business plan further for my nonprofit</a>
Unpaid intern at environmental NGO (summer going into jr)
Local Spanish classes (summers going into jr & sr)
Young Writers Workshop (summer going into sr)
Film program (summer going into sr)</p>

<p>Hobbies: Reading, writing, traveling, guitar, ballet, my fashion/photography blog</p>

<p>Other: Contender for my city's citizenship award (awarded to 6 seniors/yr out of about 2,000)</p>

2

<p>You have a chance, most definitely. Just stand out. Really be unique. What do you do that no one else does?</p>

3

<p>Ooh… do you mean out of everyone applying or out of my peers in my community? My interests aren’t anything unique, but I’m not going to change my interests to be more unique… Any suggestions?</p>

4

<p>Bump 10char</p>

5

<p>I’m going to give the same advice I have given others: you have the qualifications to seriously look at highly selective schools *including *Yale. But you should reconsider the idea of having a dream school. You should rather have a strategy that includes reach, match, and safety schools, any of which you’d be willing to attend. I mean, if you were to be rejected at Yale but accepted at Brown, would your dream be shattered? Or if you didn’t get into an Ivy League school, but were accepted at another top school with a merit scholarship? You want to have a strategy, and then, at the end of the process, you will almost certainly be able to say that your strategy worked, wherever you end up.</p>

6

<p>Thank you, Hunt :] I absolutely understand that my chance of being accepted to Yale is not promising. Maybe someone could suggest schools for me based on my stats & interests? I’m not so sure where to start.</p>

7

<p>Your profile is good enough for Yale, which means it’s good enough for any school. Look into other Ivy League schools, check out the CC Top Universities section, and do some research. See what kind of environments you like and read up on schools that have those environments. After you have your reaches and matches set, you can work on your safeties and pick schools you’ll get in at, be able to afford, and be happy to go to.</p>

8

<p>Thanks for the advice, Anomaly! I’ll be sure to do that… Also, will my 3.4 UW GPA freshman yr affect my chances? I’ll have a weighted GPA of about 4.6 and be in the top 6% -8%</p>

9

<p>dont worry, your gpa shows an upward trend and that is definitely positive. I would say you stand a fairly decent chance. Just write about your most significant passion as an individual and express yourself thoroughly on the essay.</p>

10

<p>The impact of GPA is pretty dependent on where you go to school, I think. I’ve heard Princeton doesnt look at freshman year GPA, so that could benefit you if you decide you’d like it there as well.</p>

<p>Youre going to have to work on your math, though. Yale requires the Math level 2 SAT, right?</p>

11

<p>Thanks for your comment, MSauce. Do you mean to say that my freshman GPA will definitely hurt me? Ugh… Oh, wow, didn’t know that… that sucks considering I’m not so hot at math</p>

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<p>Yeah, obviously your GPA is going to hurt you. Anything that’s not excellent is going to hurt you. At best, you’ll get a chance to describe your circumstances with depression in your interview.</p>

<p>Thats not to say at all that I think you have a poor app. In your other thread you asked if you should just give up–I’d say you still have a shot. Your odds would be a lot better if you opened up to going to other top universities on the level of Duke, Penn, Dartmouth and etc., all of which are great schools.</p>

<p>I was saying your shot at Princeton is the best of all the HYPS schools because your weakness right now is GPA, and by their policy (I’ve heard, but am not totally sure) that weakness is diminished. If you take that 3.4 year out, the application gets stronger, you know? Also, you never know what might hook you to get in somewhere. If you write a great essay and keep your grades up, Yale might like you–I hear they like CT kids.</p>

<p>The way I see it, there are two types of applicant, your stereotypical well-rounded AP Scholar 2400 4.0 Captain of the tennis team private school Valedictorian, and applicants with flaws that theyre willing to take a chance on.</p>

<p>If you give them a strong essay and a good math score, you are positioning yourself to be one of the kids they’re willing to take a chance on. And if youre willing to broaden your range of prospective colleges, all the better chance that someone is going to ignore an applicant with higher stats than you because they like something about your ECs or essay or etc. So to answer your question on the other thread: no, don’t give up.</p>

13

<p>

No, it doesn’t.</p>

14

<p>Why is Yale your #1 choice? Have you articulated that anywhere (even to yourself)? Have you also considered top liberal-arts colleges, such as Swarthmore, Amherst, etc? Did I miss anything athletic among your activities? If I were going to be critical, I’d say there’s a definite slant in your EC’s etc toward literary and dramatic, which is fine, providing you have really distinguished yourself there. That said, I’d love to see an anomaly or two, such as crew or some such. Not suggesting that you start something for the purposes of college admission (as you point out, that would hardly be genuine) but it’s what I notice. Also I’d like a better hook FWIW. That can simply be a matter of what you choose to emphasize, and how.</p>

15

<p>Thank you MSauce, for your response! I really appreciate it. I’m definitely open to other universities and I’m going to work my ass off next year - taking about 4 AP’s, getting straight A’s, studying like crazy for SAT’s, and devoting a lot of time and effort to my EC’s. BTW- why do you say that I need a good math score?</p>

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<p>Hey Marsden, thank you for your reply! I’m honestly not sure if Yale is my #1 choice since I haven’t visited and explored many other colleges yet. BTW- where do you see drama in my activities? Hmm… the thing is that I’m just not that athletic. I did field hockey this past fall, but I’m really not cut out for it. I’m considering doing tennis next Spring (joining my school’s team) but I can only make Varsity if I dedicate everything to that goal, since I’m not naturally athletic whatsoever. Eeek… I know a girl that does crew and she has practice every single day from 4 - 6; she has to leave home at 3 & doesn’t get home until 7! Does it matter if I do JV or V tennis? Also, what does “a better hook FWIW” mean ? Thank yaa :]</p>

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<p>LOL about the drama… maybe you need some :wink: </p>

<p>Seriously, I think it must have been the ‘playwriting award’ that tipped me. </p>

<p>By better hook I just mean one really notable thing in particular that will clearly distinguish you from similar applicants. For What It’s Worth…</p>

18

<p>Haha, I would love to be a part of my school’s theater department. I was involved in performing for 6 years then stopped :confused: I just feel like I don’t have time for it since I know that I’m not an aspiring actress/singer/dancer.
Oh okay, got it :slight_smile: Are starting a nonprofit, my own little business during summer and starting a club, not hooks? That’s the most that I’m capable of while trying to get top grades in 5 AP’s! I’m looking into doing environmental research at a university in Israel…what about that?</p>

19

<p>They *are *hooks, and good ones, but (as you imply) you’re almost at risk of trying to do too many things than to do just a few but well. </p>

<p>Follow your passion(s). There are always anomalies in the admissions process and trying to out-psych the committee will make you crazy.</p>

20

<p>I always forget to follow my heart! Thanks for reminding me(:</p>