Hey guys! So I’ll be starting my freshman year at Yale in the fall. Since I had a great network of current college students who helped me with the process, I thought that I’d do an AMA on here to pay it forward! I am by no means a college admissions expert, but I can speak to what worked for me and hopefully that can help you. I’d be happy to tackle any general college admissions questions as well with my own experiences in mind.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Any student, alum, parent, friend is welcome to jump in and answer questions as well.
@CHD2013 I think getting the inside look at a lot of colleges was great. Current students will tell you what they love about their school and also what could be improved.
This may sound like a weird question - are there “tech geeks” at Yale? I.e., how do “nerds” fit in. I have a son who loves computers and most things STEM oriented. He also has a love for history. He is a wonderful young man (please forgive my mom’s bias). But he is not “into” the teen social scene the way many guys his age are. He does have friends of course. We have been homeschooling since 3rd grade and he will be a senior this coming school year (!).
He’s got a 31 ACT, taking again in September and hoping to raise it (he had a 34 in Science and we’ve got some upward potential in math I think). He is also going to take SAT Math Level II and World History in early October. I know that we are cutting it close though.
He has dual enrollment credits too, and an excellent GPA from community college.
We got a very neat “mailing” from Yale that piqued my interest. Otherwise we are mostly looking at Florida schools and public STEM oriented universities.
In the crazy, crazy off-chance that he got in at Yale, how hard is it to find your “tribe”?
I went to public university and grad school myself, so this is uncharted territory for our family.
@SouthFloridaMom9 well, I can’t speak a lot from my personal experiences on some of those questions since I’ll be a freshman in the fall, but I’ll answer your questions from what I’ve heard from some of my upperclassmen friends. Yale is in the process of a HEAVY investment in computer science (http://news.yale.edu/2015/03/26/yale-launches-expansion-department-computer-science). If he is interested in the entrepreneurial side of computer science, check out the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute. From what I’ve heard, it is pretty easy to find your tribe because Yale tries to make a super diverse class in terms of the normal things when you think of diversity but also with interests and personalities.
Do you have any tips on how to write a convincing application? For instance like how to present your extra-curriculars and awards in a more impressive way, how to convey your personality effectively in the essay etc? Thanks!
@sansculottes , with the moderator’s permission to jump in, I’ll respond to your question with a general observation that is the foundation of many replies to “Chance Me” threads started by reasonable candidates at highly selective schools with holistic admissions.
Assuming in-range standardized test scores and GPA with no big hook, the decisions hinge on essays, recommendations, ECs, awards, interviews, etc. DS, OP, and probably a majority of applicants don’t know why they were accepted or rejected, because the people making the decisions don’t tell them. They can guess, but they will never get to validate their guesses.
ETA: it’s so often said that it’s almost trite, but “Be Yourself.”
@buntman First off, thank you for your availability and taking the time to answer our questions. Congrats on your entry to Yale, I’m sure you will do fantastic. I do have some of my own questions to throw in there.
Did you attend a public or private secondary school? Do they have a reputation for sending kids to Ivies?
Do you live in the New England area or are you from elsewhere in the US?
What do you think made you special to Yale adcoms? Not just hooks, but what EC’s did you do, what interest did you show, etc.?
@sansculottes , I’d agree with @IxnayBob that I can never know for sure what got me accepted, but as I said in the initial post, I can comment on the content of my own application. One thing that I made sure to do is highlight the unusualness of some of my achievements/activities. If you have done something that few have achieved, maybe try to quantify it as a percentage. As for the essays, in one of them I described the small town I live outside of and how the experiences of rural life made me the self-sufficient person I am today. I think that if you can search inside your life experiences and think of a way to make yourself memorable (in a 100% truthful manner) you should do it.
My school was private, but we maybe send 1 or 2 people to Ivy League schools per year out of ~150 graduates.
Well, I earned every single Boy Scout merit badge which is something quite rare. Only about 150 people had done it in the 100 previous years. In my essay, I discussed how earning all of the merit badges molded me into an “outdoors renaissance man” who is now able to share his talents with others. I also co-founded a LinkedIn profile writing company. As president of the politics club I raised attendance from 5-10 students to 35-40 students. My alumni interview went quite well because the interviewer and I shared many common interests. In the “Why Yale?” question, I wrote about how Yale will enable me to pursue my intellectual passion for economics and history while also pursuing my aspirations of running a successful startup with help from the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute.
I love your thread idea. We have been helping friends of my daughter by doing the same thing. We always tell them that high grades and scores are pretty much a given with all candidates but that the secret recipe lies in the “wow, that is pretty cool” factor. For instance, when your AO sits down with a pile of 300 applications, which ones will they read and think,“Wow, that is pretty cool” and then place in a pile to be reconsidered. Imagine the times they have to go through that pile and then make sure your file is impressive. Yes, perfect scores are impressive but the majority of kids that apply will have the same grades, scores, leadership positions in school. Where does your cool factor lie? I love the merit badge cool factor. That is impressive, took more than your junior year to achieve and it made you a person that could fit into any part of the community. You didn’t do that just to impress Yale. Someone told us once that most of those that get into the reach schools are students that started to reach early on. In hindsight, I think that there is something to that. My daughter’s “hook” was that she was born with a birth defect. Her essay was about how she was proud to be a part of that community of people with the same defect and that she wants to dedicate her life to providing volunteer surgery to others. But her other essay was about the lessons in being frugal she picked up while her dad was laid off for 4 years. It was a creative and funny yet brutally honest. These were all fine and good but her cool factor was in an online support group for kids and parents dealing with her same birth defect that she started in 7th grade (her reach before HS). She also created a fund raiser that she started in December to support operation smile after she applied to all of her colleges (her guidance dept forwarded a news interview and several articles on this after she applied- we had no idea) but her AO had no idea when we met with her at the accepted student reception so I doubt that it helped at all.
I.e., how do “nerds” fit in. I have a son who loves computers and most things STEM oriented. He also has a love for history. He is a wonderful young man (please forgive my mom’s bias). But he is not “into” the teen social scene the way many guys his age are. He does have friends of course. We have been homeschooling since 3rd grade and he will be a senior this coming school year (!).