<p>I just immigrated from India and enrolled for Sophmore year at the local high school.
I'm taking the most difficult courses possible
Honors English
Honors Geometry
Honors Biology
Law
Psychology
PE (Mandatory)
Spanish
My GPA is 4.5 (which i know isin't very great)
and my PSAT score was quite high.
I'm not very good at Math but still manage to get A's and will basically pull through high school with straight A's.
I wanted to know that what chances do I have to get in to Yale without extra curricular activites as I'm just part of my schools Math Team and haven't joined anything else so far.</p>
<p>you will need ecs to get into yale...distinguish yourself in some way.</p>
<p>Sorry buddy, I can't help you without knowing your SAT & subject tests scores, your class rank, your overall GPA AFTER the junior year, and the quality of recommendations and essays. Keep up your grades, and please work on your EC!</p>
<p>If Yale really is the school you're aiming for, I second the motion for some ECs. Yale likes well-rounded students (or angular students with a VERY strong angle) who have lives outside of the classroom.
Find something you're interested in and get involved. Do this for your own personal growth and happiness, not just for your college application. There's a whole world out there - music, art, sports, volunteer opportunities, work experience - surely something must interest you.</p>
<p>Most applicants to selective colleges will have almost perfect grades and very good scores. Those things alone will not get you into the selective schools in the United States.</p>
<p>Thanks you very much for your lovely advice , A.S.A.P ;). But some people say that admission officer regard the school record as the most important thing in the application package , is that true ? I mean if your GPA is normal , you will never stand a chance of getting in ? :)</p>
<p>Thank You Everybody for replying so soon.
I'll try to get into EC's but if anybody has any suggestions please share them on the thread.</p>
<p>To add to the suggestions of finding EC's. I definitely agree that you need to find something you are interested in, not just something you think will look good on an application. I would also strongly recommend not "overdoing it"- getting involved in 10 ECs that you never have time for. Pick a handful and throw your passion behind them. Colleges don't just want to see what you do, but what you care about and what you'll continue on campus. Good luck!</p>
<p>I just wanted to enquire that what is a good GPA for getting into Yale or other Ivy League Schools and whether a GPA of 4.5 is good or not.
Thanks Again</p>
<p>it depends on what your scale is out of and how rigorus the courses you're taking are. I know some schools have GPAs out of 5.0, in which case a 4.5 isn't spectacular, but at my school GPA's out of 4.0, and the top person in my class has less than a 4.5 (she's never had anything but As) by nature of the amount of weighted classes we can take and the unweighted classes we have to take. So I guess the short answer is, it depends. Sorry I couldn't help more.</p>
<p>When it comes to gpa, it's hard to speculate because there's so much variance in the difficulty of the courses and how you are calculating your gpa. On a 4.0 scale, I think anything under a 3.6 uw, even with tough courses, would be problematic for Yale, even if you're a legacy or sports recruit.</p>
<p>What is the difference btw a 4. scale and a 5. scale please elaborate</p>
<p>well, 4.0 is the standard un weighted system. then some classes are weighted meaning that Honors or accelerated or AP classes are worth more. when un weighted, all classes regulars or honors are both worth the same points. my advice-take the hardest classes available and do well.</p>
<p>mcqdeltat and Rhett Butler--Grades are what put you in the game at an elite school. They are the most important thing in that if you do not have good grades, you are out of the running. Extracurriculars are the most important thing once you've established that you have the baseline academic credentials. Extracurriculars determine who gets into elite schools (along with essays and reccommendations, but they're probably the primary thing).</p>
<p>Rhett--Can you get into Yale with "normal grades"? That depends on what you consider normal and whether you are an underrepresented minority, an athletic recruit or have some other hook. Someone posted in another thread that even with a strong hook, it is virtually impossible to get into Yale without a 3.6 unweighted. I totally agree and add that the only people getting in with 3.6s have tremendous hooks.</p>
<p>Admissionsaddict, does Yale only weigh your academic classes? Is that 3.6 including academic and electives?</p>
<p>Do you think I should send them an activity sheet since the common app did not give me space to describe my activities? </p>
<p>What's a tremendous hook?</p>
<p>3.6 academic
any news from anyone?
I read somewhere - i think a yale alum site - recruited athletes number in the mid 200s in terms of numbers in a class
that seems like a lot to me
?</p>
<p>so do they disregard all your electives that you actually worked hard in?</p>
<p>what about AP Studio Art? or Honors Art III? What if you're taking 2 French classes(honors and AP) this year? </p>
<p>HOw do they calculate your academic GPA? Do they count all the A's and B's first then divide it by something, or do they find the GPA for each semester first. THEN, they average these 7 semesters?</p>
<p>academic electives
like ap world history
ap french
not ap art or music
not ceramics
the basics</p>
<p>I have no specific knowledge of how Yale calculates/looks at your GPA. I think the 3.6 that I'm SPECULATING about would be for academic classes. As KStern points out, lots of electives are academic. The elective that aren't academic should bring your GPA up, although I'd think they'd excuse a B in a mandatory PE class, for instance.</p>
<p>I assume they look at your overall academic GPA for 7 semesters and then analyze what kinds of classes you took, if there was an upward trajectory in your grades, etc. If you have too many non-academic classes or had a downward trajectory with grades, it will hurt you.</p>
<p>hideANDseek--I don't know enough about your art classes to comment, but back in my day art would not have been considered an academic elective. There are plenty of posts about hooks on this board that you can look at. There was one a couple days ago on the parents' board. I'd call a tremendous hook being top ranked nationally in a sport, being Native American, being the child of a major (as in 10s of millions) donor, having performed on Broadway/in a major motion picture, having a book published by a major publishing house, founding a national/international charitable organization, making a significant scientific discovery, etc. These are tremendous hooks, not just hooks. And yes, send in an activity sheet.</p>