Hello all - Yale offers a lot of great programs for New Haven Public School Students. This is something my son has taken advantage of to complement his education. Does being a student in New Haven help his chance of admissions? Also, he’s taken a class each semester and earns since Junior year and earned an A- each time. Will this help? He has his heart set on the school; studies in their library, etc. I’m nervous that all this means is it will have his heart broken more when he’s not accepted early action. It will feel like being dumped after so much attention. They even sent him abroad with a model United Nations team, he is in a free residential program there this summer. Would having a recommendation from one of his professors help?
Thanks in advance!
Short answer is that yes, it probably does help his chances. Usually there is a bit of a “home field” advantage for local students. But, I think you need to manage your child’s expectations. Yale is one of the toughest schools for admission in the country. He should not have his heart set on a long shot.
Talk to your son’s guidance counselor and see how many Yale takes from the school every year. I live near a different top university and they take about 15-20 from the local high school. The issue is that it’s hard to know how many of those students are faculty children which get a bump in admission.
My understanding is that Yale states they don’t want supplemental recommendations. Follow their instructions.
I will add…even IF this gives your student an advantage in terms of Yale admissions, this kid should still be looking at colleges with varying levels of competitiveness. In other words…build the college application list from the bottom up. Find sure things for admission that are affordable and that your student would be happy to attend. Then go from there. If this student gets accepted to Yale…great. But if not, they will have a solid list of other more likely admits that they like.
He goes to a small magnet school and there are hardly ever acceptances or even applications, I don’t think. There really isn’t an official guidance counselor. The summer program him offers the possibility of a supplemental application. His Yale classes are on his actual high school transcript, do they still count as supplemental?
I completely agree about managing expectations. They were managed until the residential program. Now he’s in love.
They don’t state that, but they also say it’s unnecessary in almost all cases
What they do say, and this really applies universally so bears repeating:
The most useful extra recommendations provide new information and dimension to a candidacy, rather than repeat the strengths and qualities found elsewhere in the application.
https://admissions.yale.edu/supplementary
Yes, particularly since he’s taken advantage of opportunities presented. It is far from a sure thing, however
There is a section on the common app for additional information. Any college courses can be listed there. Any supplemental recommendations from professors are not required or recommended by Yale.
I his case, I think it would add information since the Yale class is 10X more rigorous than the high school ones. Besides Yale - he has Swarthmore, Williams, Vassar, UCONN, and Wesleyan solidly on his list. We took him to Connecticut College for a safety, but he didn’t like it. Based on the list - do you have other recommendations? Currently, he has a 1420 on his SAT but we expect it to go up since that was without studying much. He’s retaking it at the end of the summer. He was suppose to take it in July, but the stupid college board closed the location.
Also Brown as another long shot. Obviously, we need some safety schools.
UConn seems like a big outlier here. The rest of the list is very reachy.
What is your son’s UW GPA and intended major?
Paging @AustenNut for help with the safeties.
Has he developed a close relationship with a professor or the person who runs the summer program? If so, rather than just an LoR, see if they are willing to reach out to the AO directly, maybe with your son in attendance for a “private” info session. Yale has historically tried to develop better community ties, including through the admissions program. Not sure how much this approach, even if it happens, will help, but at the very least, the AO will have a face and an impression of your son before it receives the tens of thousands of apps.
The SAT will need to be improved or he can go TO. Are you low income? Are you immigrants and are there other adversities your son and your family have had to deal with?
And can you afford the annual net cost of Yale…
From this list Schools Similar to Yale — TKG Wheaton (MA) might be a good school that’d be an extremely likely admit, if your son is competitive for Yale admission.
If he’s open to going further away from home, St. Olaf (MN) has been lauded for having a very intellectually-curious, open student body.
If you let us know more about the budget and what your son is interested from his college experience, additional suggestions can be better tailored.
There are several important things you can do to help. The first is to get him off the “heart broken if I don’t get in” treadmill. I see kids (in real life, not just on CC) trudging off to wonderful schools every August, “heartbroken” that their reach school did not accept them. That’s what a reach is- a reach. A kid in my town heading to Georgetown like it’s a 20 year sentence in a federal penitentiary. A neighbor who is acting like attending Northwestern is a fate worse than death.
You are the grownup here, and you can get him to appreciate that he’ll get a fine education at virtually any place he ends up. It’s on him-- not on the college.
The second thing you can do is help him appreciate that the “attention” does NOT mean he’ll get in-- but it DOES mean that he’s getting something even more valuable- college-type exposure, experience, rigor, etc. from a fine institution which cares about building good relationships in the community. So the “attention” isn’t for admissions purposes- it has a higher purpose-- your son developing as a student, intellectual, someone who is curious who loves to learn-- AND the benefits of having local families feeling a close connection to Yale.
Even if he doesn’t get in- free museum admission! How cool is that. Getting a tour from a grad student in Art History-- free! Taking advantage of free concerts, performances, the Beineke library, just the energy of living in a college town.
You can help him shift away from “participating in these programs means I’m going to Yale” to “participating in these programs is helping me become the best version of myself that I can”.
Worth a trip to Fordham if he didn’t find Conn College urban enough…
What are your financial constraints?
Wow - a lot of questions and extremely helpful. I’m not familiar with the acronyms, so letting me know what they stand for would be great.
To answer your questions:
My father has been contributing to a 529 since his birth, so we feel confident financially. We really need to figure out how to manage it, though. I have 2 other children coming along behind him. I am also in graduate school and my last year will be his first. I don’t know if you’d find that significant.
I don’t know what a UW is, but his GPA is a 4.0 with “Distinguished High Honors” every single semester.
He is the founder and editor of his school literary magazine. He is class representative. Two YMUN awards and one from the YMEG (Yale Model European Government). The program is called Hemispheres and it’s run by Yale International Relations. He’s an ambassador. He was in the Yale International Relations Leadership Institute last summer. This summer: Summer Scholars and Citizen Thinkers Writers in July. He starts an internship with the challenging democratic mayoral candidate in August. That will continue in the school year, unless he drops out of the race. Maybe his participation in New Haven Politics will help?
Needless to say, he is interested in political science. He has had very friendly communication with both and is close to the TAs. He is an extremely passionate and engaging man. He always participates.
What is an FoR?
We are solidly middle class and are college graduates.
His magnet school has a social justice theme with very passionate young teachers. . He is part of the 9% of white kids. It’s my observation that it has been more of an education than anything else and has had a huge impact on his intellectual development. I hope that comes through in the application.
I will definitely look at Wheaton. I am aware that they are all “reach” … it’s a problem.
I so appreciate every single one of your responses.
OP- (acronym meaning "original poster)-- a college like American U is NOT a reach. It’s a great place to study poli sci- both as an academic discipline, and to spend the year (and summers if you want) doing internships on Capitol Hill, getting a paid job with a federal agency, working as a campaign volunteer, etc. There are dozens of places like this- think of any college in a state capitol, there will be strong connections between faculty and politicians, political appointees, journalists who cover government, etc. SUNY Albany for example- a fantastic place for a kid to hone his/her interest in poli sci and get hands-on experience. The budget of New York State is larger than that of many countries, so the scope of political activity in Albany is huge.
It sounds like he’s got a great handle on what he wants. So your “reach” colleges are obvious- now he can spend some time researching the safer/sure thing part of his application list!!! And you can get the details on exactly how much money is in his 529, how much need aid you will likely qualify for, how much a college will expect the family contribution to be, etc.
UW is unweighted GPA.
LoR is letter of recommendation.
You should run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) for several colleges (found on their financial aid pages) to get an estimate of any need-based financial aid your family might qualify for. 529 assets tend to not “count against” families too much so you may qualify for more than you expect . Note that divorced parents or a family-owned business may make the results less accurate. Also each college is different so you have to run the NPC for each one.
A super quick estimate can be found at www.myintuition.org
Also TO is test optional.
Funny, my brother actually lives in DC near American University. So last summer he stayed with him and did their summer program. I wanted him to experience DC and spend time with my brother who is successful in the federal government. But, he actually didn’t really like DC or American University and decided he didn’t want to go to school there. He says he wants to be in academia. He likes to talk, read, and write.
On the subject of the 529, does it hurt us that my father owns it? Should it be transferred to us or directly to my son?
Thanks for the tip about the NPC! I’ll check it out.
Since there isn’t much guidance or detailed attention from his school, do you think we should consider paying someone to help us? Not that we have a lot of money. I’ve had discussions with the principal and it seems that she’s a little overly confident about his chances and hasn’t helped beyond creating the initial list.
SUMY Albany is a good idea. CT residents actually can have in-state tuition there.
Others are more knowledgable than I am on it, and I’m sure someone will comment, but my understanding is that as long as you’re confident that your father will reliably direct the funds to your child’s school (which seems pretty reasonable, from what you’ve described), it might actually benefit you (from a Net Price Calculator perspective) for that money to remain in your father’s control. As long as it’s his, it isn’t yours, and so won’t be seen as “available” for school. That is, the NPC will see you as having fewer resource for college, and so might determine a lower amount that you can contribute. Once that determination has been made, if some of the money ends up coming in from an outside source (the 529), that lower total amount owed works in your favor.