Yale chances?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Yale University
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<p>I'm trying to get an idea of what my chances are for Yale/other ivy leagues. Already applied EA at Chicago, Notre Dame, and Georgetown along with regular at Emory. I thought Chicago was already a reach but after everything I've read on here, Ivy Leagues seem pretty arbitrary and I do have "stand out" qualities. do i have a chance? Thanks!</p>

<p>ACT: 34(using act score, not reporting sat)
SAT: 2160, 740 CR, 680 M, 740 W
SAT IIs: none-taking december 3. practice test scores... Literature: 800, Math I: 660, US History: 710
GPA: 4.35 weighted, 3.85 unweighted
Rank: 37/368 (10.05% haha)
APs: Euro-5, US history-5, Psych-5, Eng Comp-4, Calc AB-3. Taking AP Bio, Eng Lit, Chem, Stat, and Gov this year
Awards: national merit commended, AP Scholar w/ Distinction, Presidential volunteer service, state psychology champion, state champion swim and dive
Involvement: Chemistry Club President, NHS member, Political Science Club President</p>

<p>extracurriculars: here's where my stand out thing comes into play.</p>

<p>writing- I've written and published a novel which is sold at barnes and noble, amazon, ibookstore, etc... it's about acceptance and tolerance of gays and i wrote an "amazing"(says my teachers and cousin who got into harvard) essay for the common app about it. also wrote a few other novels but those aren't published. also vice president of creative writing club at my school</p>

<p>business-I've been working as a salesman for a home remodeling company and made over $100,000(for the company not myself) in sales of windows and siding for the company. also started my own business in which i buy stuff off ebay and craigslist and resell for higher prices. i have two employees of my own who i pay based on commission. wrote a second essay on this, plan to use for yale/harvard.</p>

<p>swim- i'm on the varsity and state team for swimming at my school. at league i won 3rd place for breastroke and i won 14th at State for breastroke. i'm part of the state championship winning team last year and i wrote an essay on swim to use as well. i don't plan on swimming in college though</p>

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<p>your looking pretty good… but i just feel your EC’s are lacking somewhat. Writing a book looks great, you’ll stand out there. Varsity swimming is also good. The salesman thing isnt that outstanding, unless you get an outstanding rec from your company. What your lacking is emphasis on volunteering. Volunteering is key in this day and age, colleges love it. if i were you i would wait until regular decision and write one of your essays on that. rank doesnt really matter, its all relative (unless all those people also applied to yale). your GPA and SAT scores are fair, your ACT score is good. Way to take a lot of AP’s, colleges like that.
All in all, I would say you have a chance of making Yale, but most of the time its just a crapshoot and you have to really key in on what that particular college is looking for. I don’t go to yale so I can’t tell you, but I would say look at all the people you know who go there (if you don’t know anyone then look up some famous people) and figure out what they have in common. GOOD LUCKKKK</p>

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<p>thanks for the reply! all my volunteer hours are from a church and basically all i did was clean up for them every sunday. it isn’t exactly exciting and i’m not very passionate about it so idk if it’s necessarily essay material. i am doing regular for yale and i’m using my common app essay about writing plus a business one for the supplement. i feel like being a salesman isn’t exactly common but i might be wrong. do you think it’s possible to just mention all the volunteering stuff in the common app and not bring it up again and still have a fighting chance?</p>

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<p>Well, I have to disagree somewhat with the previous poster. I wouldn’t write about your volunteering experience, given what it is, and significant volunteering per se is not a prerequisite for Ivy League admission. (More important, I think, is whether you have demonstrated interest/ability to impact your community, society, or the world at large - arguably the book you wrote could demonstrate that.) Your academic stats are certainly within the realm of possibility, even if they aren’t particularly good in the context of the Ivy League applicant pool. Your activities as an author and salesman are probably not unique but nevertheless unusual enough that they could make you stand out. You have a chance if your essays are killer, so I would definitely apply and go for it.</p>