Yale Chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>Hey Guys,</p>

<p>I am a Junior at a relatively small (200/class) public school.</p>

<p>Freshman GPA 3.96 (slacker)</p>

<p>Sophomore GPA 4.04 (slacker)</p>

<p>Junior Year: (sharing my current grades)
AP Biology: A+
AP Chemistry: A+
AP Calculus AB: A+
AP United States History: A
AP Language and Composition: A
Honors Chinese III: A+
(4.89 GPA, not slacker so much lol)
(auditing Animal Behavior just for interest reasons and to have my freshman bio teacher in an actual class setting again, since I am having her write a recommendation)</p>

<p>Senior Year Schedule
AP Physics
AP Calculus BC
AP Gov't
AP Literature and Composition
AP Stat/AP Econ
Honors Chinese III</p>

<p>Scores:
ACT: Math 35 - Science 35 - English 34 - Reading 30</p>

<p>SAT: Math 800 - Writing 800 - Reading 670</p>

<p>SATII: Math II 800 - Chem 790 - Bio 800</p>

<p>(will take SAT and ACT again, just to get up reading (fml CR is such a bummer))</p>

<p>ECs:
EMT - ~500 hrs service before applying (this is by far the main EC, will elaborate in essays)</p>

<p>Founder/Captain of National Olympiad Science Team - based on how well we did last year entering the competition a month before the event (as opposed to studying all year long), will rank in top 3 schools, go to orlando for nationals if 1st)</p>

<p>Alcohol and Drug Awareness Program Youth Leadership Council: 3rd year as a member, now on executive board, write articles for ADAP in the the PTO paper and the town paper</p>

<p>Other, less important stuff</p>

<p>Others:
Finalist in state Chemistry competition as a sophomore, representing the school this year in USNCO, USABO, and several mathematics competitions</p>

<p>Essays will be great, Recommendations will be awesome (I know it is weird to have a freshman bio teacher write a recommendation, but if you knew the relationship I have with this teacher you'd understand)</p>

<p>Thanks guys... I know all I can hope for is to have that 15% shot that all applicants in the good-enough pool have, but even to get there would be a relief.</p>

2

<p>Firstly, good job on your accomplishments! If you focus a lot of time and energy onto your essays, you’ll have a good chance!</p>

<p>I would, however, caution you against retaking your standardized tests. Your current scores are competitive for Yale, so taking them again when most of the sections are quite high may appear to be obsessive to the adcoms. In the end, though, it’s your choice. Talk with your college counselor and see what his/her opinion is.</p>

3

<p>Thats awesome advice, thanks.</p>

<p>Does anyone else have an opinion/advice to share?</p>

4

<p>bumb…</p>

5

<p>About 15 years ago a study was published regarding ACT score gains on retesting. <a href=“http://www.act.org/research/reports/pdf/ACT_RR98-07.pdf[/url]”>http://www.act.org/research/reports/pdf/ACT_RR98-07.pdf&lt;/a&gt; From the table, if I remember correctly, a first time composite score of 30 had a 52% chance of being equal to or less than 30 on a retest, and a 48% chance of being above 30. I don’t know if the results would be similar for the subtests or not. Score gains of 4 (5?) or more points occurred less than 5/100 times. </p>

<p>Considering the roughly 50/50 chance of getting a higher score combined with ^@concerto’s sage advice, you will want to carefully weigh your options.</p>

6

<p>To back up 3kidz2college’s point, on the collegeboard website when you view your scores you can see what percent of people who retook with the same score improved, stayed the same, or lost point.</p>

<p>For me, I retook with a similar score (lower in writing though) simply to get my cr to 700 which I did. In my mind, I like knowing that all my scores are within the middle 50% of the colleges I am applying to. However, I doubt it really makes any difference.</p>

<p>As for your chances, do incredibly well this year and use first semester of senior year to show you are not lazy. This means that EA/ED may not be the best option for you.</p>

7

<p>I bet you don’t play sports</p>

8

<p>Getting a 9th grade teacher to write a letter of recommendation is a bad idea. From the Yale website:
Who should write my teacher recommendations?
Your recommenders must be able to write about your recent work in rigorous academic subjects. We strongly encourage you to submit recommendations from 11th and 12th grade teachers. Yale has an extremely competitive applicant pool, so it’s probably unwise to submit a recommendation from a favorite 9th grade teacher or from a coach or chorus director unless he or she has also taught you recently in an academic course.</p>

<p>Yale doesn’t require that these recommendations come from teachers of particular subjects. It’s a good idea, however, to have the two letters come from teachers of two different subjects. Choose teachers who know you well and can give us a sense of your academic and personal strengths.</p>

9

<p>berkeleyca94709; I rowed crew into highschool (stopped at the end of the winter freshman year) and ran track as a sophomore, but no, I am not involved from any sports. If you got that from the fact that I have such high grades in so many classes, which might suggest that I study and do work 100% of the time, that’s false… as a matter of fact, I have wayyy too much free time on my hands. Im currently trying to secure a research internship with a yale professor for 2nd semester.</p>

<p>prefect; you know, as recently as this week, Ive been giving a great deal of thought to that whole situation. more and more, I’m realizing not only that it will have bee such a long time since I had her as a freshman, but also that my AP bio teacher can write me an equally good letter. Additionally, I know my freshman bio teacher in so many other contexts in better ways than simply as a “teacher” that I could really have her write the 3rd, additional rec. the 2nd rec will probably come from my APUSH teacher.</p>