<p>Congratulations to all of you who will be matriculating at Yale! From a parent of a kid who really likes Yale and who will be applying next fall, I'd like to ask you the following question. What is the ONE thing about you or your app that you think lead to your acceptance at Yale?</p>
<p>This is not a good question. I can honestly say there is no one thing, but a combination of things.</p>
<p>My essays</p>
<p>(and my 800 verbal, writing, literature, french, and world history :))</p>
<p>there is no one thing that leads to an acceptance. from what i've gathered talking to other future yalies, we are all superinvolved in many different school & community activities (along with being at the top of our classes) - and i dont just mean members of 3000 clubs, but instead president of 2 or 3. i mean, i'm editor in chief of the paper, captain of the xc team, class president...i could go on (but i feel like im bragging so i wont). but, someone i know who is valedictorian of his class, has taken 18 AP's with 5's on all the exams, and is an all-around genius, got rejected from several ivy's, including yale. so, its not all about the grades- i think they're looking for the "whole package"</p>
<p>I think the strongest "hook" you can get would be to get recruited through one of the athletic teams. </p>
<p>But I agree with the posts above. I think the adcoms base their decisions on the general "feel" of the total application - not a single aspect of it.</p>
<p>I heard that the adcom will go through applications and if you're the "right" application at the "right" time, they'll admit you. Like this:</p>
<p>Dean of Admissions: Hey, Suzie. You're the admissions officer for California. Have a solid student from SoCal who is great at the violin?</p>
<p>Admissions officer from California: Yeah, i think I remember one student. (searches) Ah, here she is.</p>
<p>Dean of Admissions: Great! Let's admit her.</p>
<p>This is probably not correct, but just something funny I heard about the Yale admissions process. Could be true though. Byerly??</p>
<p>Could be, more or less. Certainly when it comes to the waitlist.</p>
<p>I talked to my admissions officer a few days after April 1st, and it seemed as if the one major evidence to her that I should be admitted was this:</p>
<p>Letters of Recommendation</p>
<p>Obviously, the letters have to say a lot about you, through many details. If you have a single uninteresting letter, your chances decrease dramatically. What she said was that she saw me as a true "Yalie" - which is what they are seeking to admit (For God, For Country, and...for Yale) because the faculty was in strong support of my application thanks to the impact I've had through various activities and classroom projects at school. Apparently, my extracurricular activities and accomplishments were shown through these letters to be very impacting, and this became a primary reason that they did not turn me down. They want people who will become heavily involved in both academic and extracurricular life at Yale. If you can connect your positions to your passions and then to the people who will be writing your letters - with evidence that you have impacted them and made a difference through initiative, creativity, etc., then your chances will definitely increase. You should note that, to my knowledge, this isn't the same criteria used at Princeton and Harvard, because the Ivy League with most emphasis on people-leadership is Yale. Good luck!</p>
<p>You know how the admissions officers add little handwritten notes to acceptance letters at many colleges, as a way to woo admitted students? All of my schools' notes had to do with my essay. But I guess it's not just a matter of form, although that was a very, very tricky part, it was also very much a matter of content. I like to think I got into Yale because I worked my ass off despite facing the kind of adversity from early childhood that most of my peers in the U.S. have never dreamed of, and I made myself one of those shiny, perfect applicants even with extenuating circumstances. I just had to convey the magnitude of the sheer hard work and the passion I put into making something of myself, and it was pretty hard putting that into an essay. Guess it worked.</p>
<p>That doesn't mean you're screwed if you were lucky enough to be born into a regular, middle class, suburban etc. American family. Work your ass off and work TOWARDS something, towards some kind of distant life goal or just to be someone, to be able to change things... and then TELL the admissions committee. Let them know how much you care, put your soul into it. Make yourself a real person, not a statistic, so they can envision you, so they want to meet you.</p>
<p>"...I made myself one of those shiny, perfect applicants... "</p>
<p>Not to be too humble or anything...</p>
<p>Have important activities and a few things that set you apart.</p>
<p>Mine were a citywide project and professional acting (theatre + commercials + indy films) + ntl reality tv.</p>
<p>Oh... and make sure that you have tons of money. Yale shafted me on financial aid.</p>
<p>lol, ctrain890, i meant the shiny, perfect part as slightly sarcastic. should've put perfect in quotation marks or something. just meant the typical overachieving kid with the grades, ECs etc. sorry if it came across the wrong way, meant to highlight the passon that drives a person to achieving something, rather than the achievements themselves, because it'll be that passion in the end that'll make you continue to achieve in college... and that is after all what the colleges are really looking for.</p>