<p>I’m from Mexico City 
My high school is very small (75 person class), and not very competitive. We’re an IB school, but my school’s marks are not in the top, but we’ve had some successful alumni, attending NYU, colleges in Britain, etc. We don’t have valedictorians or anything similar here, and most people attend the national university so, yeah, it’s rare for a student to leave.</p>
<p>I love reading and writing, I review books online, and I love it!</p>
<p>I’m from Houston, TX. Very hot but surprisingly affordable houses. My high school is private and religiously affiliated, with about 240 people in my class. Though a private school, it’s not an ivy-feeder BY FAR; we’d be lucky to have 4-5 people accepted into any ivy or top 20 school. I guess it’s because of the VERY laid-back attitude about college admissions. The VAST majority are happy to go to Texas A&M and UTA (now we are major feeders into THOSE lol); the only ones who would want to venture into applying for the top 30 schools are HALF of the top 10%; the other half is, again, content with going to either of those two. My school is all-guys, which does breed a huge party/fratty/preppy atmosphere. I swear, it’s like a mini-Vanderbilt. It gets…loud, especially when 90% of the guys are the types who want to randomly do sports chants during World History -.-. </p>
<p>I LOVE Biology! And Chemistry comes a close second. It’s just fascinating. I was the only one in my AP Biology class to actually spend 5-6 hours just reading the textbook LOL. Sadly, my school doesn’t really participate in any Olympiads, or any similar contests, for that matter.</p>
<p>@Juvenis Wow, I love Houston! It’s so awesome!
It’s very interesting for me to talk to so many Americans attending religiously affiliated schools. To me, at least, they’re quite rare. I only know of one school that’s affiliated to my religion, and because it’s an all-girls school, my parents didn’t want me to go there. The rest are from other religions. </p>
<p>In university, though, it’s a lot more common. Most private universities here are religiously affiliated, and I was just admitted to one affiliated to my religion as well, which is good. </p>
<p>So interesting to learn about other cultures. So close, yet so far, you know what I mean?</p>
<p>Very interesting, everybody! As for myself, I am from Oregon, and definitely love it here (though I do want to get out of the Northwest for college). My school is a moderately large public school with about 1700 students, and we are pretty noncompetitive in terms of selective college admissions. We’ve never sent a student to Yale, and the last person to go to an Ivy League came through about five years ago and went to Brown. </p>
<p>I absolutely love politics. I’m one of those nerds who comes home and immediately starts reading the New York Times and the Fivethirtyeight blog. To me, it’s all interesting – the horse race, the political negotiations, and the actual policies. Yale’s politically active student body is a real draw for me.</p>
<p>I’m from a relative large public school in Alabama (central).
The school’s nowhere close to being competitive…</p>
<p>I’m from rural Iowa…so not much goes on around here. My high school is generic and not geared towards those who are gifted. We have 6 AP classes, which aren’t hard at all. Nothing here is challenging and they offer little activities besides sports and your generic clubs.</p>
<p>I’m from the suburbs of Hartford, CT. Public high school, class of 300. I’d say the top 100 kids are pretty competitive, but then the drop-off is VERY significant (toward the end, think drop outs, pregnancies, etc.). I’ll have 8 AP credits by graduation, which is as much as they offered to my grade. The class behind me was offered a lot more opportunities, so I kinda got the short end of the stick with what year I graduate. I’m valedictorian, but we haven’t had anyone from our school attend an Ivy in like 7 years if I’m not mistaken - which coincidentally was Yale. Last year’s valedictorian got into Brown, but didn’t end up attending. Not much else significant about my school - typical CT public institution.</p>
<p>@Adodie I know what you mean. I currently live on the central coast in California and love it here, but I definitely want to go out of state, preferably to the east coast (Yale’s my first choice), for college. My school is a medium-large semi-crappy public school in a district that has both lack of funds and lack of leadership. It sucks because two school districts just adjacent to ours have great high schools because they get funds from property taxes on the rich people there, but it’s extremely difficult to switch districts unless your parents work there (and they tend to look down on “outsiders” so I’m probably better off here anyway). We send a couple people to top private colleges each year and our valedictorian last year got into MIT, but most go to CSUs (especially Cal Poly SLO), UCs, or community college.</p>
<p>Got my interview request!</p>
<p>@ram0276 That’s great! I had mine in December and it was very informative! I wish you the best of luck!</p>
<p>Thanks! I remember my first interview and how I was “shytttttting” myself and now I feel like a pro. I’ve had the coolest interviewers, thus far. (Knock on wood).</p>
<p>I got lucky, or unlucky depending on who you are: acadec has interview as one of its portions so I got completely drilled junior year on etiquette and dress for interview so I wasn’t nervous at all. However I did have the problem of my interviewer and I missing each other for 30 minutes so that was awkward…</p>
<p>Guys, I recommend reading or re-reading the posts and threads that T26 put up. They’re very informative.
If you’re not interviewed, not having one will NOT hurt you in any way.
Just wanted to put you guys at ease, if you guys were worried about this.</p>
<p>Best of luck to us all!</p>
<p>I just had my interview this last Wednesday and had a great time with my interviewer. I mean, you can’t really know what they get from it, but I think it went well! We talked mostly about why Yale is great and my interest in art, as well as history of art. I even got an e-mail from him the next day asking to look at my artwork!</p>
<p>Okay so all of you guys are getting interviews and all. However, I haven’t yet got my confirmation from Yale that they received my application. Neither any info about Application Status Page.</p>
<p>Is it normal? Or should I contact YALE? Have all of you guys got your login info and confirmation that your app has been received.</p>
<p>@JacobsWannaBe
I got a confirmation the day I submitted my application, but didn’t get the Eli account email like a week or two after. Depending on when you submitted your application, I think that you should consider contacting the admissions office. </p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>My interviewer - back in December - was a huge fan of the Big Lebowski, validating the fact that Yale is perfect.</p>
<p>^
If I get an interview, I hope the alum is as cool as that.</p>
<p>If I don’t get one, I’ll just have to hope that I can one day be a part of that awesome student body</p>
<p>Haha, I gotta admit. For interviewers, Yale interviewers are pretty dang awesome.</p>
<p>Yeah there are cuz I just had my interview today and the interviewer was very laid-back. He was more than willing to answer my questions and I had a lot of them (which is probably why it took an hour instead of half an hour). But overall I liked it since he asked me some pretty interesting questions too like my greatest failures/achievements, what I wanted to receive from my education at Yale, and what makes me different from all the other applicants.</p>