<p>LOL im not indian or female but certainly a bio major and aspiring doctor!</p>
<p>Haha @awesomenerd seriously? Thatāsā¦ awesome! :D</p>
<p>Alsoā¦ applying to college when youāre 16 doesnāt count as a hook, does it? Oh, how I wish it didā¦</p>
<p>Per an article in TIME: Steve Cohen, author of Getting In!, parsed the data and found āunhooked white girlsā are the biggest losers of this yearās admissions process (2012). Unhooked white girls, Cohen writes on Forbesā website, are those Caucasian female students with really good grades and solid test scores, but no other distinguishing āhookā to set them apart from the sea of high achieving female students like being a concert pianist or star athlete.</p>
<p>And that unfortunately describes my daughter. </p>
<p>But in reality, of this yearās 28-30K total applicants to Yale, just how many have truly sought after āhooksā? I would have to guess that this really can only apply to 200-300 or so applicants. So maybe up to 1% of the total applicant pool has an easier path to admission. If true, that would mean that all unhooked applicants are competing for the remaining spots, which will likely equal 6% of the total applicant pool.</p>
<p>The disadvantage for SCEA applicants is that most hooked applicants also likely apply Early. So almost 1/2 of those Early acceptances could be earmarked for applicants possessing that illusive āhookā. </p>
<p>The Yale admissions officer who came to an info session in our area pointed out though that she herself was a deferred SCEA applicant who was admitted RD. She is the first reader for applicantās from my Dās area. So even the Yale admissions staff in some cases has been through this exact process before. They understand the challenges and are supportive. Ultimately, it just comes down to #sā¦ they have the goal of molding a diverse, well-qualified Freshman class and crafting such from an overwhelmingly rich pool of potential students. It is an enormous challenge for both the applicant and the admissions staff. </p>
<p>In the end, the key is to apply to a # of schools where you may be happy and successful and then simply have hope and faith that the process will work out for you. If you end up being happy and content at a quality school, you will hopefully have no regrets in the end.</p>
<p>Good luck to all SCEA applicantsā¦</p>
<p>WWWard, Iām worried I fall into that category tooā¦</p>
<p>Do you guys think overcoming a bad chronic medical condition (still struggle with it but do well in academics and sports despite it) would be considered a āhookā? I wrote about it for the additional essay in the supplement but not the common app essay so it wouldnāt seem like it was all of who I am. Is this an advantage or a disadvantage?</p>
<p>I would not consider a medical condition a hook per se, but I do believe that it will be considered favorably in terms of an obstacle that had to be overcome. Elite schools like Yale go out of there way to seek out and accept applicants who have proven that they had to overcome socio-economic challenges (for example - QuestBridge scholars), and I therefore think that they would be equally interested in evaluating your situation and giving it proper consideration. If it represents a significant challenge or obstacle, and if you succeeded academically and in other ways despite such obstacles, that should only serve to augment your application file accordingly.</p>
<p>Thanks, hopefully thatās the case. I had a lot of people telling me that I could be seen as a liability, but since Iāve succeeded in a really competitive high school, I hope thatās not the case. I decided to write about it despite the warnings b/c I view it as a strength and I thought itād be important to share what Iāve learned from it. And while it can be hard for āunhooked white girlsā as you called us, Iām sure applying to a range of schools and such will help and your daughter will do great :)</p>
<p>I think that you were wise to follow your own instincts. Hopefully soā¦ :)</p>
<p>Hopefully you will post your results as wellā¦</p>
<p>Good Luck</p>
<p>WWWard, what does your daughter want to study? I am too a white Caucasian female. Hopefully, it wonāt be too much of a drawback.</p>
<p>She is interested in pursuing a double major, including Theater Studies and Computer Science. Her main passion is performing arts, but she is also reticent to only study drama. As with all things, it is wise to have a back-up plan.</p>
<p>Thatās a really nice combination of majors. Iād love to study drama, just not sure if Iād fit. Otherwise, I plan to study Physics or maybe Physics& Philosophy. Best of luck to your daughter!!</p>
<p>Thanksā¦ and to you as well</p>
<p>Thanks txhandan,
I called today and ended up working things out^.^ The person I spoke with told me that apparently many yahoo and gmail accounts have been blocking Yale messages to where they donāt even show up in the junk mail folder.</p>
<p>Reading about some of your guyās essays makes me nervous. Iām a white male with out much hook and have thankfully never had any serious disadvantage to overcome. So for my essay I just wrote about my plans to become iron man. Do you think that this will end up helping me or hurting me?</p>
<p>And stillā¦ the Yale admissions officer that I mentioned was a white unhooked over-achieving female from a middle-class background attending a public high school in Floridaā¦ and she was admitted. In her caseā¦ she, like my D, was passionate about theater and performance. Maybe that was enough. Or maybe they needed another Floridian. We will never know, as we were not in the room.</p>
<p>The cruel reality is that it is a #s crunching exercise to a pointā¦ unless an individual applicant stands out on paper in a meaningful way. If you fail to differentiate yourself as an applicant, then it is true that a superlatively well-qualified candidate will simply be passed over because they have too many similar ones. So yes - there are quotas applied on various groups and from various areas, etc. And it is not a question of fairnessā¦ it is just the way it is.</p>
<p>Their goal is to meld together a diverse and well-rounded class of studentsā¦ and not to simply populate Yale with well-rounded students per se. As such, they can only accept a certain # of each prototype. The way to succeed & to stand out is to demonstrate a singular passion that sets you apart. Meet the general criteria of course in terms of test scores and academic performance, but then somehow show or demonstrate that singular passion. </p>
<p>My guess is that of the 28K - 30K total applicants, only roughly 10-15% of those (or maybe up to 4500) will even come close to setting themselves apart in that manner. And then it will get extremely hard for Yaleā¦ as they then really have to narrow down which of those 4500 or so they want bad enough to extend an offer. But now the odds (if you succeeded in setting yourself apart initially) have at least gotten much more competitive. About 40% of those may get in. </p>
<p>But if your application file is solely comprised of test scores, rank in class, various ECs without significant depth and passion, etc., then how can you ever expect to stand out in a pool of that size?</p>
<p>We will all know soon enough. Stay positive. Yale is a great school, but it is also only one of 20 or so truly superlative schools that should be just as inspiring to attend as an alternativeā¦ if need be. 93% of Yaleās applicants need to be thinking in those broader termsā¦ and to do so willingly when the time arises.</p>
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<p>KetchumNcollege - Becoming an āironmanā is certainly a great personal achievement but is also (and sorry for being harsh), in itself, a very narcissistic aspiration since it doesnāt benefit anyone, only yourself. I would try to focus your essay on something that relates to academia and is a self reflection on your broader aspirations as a citizen of the world.</p>
<p>Your āironmanā essay might resonate at Harvard but not so much at Yale I thinkā¦hahaā¦</p>
<p>20 days to goā¦</p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving!</p>
<p>By ironman you mean tony stark?</p>
<p>I thought he meant like āswimming, biking, runningā ironman, but I could be wrong. Either way, I donāt agree with keesh17 when he said itās bad. Narcissisitic is kind of a stretch, because while the essay does talk about himself, it doesnāt have to be arrogant (which is what I feel narcissism implies), and its really just talking about an aspiration. Besides the whole point of the essay is to tell something about yourself. The whole thing about academia might work for some people, but not so much for others. </p>
<p>And for the record, I think thatās a really cool essay idea.</p>
<p>Well I talked about how i would use it to help others like tony does by saving people. And yeah tony stark I talked about why I want to study engineering and finance so I can learn to make a iron man suit.</p>