I personally have a concern.
I have taken 3 AP Exams, and I got 2 threes and 1 four, will his and how much will these scores affect my application and chances of getting into Yale? Should I report these scores to Yale?
@Join20, I don’t believe that you’re under any obligation to report them to Yale (I might be mistaken), but it raises the question about why your scores were low. Were the teachers not teaching the material well? That might be the case be if most of the class scored low.
ETA: if it were me, or my child, I’d think long and hard about whether a rigorous college was appropriate.
@Join20 - Didn’t see that for some reason. Thank you! It’s kind of a relief that we only need to write one essay 
So I’m planning on majoring in something science-y, except I got 4s on both the AP sciences I took this year (I have 6 APs total, the other ones are all 5s). If these were 4s in AP Lang or something, I’d leave them off in a heartbeat, but they’re actually relevant to what I’d like to study. Should I report them?
@Join20 - The website says “In August”.
My daughter is also applying to Yale EA (she’s a recruited student-athlete). Yale has been her #1 choice since she started visiting schools freshman year in high school. She is still undecided on a major, but it’ll most likely be in Liberal Arts.
Question for IxnayBob - Hello! I’m new to this site and in reading these posts I’ve noticed you have some great insight. I’m curious if you are familiar with the timelines for recruited athletes’ EA applications. My daughter is a recruited student-athlete starting her senior year of high school this Fall (Class of 2016). On July 1, the coach told my daughter that the next step is to file her common app EA and that Likely Letters will be sent out early October. My daughter is scheduled for her “official visit” in late September. Considering that the Yale specific essay question is not available until August and her official visit is in late Sept., the timeline suggests that my daughter should file her EA application sometime between Aug & early Sept. Does this mean that the regular Nov 1st deadline for EA applicants does not apply to recruited athletes? Is there anything that precludes an EA applicant to file her application as soon as the Yale specific essay question is released/posted? Also, how long does it typically take for admissions to make a decision on a tagged (recruited athlete) EA application? We’re trying to figure out if by the time she is at Yale on her official visit, she will already “unofficially” know she has been accepted. The thing that is throwing us off here is that her “official visit” is happening the week before the Likely Letters are reportedly being sent out. My daughter has been on the road (out of state) most of the summer participating in softball tournaments w/ her travel team. She plans on calling up the coach to get these questions clarified when she gets back home the weekend before school starts. But I’m getting a bit anxious looking at the calendar and seeing that she won’t have much time to work on these essays if in fact, she’ll be expected to file her EA app by early September. Any insight would be greatly appreciated! : )
@SoftballFan, I unfortunately know nothing about recruited athletes or the timeline for their applications. I would suggest asking on this forum in a new thread or possibly http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/.
I saw somewhere that the Yale essay prompts are out and, as expected, are the same as in the past. The essay is the “what else should we know about you” prompt. I don’t know the acceptable length of the “why Yale” prompt, but I think it is a short answer.
http://admissions.yale.edu/instructions#topic
I’m glad that you think I have insight. I’ve chosen to spend time around the Yale forum because I was over the moon happy that my son was accepted, and remain equally happy now that he has spent a year there. I only wish that more students could be so lucky, but Yale is a finite resource.
@IxnayBob - Thank you! I’ll look at that link you provided! And Congratulations on your son’s accomplishments! I cannot wait to be able to say the same! : )
@rdeng2614 Regarding the questions about differences between Yale and the other Ivy schools. My dad gave my daughter the funds to apply to 3 Ivy schools because he believed in her. She is not a specific student looking for a specific line of study but we did need the financial aid. We narrowed it down to Harvard, Yale and Brown. Harvard because she loved Boston, Yale because we were in CT and it was convenient (she hated this fact) and Brown because of its proximity to Boston (however she really didn’t like the school because it had a very snooty vibe to it and she didn’t feel welcome). After she was deferred by Harvard SCEA- she did more research in what the school climate was like. She has been a cheerleader since she was 6 years old and a “team” mentality was critical to her. What she found in her research was that Harvard fostered a feeling of “you are in it for yourself” and Yale was “we are in this together”. The more she did research on student opinions and what was offered, she fell in love with Yale. So to answer your question, in our case it was first the financial, then the social environment and finally the location.
@SoftballFan Im certainly not an expert on recruited athletes, my son was most definitely not in that camp. But I am close to several parents whos kids were recruited to Ivies, including one who will start next year at Yale. My experience has been that these athletes got “the nod” in their junior year with the proviso that they keep their grades up etc… Im not saying that is always the case but I dont know of any athlete recruited after junior year.
@wchatar2 - Thank you! Yes! My kid got recruited at the beginning of her Junior year and “got on the radar” her freshman year. I’ve been able to get some great info from the “recruited athletes” link provided by IxnayBob and my questions are being answered. Thank you all for all of your help! Great looking out! : )
@SoftballFan Well at Yale your daughter does not have to decide on her major until the end of her 2nd year, and she can double major
Also, 36 credits are needed for graduation
@SoftballFan
A study published some time ago estimated that on the SAT (1,600 point scale) being a recruited athlete is equal to a 200 point gain on the SAT
Hi guys! I’m applying to Yale too (RD) and I was wondering if you guys can access the Yale-specific questions on the Common Application yet? I keep trying, but it never works for me, so I’m a bit worried 
http://admissions.yale.edu/instructions#topic And “Why Yale”
@IxnayBob Thank you so much! This helped so much because I was honestly starting to worry a bit…
@Spicykins, you’re welcome. On the theory that this might help you next time, I typed a few words into Google and the answer popped up. That’s better than worrying.
swimmer here!! hoping to get a likely letter in early October 
@mollycoddle how does that feel? :-/ (Crazy jealous…)
@mytosies feels good >:D< haha. I’m very thankful though. I could not imagine the stress of being a regular applicant
@mollycoddle let me tell you I keep hoping that one day I’ll wake up and suddenly be running 2 mins/mile faster, and then I’d have the yale recruiters on my doorstep :-bd
Let me tell you, though: that’s a hell of a pipe dream (I think that’s the right phrase!) so I’ll be busy stressin’ with the rest of us unathletically gifted folks!