@mamabear336 Thank you for your kind words, and I’m really wishing you all the luck in the world. I’m rooting for you. I hope you can get all the supplemental materials in time, I feel you. I’m going through the same thing right now with the schools I’m applying to.
I will take a look at your stats! 
Just submitted my application. The true waiting game begins :-SS
@mamabear336 nice job getting it in early! We are all in the waiting space together
Hi all! good luck to everyone who’s applying this year. After reading @KPitsME’s stats I thought I’d share my non-trad student journey.
School- North Seattle College
Age - 29
GPA - 3.8
Credits earned: 45
I graduated high school in California 2007, my mother was in nursing school and my dad was in residential construction at the time(right before the housing market collapse). Taking out big loans and risking my families financial future (as loan cosigners) wasn’t an option for me. I had no money at the time but an adventurous heart, so I impulsively applied through the internet for a job in a salmon cannery in Alaska on a whim. After I arrived, my athletic abilities stood out and I ended up quickly getting hired onto a reputable commercial fishing vessel on Kodiak Island. It took little time for me to realize that the seasonal-work lifestyle could afford me the time and money to travel the world and climb the mountains my childhood dreams. Eleven years later I’ve organized and completed advanced climbing expeditions to 26 countries and have put up massive new climbing routes on unclimbed faces in Patagonia, Central Madagascar, The Himalayas, and throughout Alaska. All funded by King Crab fishing, cold, dark, dangerous winters on the Bering Sea in Alaska, on the same boats seen in Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch.
(Obviously) I’ve decided to pivot my career and lifestyle dramatically. My 20’s have been a hard earned dream, and I’ve accomplished many of my lifetime goals in climbing… But the reality is I simply can no longer look away from the immense and complex challenges my generation and future generations are going to face in the 21st century.
My new life goal is to use the rest of my time on this planet to make a disruptive and positive impact on the world through better more sustainable business leadership and innovation.
My intellectual fascination lies at the intersection of Economics and Cognitive Science, I’ve come to believe from my own personal research that we can no longer look at the evolution of economics and human consciousness separately. Through Behavioral Economics and big data analysis we can better understand the cognitive mysteries and economic incentives of modern human value structures. I’m driven by the realization that we can use these new interdisciplinary fields and technology in ways that may allow us to redesign and evolve our economic thinking, systems, and markets towards much more circular, sustainable, and admirable models.
Yale is a legendary institution with incredible resources and faculty within my fields and concentrations and it would be an absolute honor to continue my studies there.
I’m thankful that Yale sees the value and potential in Non Traditional students and has maintained this admissions process!
Good luck to everyone!
Wow @adventurescholar your story is amazing! I can’t wait to see where you take that ferocious determination, energy, and curiosity next!
Hello, good morning/evening all
I read adventurescholar’s attributes, was impressed with them so I decided to add my own basic stats/story.
I am a Marine first, I joined the Marine Corps around Christmas time in 2007 and was honorably discharged in 2012. I served for 5 years in various capacities but primarily my responsibilities were in aviation maintenance. I was a CH-46 Helicopter Mechanic for those interested or aware of the flight programs the Marine Corps had at the time. Unfortunately, my plane is retired now as of 2017. During those 5 years, whenever we deployed I managed to stay active in the volunteering community since this was always a big part of my life before military service. I was fortunate to have the opportunities to assist underprivileged children in Thailand, Philippines as well as Okinawa, Japan and some in North Carolina as well.
Fast forward to that tumultuous period almost every veteran faces; reintegration into the real world:
I tried to start my life in San Diego, once again aiding and volunteering as much as possible with the massive homeless population. Life was great, I had a nice easy lifestyle living by the beach for $950 a month and I started to excel in school and I also tried to branch out into the music industry, writing songs and trying to appeal to musicians who needed quality writers on their team. As fate would have it, an old teammate during the military joined a local gang and targeted me. This required me to move quickly back home to Maine to stay safe. As you could expect, mentally I was not very useful for a year. Naturally, that kind of experience will take a toll on anyone. Regardless, I persevered and became a volunteer firefighter, qualified for interior search and rescue, things were okay for now. I found odd jobs and managed to build up quite the mechanical/handyman resume and this landed me a full-time position as an aviation mechanic at a hangar in a medium-sized town. My wife and I bought our first house, things were great! I started taking flying lessons, planned to finish my A+P (airframe and powerplant) certificate to work professionally on business class jets, things were really rolling now. This was 2015.
All the sudden there was tension at the hangar and shortly after, my boss had spent too much money. He was forced to evacuate the premises. Luckily I sensed this coming and had enrolled in classes (again) at a local university. I took the most rigorous courses available and did quite well.
I visited a friend in Staten Island, 2018 and he encouraged me to apply to Yale University due to my veteran background and current job position. I have been a quality inspector for the production of civilian and military fighter jet engines for about 1.5 years now. Things are way more stable than ever. I no longer rely on “day trading” for income, I am now a landlord, I have a son and I am enrolled in an upper-level physics course and Calculus 3 while working 40 hours. These are things I never could have imagined myself doing, but growing up in a racist environment can make a worker out of almost anyone, I believe.
Surely I have left some details out but that is my basic story and how I have gotten here. Good luck to everyone.
@Heisenberg2019 I hope you are able to capture your entire story in the application, it is incredible! You went through a lot to get here. I’m sure Yale will be thrilled to hear from you.
Goodness, thank you so much for the kind words. I am certain there will be quite the competition but what would life be without such a challenge??
I got my app in on Thursday! I cannot believe that I actually applied to Yale - I went back to check if I had really submitted like seven times.
I really have to stop thinking about this opportunity, I have over a month before I will reasonably hear anything at all :(( How many applications do you think will be coming to the Eli Whitney Program this year? There have been so few of us on this forum so far.
@mamabear336 haha! same! I recently got an email from them in which they said the following:
“We received 160 applications for the EWSP last year and admitted 13 students. Academic strength is our first consideration in evaluating candidates. While some successful Eli Whitney applicants had weak academic records in high school or early in their college careers, the admissions committee does expect students to show very strong recent academic performance, with grades in the A range in demanding college courses. Additionally, Yale looks for nontraditional students who show strong intellectual depth and curiosity, exceptional motivation, leadership, community involvement and/or professional achievement. The admissions committee is especially interested in candidates who have had a profound, positive, and lasting impact on others, and who will continue to enrich their communities in college and beyond.”
That is around an 8% acceptance rate for that particular year, right? I think their overall transfer acceptance rate is around 2.5% so I’ll take my chances with EWSP 
I also love the student they describe in that passage - I want to study with students like that!
@RainbowBritey Correlatively, yes, what wonderful chances… but grand scheme, I am constantly pinching myself when I dare to dream.
Am I crazy to be concerned that I did not receive any such email? I have just received confirmation that all my materials have been received, but alas, no other direct communication. I officially envy you 
@mamabear336 The email was promo for the program because I am a scholarship semi-finalist for a totally unrelated program that sends students there, all 500-odd people who made semi-finals for the scholarship got it. If you PM me an email address I will send it to you.
@RainbowBritey omg, you are so sweet to offer. No, it’s okay, you shared the pertinent information, so that’s all that really matters. Wow, 500 people?? I hope the numbers remain much smaller!
Hi all! I am very excited to have applied to Yale through the EWSP! I am a community college student in the Bay Area of California (San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley), non-traditional student (30yrs old), and I have been through a journey to pursue higher education. I have recently received my acceptance letters to both the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia GS!
It is truly a blessing to be able to attend an Ivy League school, and seeing that Yale is in my top 3 choices of the previous Ivy Leagues mentioned above, it would be an honor to receive an acceptance letter from them as well. I wish everyone the best in their future acceptance to Yale’s EWSP, and I look forward to the updates from you all!
Thanks for starting this group, this is great support!
@communityiskey89 So excited to have you here! I am in Southern California, I’m also non-traditional (35, parent etc). I would love to know what kind of aid packages you are getting from Penn and Columbia if you don’t mind a very broad strokes share? (No details, just a general idea)… also, please share any aspects of your story that you’re comfortable with? Your track record of acceptances is pretty stellar so far, I am sure you will get exactly what you are seeking. What do you hope to study?
@communityiskey89 You have received an acceptance letter from Columbia 5 days after the application was due? And you have received an acceptance letter from Upenn before their application due date? You must be a stellar student… Lol
I was so happy to turn in my application so early—but as of today, I regret it, because if I had waited till the last minute, I could have listed a promotion in my current job on my resume. Oh well.
Tomorrow’s the not so big “big” day, lol. I wonder how soon they will start reviewing applications!
@RainbowBritey thank you for the compliment, and I don’t mind sharing. My course of study is Ethnic Studies with a concentration in Journalism. I am originally from the Southside of Chicago and I have been in the Bay Area for 8 years now where I worked as a hairstylist and cosmetology instructor.
As of today, Columbia sent me an email informing me the financial aid packages will be sent out within the next 3 weeks. With UPenn, I applied through a program similar to Harvard Extension School’s BA Program. An upside to the program is that it can be completed as a hybrid–mostly online with 2 required on-campus residencies to receive a degree from UPenn.
This is their BAAS Program, which differs from Harvard Extensions because all the courses you take (either online or on-campus) are taught directly by UPenn Professors. The degree also comes from the Liberal & Professional Studies College at UPenn, with the UPenn crest just like the other degree-granting school. I am a Phi Theta Kappa Scholar, so by choosing UPenn PTK will pay for all my courses each semester. I would only have to worry about housing during my on-campus courses and other minor fees.
@transferszn Thank you for the compliment. Honestly, with all my applications, I submitted them back in Nov/Dec. around the same timeframe, I was submitting for the UCs. I try to do everything early because I grew up as a procrastinator (hard lesson to learn). Overall, I work towards the goals I want. I have As in every course, except Statistics (don’t get me started lol), and I try to make genuine connections will all my professors and school staff/faculty.
I am excited that my hard work is starting to pay off!
Hey everyone! Interviews are coming up in the next couple of weeks. Everyone here sounds amazing! Has anyone heard back or gotten an interview request?