Yale Letter to Prospective Students 2009

Colleges & Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>Each year students and parents comment on the recruiting letters sent out by various colleges. I thought I'd put up the text of one that just came from Yale this year, for discussion. </p>

<p>I grabbed the text of the letter with OCR (optical character recognition] software on my computer, via my scanner. I am responsible for any mistakes in transcription. </p>

<p>Yale University</p>

<p>Office of Undergraduate Admissions Campus address:
P.O. Box 208354 38 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8234 Telephone: 203 432-9316
Fax: 203 432-9392 </p>

<p>May 2009 </p>

<p>“Yale is at once a tradition, a company of scholars, and a society of friends.”
George Pierson, Lamed Professor and Historian of Yale University </p>

<p>[Student Name and Address] </p>

<p>Dear [Student Nickname],</p>

<p>Congratulations on your high aspirations and your success in realizing them so far! This is an exciting time for you to be thinking about the future, and we hope it is also a good time for us to write to you with a few thoughts about Yale College.</p>

<p>Using information obtained from the College Board or the ACT we have identified you as a student who may be a good candidate for Yale. Many other colleges will be writing you as well, and I expect that you have already begun to amass a sizeable collection of letters and brochures. For now, I simply want to encourage you to consider Yale’s combination of superb academic programs, incomparable extracurricular opportunities and unique residential college system.</p>

<p>The Yale Experience</p>

<p>Yale is renowned for its commitment to the liberal arts, each year offering nearly 2,000 courses across 70 different majors, from Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering to Renaissance Studies, Political Science, and East Asian Languages and Literatures. Yale’s legendary resources in the arts, humanities and social sciences have been augmented in recent years by remarkable and unprecedented investments in science and engineering. In all areas of study, Yale preserves a singular dedication to teaching. Every faculty member in the arts and sciences teaches undergraduate courses, and professors meet informally with students after classes, over meals and during regularly scheduled office hours. Philosophers, statesmen, scientists, poets and entrepreneurs of national and international stature continually visit the campus for fellowships, lectures and informal gatherings.</p>

<p>For centuries, Yale has produced leaders for the country and the world. We therefore seek students who will engage others in collaborative ventures with a high degree of energy and dedication. Over 350 student-run organizations benefit from the commitment and passion of Yale students in academics, the arts, athletics, performance, publishing, community service, business, culture, politics, and social life. Bringing remarkable enthusiasm to these endeavors, Yale students mount over 250 student-led theatrical and musical performances each year (ranging from the Yale Dramat to the Yale College Opera to the Yale Bhangra dance team), write for dozens of undergraduate publications (from the Yale Daily News to the Yale Anglers’ Journal), opine with a range of political and debating societies, and play for nearly 100 varsity, club and intramural athletic teams (from football to fencing to ultimate Frisbee).</p>

<p>As a setting for this rich array of academic and extracurricular programs, the residential college system is the heart of Yale College. Each undergraduate is assigned to one of twelve residential colleges, and these close-knit communities, housed in magnificent buildings around beautiful courtyards, provide the intimacy of a small liberal arts college within the context of an increasingly global research university. For many decades, Yale’s residential colleges have fostered friendships that are a hallmark of the Yale experience, complementing the bonds that students from across all the colleges form around shared activities or intellectual interests.</p>

<p>Yale’s striking Gothic campus is also integrated into the city of New Haven, a vibrant community of great diversity and character. The city’s museums, world-class restaurants, shopping districts, repertory theaters, clubs, and concert venues provide a particularly lively cultural life surroundingthe campus. Yale students quickly become active members of the New Haven community, whether tutoring in schools, working with dozens of service organizations, or conducting policy research and volunteering in political campaigns.</p>

<p>In recent years, Yale has encouraged engagement with the world as well as the local community. Yale is itself an international community, with nearly 10% of its undergraduates hailing from 70 countries worldwide. Nearly 1,000 internship, fellowship, research and study opportunities now take Yale students abroad each year to explore possibilities ranging from Yale-in-London to joint programs between Yale and multiple Chinese universities.</p>

<p>Admission, and the Diminishing Cost of a Yale Education</p>

<p>If you are considering Yale, you should not hesitate to apply because you fear the cost will exceed your family’s means. In recent years we have dramatically increased financial aid in order to best ensure that no student will ever have to decline a Yale offer for financial reasons. Families with annual incomes under $60,000 are no longer asked to make any contribution to the cost of sending a child to Yale. Those with incomes between $60,000 and $120,000 will pay from 1% to 9% of annual income, and families from $120,000 to $200,000 will pay an average of 10% of income. The contribution expected from student earnings has also been slashed, eliminating the need for students to borrow money to finance their educations. You can read more about Yale’s remarkable financial aid program at
Yale</a> University Financial Aid.</p>

<p>Most students considering Yale also want to know their chances of admission, and our admissions process is undeniably one of the most selective in the world. The good news about admission to Yale is that we seek students of every background, interest, outlook and talent. While academic strength is our first consideration in evaluating candidates, you should know that no one is admitted to Yale according to a formula. No one thing alone—test scores, grades, program rigor, extracurricular accomplishments—determines who comes to Yale. We look at the whole student and the whole record, with the aim of gathering together an extraordinary variety of interesting and promising individuals, students who will challenge and inspire one another. We are especially interested in candidates who have had a profound, positive and lasting impact on others.</p>

<p>If this letter has piqued your interest in Yale, I encourage you to gather more information about the college. Our Web site, Welcome</a> to Yale College, Office of Undergraduate Admissions, is a great way to get to know Yale better in these early stages of your college search process. You will fmd links to a virtual campus tour, our entire course catalog, and countless other campus resources. You may also wish to friend “Elihu Yale” on Facebook to connect with current Yalies in a more informal setting. If you are interested in receiving our viewbook in the coming months, which contains even more information about Yale, make sure to put yourself on our mailing list by clicking on the “Request Information” link on our Web site.</p>

<p>As you move forward into a wonderfully exciting time in your life, I sincerely hope that you will explore Yale as a possibility for your future. Meanwhile, I offer my best wishes for your continued success.</p>

<p>Sincerely,</p>

<p>[signature] </p>

<p>Jeff Brenzel
Dean of Admissions</p>

2

<p>My son got that one too. Is he really a ‘good candidate for Yale’? Does this mean he passed their ACT / SAT range? And I also wonder if they got the results from his ACT that he just took April 22 before we received the scores? Or is this from the SAT from March 14?</p>

<p>It was a lovely letter and I like their finanical aid position.</p>

3

<p>I might be wrong, but I think it’s based on PSAT or ACT Plan scores.</p>

4

<p>I got this today! Almost died of excitement, even if it means absolutely nothing.</p>

5

<p>Got the same letter today too. If Yale does it like Harvard does one may assume that people that get these letters are just in Yale’s SAT/ACT score range, at least that’s my best guess. Here is what Business Week said about Harvard sending these letters, </p>

<p>"The first phase begins in the spring, when Harvard mails letters to a staggering 70,000-or-so high school juniors—all with stellar test scores—suggesting they consider applying to America’s best-known college. Harvard buys their names from the College Board (which administers the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT) and ACT Inc. (which administers the college-admission test that’s more popular in the Midwest). This “search list” is obviously a very rough cut. Yet Fitzsimmons is confident he will find many diamonds here since every year some 70% of the students who ultimately attend Harvard are on this list. "</p>

6

<p>I got my letter last Friday. It’s based off of PSATs or PLAN tests because I haven’t taken my SATs or ACTs yet… but I’ve been getting mail from them since the beginning of this year for like multicultural recruitment, summer programs, and info sessions so I don’t know how they choose who to send stuff to.</p>

7

<p>One artifact of this policy at Harvard has been a stratification; sure, they’re not charging some people but they’re actually admitting a higher number of people with $$$. </p>

<p>I have to add that it really bugs me that these schools try so hard to boost their application numbers. That drives their acceptance rate lower which apparently has some relation in the popular mind to prestige. </p>

<p>I’m sure Jeff would explain this kind of thing in a different way but really …</p>

8

<p>Although, I’m not going to lie, after receiving a million letters from xyz (any misc.) University, I was actually pleasantly surprised and happy that Yale sent me something, and it did increase my interest in the school.</p>

9

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<p>Yeah, me too. I mean, I think it is great that colleges like Yale try to get qualified students to apply, especially people who might be staying away out of financial considerations, but sometimes it appears that colleges are just trying to increase their application numbers to appear more selective.</p>

<p>If colleges really wanted to make the application system easier for themselves and for students, they would invite PRE-applications in the summer, where students would just fill out a 2-page form with pertinent information including self-reported test scores and attach a student copy of their transcript (as of the end of junior year). No essays, no recommendation letters, no counselor letters. I am sure colleges could safely filter out 75% of their applications by October in this manner. </p>

<p>Everyone would win with this system. Students would find out early in the process where they stand, they would write fewer (and hopefully better) essays, teachers would have to write fewer letters of recommendation, adcoms would have to read fewer dossiers, and there would be less stress all around.</p>

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11

<p>I think that it’s less about boosting app numbers and more about reaching and being accessible students, not just privileged ones.</p>

12

<p>I believe the excuse we’d hear from ASC is that it’s about extending the reach to find the best possible students. What that always meant to me as an interviewer was “brand awareness.” I try to remember that a big part of Yale’s concern is Yale, that it’s a brand which it wants to make as important as possible, here and abroad. As an example, one could argue - persuasively I would say - that Yale, a US institution which benefits in very large ways from US financing for its research programs and thus its facilities and faculty, pays the country back by admitting more and more kids from other countries. I meant the double-edge because Yale believes that is the right thing for itself and thus for the country but it makes going there even more difficult for kids in the US. </p>

<p>I’m glad I went to Yale but I think it’s important to keep one’s critical faculties intact. Anyone who honestly believes that an extra 2,000 apps will generate a different student body is engaging in a form of self-rationalizing delusion. A simple proof: for all the Ed Lampert’s ('84) there are dozens of middling do wells, some outright failures and some never even tries, meaning the admissions process is a total crapshoot as to results, especially when one controls for starting wealth. Anyone who has ever done any sophisticated hiring knows that even the most elaborate interviewing / testing systems generate a lot of mediocrity and busts, while the stars seem to come from anywhere.</p>

13

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<p>I’m not at all sure of that.</p>

14

<p>Links to information about that Brand X college in the Ivy League, for context on college recruiting practices: </p>

<p>[Online</a> Extra: How Harvard Gets its Best and Brightest](<a href=“Bloomberg Businessweek - Bloomberg”>Bloomberg Businessweek - Bloomberg) </p>

<p>(already mentioned above) </p>

<p>[Cost</a> Should Be No Barrier: An Evaluation of the First Year of Harvard’s Financial Aid Initiative](<a href=“http://works.bepress.com/c_kirabo_jackson/12/]Cost”>This work is no longer available) </p>

<p>(which leads to the link below) </p>

<p><a href=“http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1080&context=workingpapers[/url]”>http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1080&context=workingpapers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

15

<p>token: Well, maybe you are correct, 75% may be too large a fraction. Perhaps it would be 25%. I think even that would help. The effectiveness would depend on how carefully that 2 page pre-application was designed. Less can sometimes be more. </p>

<p>thanks for the link to the Harvard financial aid article. Lots of very interesting data there.</p>

16

<p>I can be as cynical as the next guy, but I will always be thankful that DD received a letter like this after taking her PSAT’s as a sophomore. My H and I have always worked in education/non-profits, so while we have advanced degrees, we are a middle class family. We knew that DD’s scores put her safely in the pool of kids who would have a real shot, but our DD never saw herself that way. When she received this letter, along with some others from similar places, she agreed to visit several of these schools. </p>

<p>She just finished up her sophomore year at Yale and she couldn’t be happier (not true last weekend when she was finishing papers/exams, but that’s another story). So, I know it is marketing, it is probably fueled in part to keep application #'s up, but sometimes those letters make a difference to a middle-class kid who thinks going to a school like Yale is as likely as being a starting b-ball player at Duke (or UNC).</p>

17

<p>Does anyone know if Princeton sends out letters similar to this, and if so, have they already been sent out. It would, for me at least, be awesome if I got one. I’m hopeful that since Yale sent one to me maybe Princ/Harv might as well.</p>

18

<p>Harvard’s come out later in May. I’m not sure if Princeton sends out similar letters or not.</p>

19

<p>Do you think that their pool of letters sent out would be similar to Yale’s, or more exclusive (higher scores)?</p>

20

<p>Hm. Is this only for juniors?
b/c I’m pretty sure I got a letter from every college in America except HYPS.</p>

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