Yale University Class of 2023 SCEA Decision Result

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
21

**Decision: Accepted **

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): Didn’t Send
ACT (breakdown): 35 single sitting, 36 superscore
SAT II: 790 Math 2, 740 Chem, 710 Physics (lol)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): School doesn’t provide, but I calculated 3.8
Weighted GPA: 95.84
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 20%
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5 in Comp Sci, 4 in English lit and World History
Senior Year Course Load: AP Stats, AP Calc BC, AP Physics C, College Econ, English
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National merit Semifinalist??? Also a national german award

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Co-founded organization, Policy Debate thing (president and larger role), some volunteer work in math education, astronomy club (co-founder and president), class president
Job/Work Experience: Lots of campaign work
Volunteer/Community service: Accrued 400+ hours here and there but didn’t report
Summer Activities: Prestigious summer program this past summer, campaign work and volunteer tutoring before junior year, took classes at NYU before sophomore year
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common App I’m really proud of and people have said it’s basically me on paper, 8/10. Yale supplements I kinda cringed while rereading but they’re very much me as well 6/10
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: Math/comp sci teacher 8/10
Teacher Rec #2: US History teacher 8.5/10
Counselor Rec: We’re close 10/10 and he may have called in for me, unsure
Additional Rec: Woman I’ve worked with for a few years I have a wonderful relationship with 10/10
Interview: Lasted two hours, don’t think I came across as very intellectual but the conversation flowed well enough. I really don’t have enough grounding to even attempt a rating

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Physics and Philosophy, or Astrophysics, or Comp Sci
State (if domestic applicant): NY
Country (if international applicant): N/A
School Type: Public, very competitive
Ethnicity: White (Jewish)
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: Maybe 150,000?
Hooks (URM, first generation college, Questbridge, etc.): Woman in STEM?

Reflection

Strengths: Essays, Summer program, Tests (minus physics subject test)
Weaknesses: Grades and class rank! I had Bs in some relevant classes
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: No effing clue
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: Binghamton and Buffalo honors

General Comments :

I don’t know how to articulate this feeling precisely, but I feel overwhelmingly like I don’t deserve this. It feels like I conned my way in even though I didn’t lie and didn’t do anything wrong. It just feels so impossible that I got in. I’m so, so, so ecstatic though. More now than ever I’m convinced at how random this whole process is. (Probably) Yale 2023!!

22

**Decision: Rejected **

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1570 (790 Reading, 780 Math)
ACT (breakdown): N/A
SAT II: didn’t sent
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): didn’t calculate… 9.1/10
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 2/52 for senior year, my school doesn’t rank for whole high school career
AP (place score in parenthesis): N/A
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: we don’t get to choose… 14 year-long standard courses
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): EducationUSA Opportunity student scholarship. US Department of State scholarshio to attend month-long EducationUSA Academy. Highest Cambridge FCE score in my country in 2015.

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):

  • Model UN 3 years, first authority at a conference from my school (2 years)
  • Debate 3 years, a few awards
  • Public Speaking 2 years
  • EducationUSA College Club member 1 year

Job/Work Experience:

  • Paid SAT tutor 1 year

Volunteer/Community service:

  • Young Volunteer Director at local organization that raises funds to send over 90 kids from disadvantaged communities to private high schools, very involved all 4 years

Summer Activities:
not during summer here but

  • EducationUSA Academy at CU Boulder (July 2018)
  • Month long English immersion program at Canadian high school

Essays (rating 1-10, details):

  • Common App: I guess 9/10. It talked about a situation from my background that is very specific to me and used it to describe a lot about my background and personality. Didn’t talk about any achievements/interests thoigh. It was also written in a very unique and original way.
  • For the 250-word supplements, I worked really hard on them. One was about the multicultural community at the EducationUSA program (good but not very memorable I guess, 8/10) and the other one I was very proud of, it described an issue that affected me personally, and then I talked about how it was meaningful to my community and connected it to my country’s history. It was quite emotional so I don’t know how they might have taken it but I got all positive feedback on it, 9/10
  • Why Yale: 9/10 I tried to incorporate Yale’s “and” marketing strategy and described things that would feel familiar at Yale and make me feel at home and things that would be new and challenging that I was excited about.
  • Why major 8/10, pretty standard, talked about some specifics about the major
  • Short Answers: don’t know how much those matter, but for 3 of them I introduced new things about me that are very meaningful to me and I really liked my answers. The last one was meh.

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

  • I have very good relationships with all my recommenders, two of them have known me for 4+ years and in different contexts at school. However, recommendations like this were new for them so I don’t know how good they were.

Interview: It was good but not outstanding

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Global Affairs
State (if domestic applicant): N/A
Country (if international applicant): Argentina
School Type: private bilingual
Ethnicity: white Latina
Gender: F
Income Bracket: > $30,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, Questbridge, etc.): Country with little representation. Bicultural (my other country is so small it has no representation at all). First generation low-income. I don’t know if they are “hooks” but I have a very unique family profile, lots of challenges.

Reflection

Strengths: SAT scores but that’s average for Yale. Essays. Support from EducationUSA and the US Embassy at my country.
Weaknesses: No SAT II. Low GPA when calculated in 4.0 scale, although it is very high for my country and especially for my school. I did my best with extracuriculars (my school doesn’t offer leadership positions and there are very few options—I participated in all of them)
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: Haven’t heard back from anywhere else yet.

General Comments and why you think you were rejected:
I wasn’t expecting to get in at all but I hoped to get deferred and then most likely rejected in March. I wasn’t ready for rejection this early and now I’m feeling insecure about all my other applications. Yale was absolutely my first choice and the reason why I have wanted to go to the USA for 5 years now, and although I have made a point of falling in love with every school I apply to and I know if I can go to the US I will be happy no matter where, I now realize I haven’t realistically pictured myself anywhere other than Yale. I believe my weaknesses were the reason why I didn’t get in but I don’t really know why I didn’t get deferred, I hope there isn’t any red flag in my application. I’m quite disappointed I have to say. Congratulations to everyone accepted, Yale is truly amazing but I’m sure you know that. To those deferred—it’s not over yet, and it’s not that bad haha. Good luck!

23

[asize=4][acolor=#FFA500]Decision: Deferred [/color][/size]

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): None
ACT (breakdown): 35 ( 33R, 35 E, 36 M, 36 S)
SAT II: Math 2: 800; Chem 770, Physics: 790
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.99
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Valedictoria
AP (place score in parenthesis): Stats (5), Lit (4), Psychology (5), Microecon (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): none
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc BC, APES, AP Comp Gov, AP Chem, Spanish 3, Creative Writing, Public Speaking
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): a lot of international math competition awards; choral music honors award from AMIS

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Job/Work Experience: Waiter and Facebook page manager at a Japanese restaurant
Volunteer/Community service: I had a lot of these
Summer Activities: Research on Heavy Metals in Rivers and lakes in my city
Essays (rating 1-10, details): PS: 7.5/10 - talked about my sexuality and dad but not dwell on the misfortunes , trying to find truth etc
Why Yale - 8
Why major - 9 (talked about cousin dying due to lead poisoning)
Short takes: 7.5 - quirky and different but not super amazing

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: 10 he taught me many classes and I shared my gay stories along with ones about my parents cheating on each other so we bonded through that. i was constantly the best student in his class. taught me english and history and government
Teacher Rec #2: 7 my math teacher. he likes me enough but he has other favorites. i’m good at math but nothing compared to slme others in my school
Counselor Rec: 9- counsellor loves me and basically compiled a bunch of testimonials from other teachers to write the rec letter
Additional Rec: none
Interview: 8.5 (?) interviewer ended with “kit so i can help you with internships and everything”

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: yes
Intended Major: environmental studies / global affairs
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant): vietnam
School Type: international christian school
Ethnicity:asian
Gender: male
Income Bracket:100,000-110,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, Questbridge, etc.): URM, first generation college student

Reflection

Strengths: my activities were strong, a lot of leadership activities. i sent in a singing music portfolio which i asked the choir director or my school to look over. some of those recordings earned me the AMIS Honors Choir award
Weaknesses: i think my essay could have been stronger
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: i got deferred because yale only takes 1 person REA in my country every year and there was another girl who got in
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: none yet

General Comments : Sometimes it’s just hard guys, but keep on going!!! Gluck to all and congrats to those accepted

24

**Decision: Accepted **

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1580 (790 M, 790 R+W)
ACT (breakdown): 35 (36 E, 36 R, 35 M, 32 S)
SAT II: 770 Math II, 760 US History, 750 Biology M
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/340
AP (place score in parenthesis): 9 exams taken, 5’s on 8 & 4 on 1
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Macro/Microeconomics, AP Literature & Composition, AP Spanish V, AP Physics 1, Analytic Geometry & Calculus III, AP Computer Science A, some other elective courses
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Scholastic Gold Medal, National Merit SF, some other awards for writing, debate, and community service that would identify me but are at the national & regional level

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Student Government (3 Year VP), Debate (Captain, Founder), CTSO (State-level leadership), Creative Writing, some smaller clubs
Job/Work Experience: Summer job at my local library
Volunteer/Community service: Started my own volunteer organization
Summer Activities: Summer math camp at MIT, volunteering, playing tennis, creative writing
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 9/10 - My admissions officer wrote that my essays showed my “sparkle” and “open-mindedness”
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: 9/10 - Went through like 2 rounds of edits before perfecting it
Teacher Rec #2: 7/10 - Was pretty good, not completely fawning but gave full support & some new insights
Counselor Rec: I truly have no idea…7 or 8/10? I know she likes me a lot & we know each other pretty well.
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: Really good! I loved my interviewer & we had a really enjoyable conversation.

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Neuroscience or History of Science Medicine and Public Health
State (if domestic applicant): Midwest
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: AA
Gender: F
Income Bracket: 200,000+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, Questbridge, etc.): URM

Reflection

Strengths: Scores, Essays, ECs
Weaknesses: Recommendations probably…didn’t choose the best possible teachers
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I think Inhad a really cohesive narrative, and my essays had a lot of voice
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: So far U-Mich & UW-Madison

General Comments: I’m so excited to (maybe) be a bulldog next fall!! Good luck to everyone who’s still waiting for their decision!