This is the official thread for those applying EA to Yale University.
List your unweighted GPA, any SAT /ACT scores, and ECs. What majors are you going into?
Ask your questions, the CC community is here to help!
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My D24 is applying REA to Yale for Ethics, Politics & Economic:
School does not offer AP but has honors. Senior year highest rigor with Calc AB and Honors Bio, US Gov, Latin 5, Advanced English, Choir and Dance classes
94/100 Weighted GPA
36 ACT
ECs
Student Gov (class pres 10th grade), Honor Society VP 11th
-Dance 9-12
-Choir 9-12
-Theatre 9-12- Tech Crew 9&10, cast 11-12
-School Involvement- Tour Guide, Diversity Counsel Member, Chosen to attend Independant school diversity summit.
-Research at Howard University on a very interesting socio economic issue senior year.
- Started podcast where she interviews women in finance and economics about their career paths
-Works at local ice cream shop 11 & 12
We are hoping that her leadership, involvement and curiosity are enough to make up for a lowish A GPA and modeate rigor at a top Independant girls school with very good overall college placement.
(Edited by moderator)
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Good luck to everyone applying early to Yale!
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Hi all! 16F applying REA for American Studies.
4.0 UW/4.6 W, 8 5’s in APs, 1590 SAT and 36 ACT
Taking 7 APs senior year + dual enrolling Multivariable Calc
Awards:
FBLA Journalism Natl. Winner '23, Business Communications State Winner '22,
3rd in state professional journalism competition for an article series I wrote in the local paper,
some top 5 placements in national essay contests and debate tournament wins
ECs:
-EIC of school newspaper, lead 31 staff members, founded digital pub with 50k+ page views, raised $1000 for Ukrainian Press
-EIC of my state’s first state-wide youth lit mag, dedicated to Appalachian culture etc. 500+ submissions to 3 issues found in 5 libraries
-Freelance Journalism; 20+ articles published in local paper, Buzzfeed, Huff Post
-Intern for national constitutional advocacy group: work directly under national director to edit/write op-eds, successfully lobbied my local rep to co-sponsor a constitutional amendment
-FBLA National Social Media Ambassador and Chapter VP
-President of school peer mentorship program
-Varsity PF Debater
-Associate principal cellist in local university orchestra, concert master in local cello orchestra,
-Varsity Tennis
-Free summer program at Duke to study shape topology and number theory, presented research to faculty
-Original narratology research
I’m super apprehensive but I’m working on connecting my journalism to my major interests in my essays! Nothing to do now but proofread and wait I guess 
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Hi everyone. Question on the common app letters of reco. Yale under the common app allows for a counselor and two teachers. My kiddo would like to add a third one (our Assemblymember for whom she interned). She went to invite other recommender (there’s a widget that exists) but looks like she can’t add additional recommenders. User error or is it a strict Yale thing. My S21 had three teachers set up when he applied back then and don’t recall if each college had a different max number. Thx!
Every applicant would be wise to listen and pay attention to the podcasts that the Yale AO provides. Inside the Yale Admissions Office Podcast | Yale College Undergraduate Admissions. @MommaLue, note the podcast on LoR’s and supplemental LoR’s.
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thanks - DD now has and they clear up a lot of questions!
I think you have to submit the third rec via Yale’s website, not the common app. They have a whole page dedicated to supplementary materials, which this would fall under.
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So DD has now submitted her application incl supplementary materials portfolio - school still to finish their part though; anyone else def going EA? DD is international, with quite a big spike in her profile which may work for or against her i guess
Yes, S24 is working on all his supplemental essays and I think he is actually going to make it.
The Yale Admissions Podcast made it clear they admit both some very spikey kids and some not-so-spikey kids. That is pretty much the answer I have seen AOs at all the famous not-tech-specific holistic review colleges give, that their admit classes are mixes of both.
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Anecdotally, the vast majority of my S’s (2021) friend group were not single massive spike kids. They were all highly accomplished in multiple areas (academic and nonacademic) with varied interests that they took beyond just a participant’s level. The two interviewees I had that got in last year were both tech/CS savvy but applied their tech skills to projects related to health and social science in ways that benefited the local community (btw, they were in the same HS, one got in SCEA the other RD). In the podcast, one of the things that the AO’s talk about is taking advantage of and thriving in a liberal arts environment. I think that is code for being multifaceted, and showing the ability to apply an interdisciplinary approach to various projects/problems is a great indicia of that.
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Thanks - yes her academics are strong - but we consider this a v long shot so all good in any event!
Yeah, those themes came through so strongly I would suggest that amount of emphasis is a bit of distinguishing factor for Yale. I definitely do not think that means your activities have to take a certain shape, such that a spikey shape is wrong for Yale. But I think the way you think about what all that might mean for you going forward can be a more or less Yale-type way of thinking.
And since they have a nice searchable transcript, why not add some actual material?
On spikes generally:
[Hannah] All right, tip number four, I think this is our last tip here. Don’t make any decisions about what you do in high school based on how it’s going to look on your college application. I think this sort of sums up everything we’ve already been saying. But we get most excited when we see genuine interest and excitement and commitment. Not when we see a particular formula or collection of activities.
[Mark] Yeah, and this relates to something that we actually got a listener email about, which is– it’s a good question, is about, do you need to have a spike in your application? And this is– what’s interesting is this is not a term that I had heard before. But it sounds like it’s pretty common out there among students who are talking to each other. So, Hannah, can you like– what’s the concept of a spike?
[Hannah] Yeah, so the idea is that you could either be well-rounded, or you could be pointy in your activities. So if you’re well-rounded, you do a lot of different varied things. And if you’re pointy or you have a spike, then you have one thing that you’re really, really, really good at.
[Mark] Yeah, and I, over the years, have gotten tons of questions from students, saying, do you prefer well-rounded students, or pointy students?
[Hannah] Right. Yeah.
[Mark] And my answer is, yes. All kinds.
[Hannah] Yes.
[Mark] And it’s interesting, because I know that this actually is a line that admissions officers have used over the years, where they explain that what they’re looking for is a well-rounded student body, not necessarily well-rounded students and I can understand where that’s coming from, but I think it’s much too dismissive of the well-rounded student, who maybe isn’t particularly spiky in one area. So I think people hear that and say, oh I’ve got to be spiky so that my spike is going to join all the other spikes and then together–
[Reed] Right.
[Mark] We’ll be this big spiky wheel or something, I don’t know.
[Hannah] Yeah, like whatever you do, that’s what you should do. I mean, if you happen to be the kind of person who wants to pursue a lot of varied things, if you’re a little bit of a jack of all trades, that’s great. Do that. And if you have this one clear passion, or spike, that you’re exceptionally good at, then do that. But one is not better than the other.
[Mark] And we see students go in the wrong direction both ways, right? We see students who are passionate with a capital P about something, but they think that they need to have a bunch of other stuff in their applications.
[Hannah] Right, yeah.
[Mark] So they’re just participants and involved, but it doesn’t mean much for us. And we also see students who really would love to be pursuing really disparate interests and contributing a lot different ways. They say, oh, I’ve got to have a spike. And so I need to abandon these things that I care about to double or triple down on this one thing. And no, you don’t need to do that at all.
[Hannah] Don’t– just don’t make these decisions based on how it’s going to look on your resume or on your college application. Make them based on how you actually want to be spending your time.
[Reed] Yes, there is a whole spectrum of activity, from the student who does it, all the student who does one thing. And when you get to college, we are not going to expect the student who does one thing to suddenly become a jack of all trades. And we’re not going to expect the student who loves doing it all to suddenly focus in on their extracurricular activities in college. You’re eventually going to have to select a major or majors. You’re not going to have to focus down your activities to one.
[Hannah] Yeah.
On different approaches at different colleges:
[Kieth] Listen, we are patient and we understand the pressure, but we want you to know that more isn’t always better. And Hannah talked about it too– best isn’t automatically better. A grade point average that is 0.000004 higher than your closest academic rival doesn’t mean that, in our eyes, you’re a stronger scholar. And the same with– unique isn’t always better, especially in terms of activities, accomplishments, even ways of thinking or expressing yourself.
Unique can be interesting and for some students, where that uniqueness is natural, it might make us think about how this student can add a different kind of flavor or experience point of view to the undergraduate experience, but it’s almost never a good idea to strain to be unique.
[Mark] Mm-hmm. Yeah. So in many ways, our work at hand is, I think, narrower and less ambitious than what people imagine.
[Hannah] Mm-hmm.
[Mark] Our job is not to render judgment on your eternal soul, dividing the sheep from the goats. We’re not even trying to name winners and losers in some big race. We are trying to create a shared experience for four years among a relatively small group of undergraduate students and I think, if you refocus what the task at hand for admissions officers is, it can help you think about what kind of things would stand out for that sort of endeavor, as opposed to something that might seem a little bit more lofty or ambitious.
[Kieth] I’ll just say that students who focus on introducing themselves just as they are tend to stand out a bit more than many who go to great lengths to try and showcase what they or others think college admissions officers want to see.
[Mark] Mm-hmm.
[Kieth] And we know this is all stressful. And we would feel the stress 100 times greater if we thought that our not being able to admit all applicants to Yale meant that they would not be able to go to any other great college–
[Mark] Absolutely–
[Hannah] Right.
[Kieth] –or college at all.
[Hannah] So probably every selective college with a strong residential community might try to optimize for the same things that we’re talking about, but at its core, these are going to mean different things at different colleges. So a student that we feel would add a lot and take a lot from Yale might not add as much or take away as much from another college. And our work is very specific to the particular contours and features of the place that we work.
[Mark] Right. Hannah and I have both worked exclusively at Yale, so we consider ourselves experts on the Yale undergraduate experience.
[Hannah] Yes.
[Mark] And our admissions work has been closely tied to that. Keith, you’ve worked at a few different places, so can you give us a sense of how those unique features of particular colleges can play out in the committee process?
[Kieth] What I’ve noticed at– being at wonderful places with– as Hannah suggested, that some of the same features are prized, but in different ways than many students, and parents, and other observers may think. One thing for sure is that most admissions offices and– on behalf of the college and faculty, can’t imagine not having an undergraduate population that’s diverse in every way you can think about– that we prized some qualities of students, not just their achievements– their curiosity, their willingness to engage– which doesn’t mean that you have to be an extrovert.
But I have noticed that different schools may have different personalities or stress different characteristics, which– students may be drawn to that, and quite rightly. There are specific programs sometimes that students even mention in their applications; it suggests that they understand the environment and personality of a place and they know not only is the major offered, but the activities, the research, and so on.
And this may apply to extracurricular activities, the– even the environment, the proximity to green trees, water, and so on. I think we would all prefer that students try their best to understand how they may thrive in these places. We try very hard not to anticipate what is best for students, but we do take into account, when they introduce themselves to us, whether or not for– I’ll use Yale as an example here– someone is so eager to take it accounting, and marketing, and so on, and study business at the undergraduate level, and then are shocked to find out that’s not the nature of the place.
And finally on fit as Yale sees it:
[Mark] But let’s get back to this question of, when we are reading application after application, what stands out?
[Hannah] Yeah. So I think a lot of the stuff that Keith was talking about can be summed up very neatly in this idea of fit. And that’s something that you will hear admissions officers talk about all the time. So let’s unpack that a little bit, and let’s just start with the obvious. So what does it mean to be a good academic fit for Yale? There are a couple of ways to demonstrate to this to us, but like Keith was saying, not having this narrow, pre-professional focus, and instead having an understanding of multidisciplinary study and this idea of a liberal arts education that doesn’t box you into one area during college– that’s a good start, in terms of understanding why you might want to study at Yale in particular. By the way Mark, and I understand that we’re sort of mired in these terms in our day-to-day life. And it’s not the case that every successful applicant would be able to articulate that their approach aligns with the liberal arts philosophy–
[Mark] Mm-hmm.
[Hannah] –or anything like that. It’s more often that we sniff that sort of thing out from cues in essays and teacher recommendations, the way the student writes about their own interests, the way the teachers write about their approach in the classroom. So all of this is to say, you don’t have to necessarily be able to name these things in order to demonstrate to us that you fall into these categories.
[Mark] So academic fit is obviously a critical component of this, but there’s other elements of fit as well. One of them is what I just like to call playing well with others.
[Hannah] Yes.
[Mark] A student who’s a good fit for Yale is someone who is interested in engaging with and learning from others. That’s a huge part of our undergraduate experience– not the case at every college, university– definitely the case at Yale. That student also needs to be interested in sharing their own experiences.
[Hannah] Mm-hmm.
[Mark] And so a student’s willingness to dig in and reveal themselves in an application can help us get a sense of, OK, this student is open to sharing where they’re coming from as well. And then finally, the sense that they’re collaborative, as opposed to competitive– you need to have the baseline sense that the people around me are great resources and they’re people I want to collaborate with, as opposed to just people I can jump over and surpass in the course of my undergraduate career.
[Hannah] Another way this can sometimes play out is an ambition and excitement for research or other learning experiences outside of the classroom. Yale is a place that is very, very rich in sort of resources. And it’s a place that really rewards initiative, and kind of requires initiative for you to get the most out of living and learning here. There are a lot of opportunities at Yale that rely on a continuous stream of innovative, student-generated ideas. So if you want to come to a place that your innovation can have room to grow and to thrive, this is a pretty good place for that.
[Mark] Yeah. Sometimes– and I’ll say this is rare– but sometimes a fit aligns around something very specific to Yale. And this might be that a student is passionate about a particular type of research a Yale professor does or wants to work with a particular collection that we have. And I want to make clear, that’s not the same as just googling something for Yale, saying, oh, I think I want to major in computer science. Let me google Yale computer science. And then you write in your application, I want to study with Professor Such-and-Such. She’s fabulous.
[Hannah] Right.
[Mark] It’s much more common actually that we get a sense of good fit not for something super specific, but actually because the student is saying, I don’t really have my academic path planned out. Yale happens to be really great for that kind of student as well. So even though sometimes there is a sort of alignment of the stars, and we say, oh my gosh, yes, this specific thing that we have this student is perfect for, more often it’s a more general sense of this student’s approach to undergraduate learning seems like it’s going to be a good fit for all the different places that they could go over the course of their four years.
Hi all! I think we’ve settled on “no”, but curious on others thoughts on submitting an additional letter of recommendation. We have read the website discouraging and listened to all their Podcasts. I respect their time and logic in discouraging, however, given the anonymity of the LOR it is difficult to really know if all sides were represented. The additional recommender would be someone they have known for 12 years in a coach/boss setting. I suspect all will touch on strong character, “change the classroom”, and leadership, but it would be in a different setting. We have heard this individual say he’s never met another kid like this in his career, but also want to err on the side of not annoying AO’s at all costs. FWIW, no supplements or writing in additional info section. Thoughts?
The circumstance under which I would consider sending a supplemental LoR is if
- The applicant is not close to the teachers writing the LoR’s (not confident that they will submit something that is not generic) and
- The third writer has a close relationship with the applicant and can point to specific instances of applicant accomplishments that demonstrate particular desirable traits, such as leadership, perseverance, empathy, intellectual curiosity.
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Thank you so much for your insight. We suspect college counselor may be lackluster across the board for all seniors. I definitely think #2 would be satisfied, but for some reason I still fear annoying them haha! I guess they did their part well in steering people off.
Yeah I would only submit an extra if both conditions existed. GC recommendations are not going to be as important to the AO’s as the teacher LoR’s. They realize that GC’s, especially for large publics, are rarely in a position or have the time to write incisive reports.
Thanks again, we will not send, no concerns on teachers so both are not satisfied. Glad to put this to rest, really appreciate the guidance.
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Just to share my $0.02 about the 3rd reference. Before Covid, my family attended an info session in New Haven. We were told, if you submit a 3rd reference
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it should not be just another teacher repeating what the first 2 will say;
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examples, a supervisor for a (summer) research project; a coach etc. Someone with a different perspective.
Also, I have heard and read quite a few times, don’t try to get a local politician’s reference (just because he/she is a known politician). (i.e., It should be someone who knows the student well and can write about it in a meaningful and personal way.)
I often tell people, it’s what the recommender’s going to write that matters more (than the recommender’s title).
Just my $0.02. Hope that helps.
D.
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