I believe I should post my info for all future applicants.
Current School: University of Maryland University College
Entering as: Sophomore
High School GPA: 3.8 W
College GPA: 4.0
SAT/ACT Scores: 33 (35E, 34M, 33R, 30S, 33W, 11Essay)
SAT II Scores: Didn’t submit
Significant ECs: Internship with my local newspaper. I had no others except that I exercise and teach myself Japanese.
Hooks: Military dependent living overseas (don’t know if that counts)
US/Intl: US
Applied to: Yale, Brown, UPenn, UCB, UCLA, UCSD, Reed, Davidson, Cornell, Stanford, Duke
Accepted: Brown, Upenn, UCB, UCSD, Reed, Davidson, Yale!
Waitlisted:
Rejected: UCLA, Cornell, Stanford, Duke
Attending: Yale
Comments: My stats are proof that essays matter. A lot. I began drafting them in December, and I submitted a little before midnight before the deadline. For Yale’s big essay I went through 8 ideas in 22 drafts. I worked on them everyday. Then I would print them out, and edit them during class. I did the same thing for my CommonApp essay and for all of the smaller supplemental essays.
My only advice are the phrases you are probably tired of seeing. Be honest. Be yourself. I cannot stress it enough. I talked about Super Smash Bros in my essay. I talked about Oatmeal and Chess - stuff that may seem immature or petty in the eyes of a Yale admissions officer. It’s very hard to get over that “Yale” factor and just speak honestly. What matters to you - it needs to show through your writing.
But in some way, you also need to demonstrate your interest in Yale. My last two paragraphs of my main essay were dedicated to highlighting aspects of Yale that synced with my interests. For instance, I am very interested in Japan’s economic and political structure. Koichi Hamada is one of the architects of abenomics, and he is at Yale!
I also talked about how I know what I want to study but am unsure of how I want to apply it. I knew Yale’s extra curricular offerings would be the best to direct me towards a great outlet. I, of course, got very specific, and I felt that the entirety of my package fit together, as everything showed a new facet of my character but unified into a cohesive, themed whole.
I’d rather not post my essays on here; though, I doubt anyone would seriously try and use them (trust me, it wouldn’t work out if you did).
As for the CommonApp, do you not badmouth your current school. It makes you sound snotty if you do.
Seriously, think about it.
If you’re applying from another elite institution, it’s going to be very hard to sound convincing: “Oh, well, Princeton just doesn’t have the border focus that I want.”
“Brown doesn’t have the extracurricular offerings.” (I doubt either of these are true; they are simply to reveal an exaggerated point).
You get the idea.
Anyway, I talked about how I loved my school; I really, really appreciated all that it had given me. But I milked it dry in terms of academics. My school has no extracurriculars, honestly. My school only has like 8 majors, none of which I wanted to pursue.
I didn’t really talk about it’s limitations, though; I talked about how I was grateful to get the chance to go there, to mature from my time there, to learn and hope to continue to learn at Yale.
My best advice is to work at it. Go through all of the old transfer forums, for I learned a lot from past ones such as:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/1484614-yale-transfer-fall-2013-p5.html
Post #72
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/1484614-yale-transfer-fall-2013-p4.html
Post #56
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/1515964-official-fall-2014-yale-transfer-thread-p4.html
Post #55 (One of the best)
Also, comb through other transfer forums, not just Yale’s.
Best of luck all! This process has been…fun? No. Nerve-wracking? Yes. But definitely worth it!
If you’re having any doubts about your chances - just go for it! The worst they can say is no (and we’re keeping the application fee). I was originally hesitant about applying because acceptance rates hovered around 2%; but Yale was my dream, and I never would’ve lived down not trying.
Hope to see some of you soon!
Thank you CC!