jamescollege

Hello everybody thanks for reading:

Looking at everybody's credentials, I am feeling at times a little bit intimidated, but I wanted to know what everybody thought of my chances of getting into Yale.

School: Top notch Connecticut public high school that sent two kids to Yale last year and seven the year before that.
GPA: 3.97 UW; 4.42 W; currently fourth in my class
SAT I: 2060 first time w/out studying, in recent practice tests I have been getting 2180, but I am retaking in October.
Course load: Have taken five honors classes throughout high school and two APs last year, 5 on Biology and 5 on Calculus AB. This year, for APs I'm taking Calculus BC, Physics B, Micro and Macroeconomics, and AP French.

Recommendations: One good teacher rec, one really great one. Great counselor rec as well.

Essay: about Gaelic Football, an Irish cultural sport that I have been playing since I was 7.

ECs:
-President of class junior and senior year
-President of select choir in school. This choir is good... we have sung at Woolsey Hall and with the Yale Whiffenpoofs
-Parliamentarian of National Honor Society senior year
-Member of French Honor Society
-Mission trip to Oaxaca, Mexico for food distribution and building schools
-About 350 hours of community service throughout high school
-Sang with Eastern Connecticut State University Concert Chorale at Carnegie Hall
-Singer and bassist in rock band since freshman year. Play at many community events and headlined town fireworks in front of 6,000 people
-Three years of Varsity Soccer
-Four years of Varsity hockey, captain senior year
-Second degree black belt in Tae Kwon-Do
-Captain of Gaelic Football team for the past eight years
-Founded small neighborhood business with friends offering landscaping services and snow removal.
-Internship at engineering company summer before senior year
-Involvement in Action Against Hunger senior year

Hook: My mom graduated from the Yale Graduate School of Nursing


Also, please chance me for these other schools I'd like to attend:

UPenn, Wharton School
Stanford
Dartmouth
Brown
Johns Hopkins
Tufts
Boston University
UConn honors
Northeastern
Villanova

ealdi94

In the same boat as you..very similar stats but your ECs are stronger than mine. Just curious, which high school do you go to?

gibby

You are a competitive applicant, that's all that can be said. So much of the applications process depends on your teacher recommendations and essays and how they stack up against all other students who are applying SCEA to Yale. Provided you apply to a broad range of colleges -- reach, target and safety -- with your stats, you WILL end up someplace great. Whether it is Yale or not, no one can say. Best of luck to you in the admissions process!

jamescollege

Thank you Gibby!

jamescollege

bumpppppppppppppppp

gibby

Why? You didn't take my word for it?

Okay, maybe you'll listen to Northstarmom, with over 19,000 posts on CC. Although she is talking about Harvard, it can also apply to Yale: Calculate your chances for admission to Harvard?

Because I'm a Harvard alum and have been an alum interviewer, I have been asked many times to estimate individual CC members' chances, something that I do NOT do. However, as my holiday gift to everyone, I'm posting this so you can estimate your own chances.

Your chances of admission: about 7 in 100 (based on Harvard's acceptance rate this year). If you're an international applicant, your chances probably are less than that particularly if you come from a country like China, Korea or India, which has many outstanding students who apply to Harvard. Your chances probably are better than 7 in 100 if you come from a country that has few applicants to Harvard. You would know better than I would what those countries are. As is the case for everyone except probably the qualified offspring of multimillionaire donors, Harvard still is a longshot. Note: It's also a longshot for legacies. Many excellent legacies are rejected. I even know URM legacies who have been rejected.

If you have posted a chances thread on CC or have asked CC members to read your essays, your chances of admission to Harvard are probably less than 1 in 100 because your behavior here indicates you lack the confidence and critical thinking skills that Harvard seeks. This is true even if someone on CC predicted you'd easily be accepted or said that your essay was amazing.

If you've chosen your ECs and summer activities by selecting things that you think will impress Harvard, your chances of admission are probably less than 1 in 500. Harvard wants students who follow their own passions, not students who try to fit themselves into a Harvard box or whose only passion is getting a Harvard admission.

If you've ever asked CC members what activities you should participate in so you can impress Harvard or other colleges, your chances of admission are probably 1 in 1,000. You lack the initiative, confidence, creativity, passion and critical thinking skills that impress Harvard admissions officers.

If you are taking notes on this post and while calculating your Harvard chances, you can stop calculating now. Your chances of admission are 1 in a million.