Sorry to hear about the rough time you had in school due to your parents' messy divorce -- that sucks! Your GC should definitely talk about that in their letter.
Have you read Yale's advice to students:
Frequently Asked Questions - Single-Choice Early Action | Yale College Admissions
"Applying Single-Choice Early Action does not increase the likelihood of being admitted to Yale. Historically, the rate of admission among early applicants has been higher than the overall admission rate because many of our strongest candidates, from a wide range of backgrounds and interests, apply early. We therefore offer this advice: Apply for Single-Choice Early Action if you want to receive a decision in mid-December and you are confident of the credentials you will be presenting to the admissions committee early in your senior year. An Early Action applicant must meet the same criteria for admission as an applicant in the regular pool. A thoughtful college search and a careful assessment of your readiness to present a strong application as early as November 1, are key. Candidates who need more time, for whatever reason, will be better served by our Regular Decision process."
In, addition, Jeffrey Brenzel has said this about SCEA accepted students:
Early admit rate rises slightly | Yale Daily News
“Our applicants continue to be an exceptionally talented, highly diverse group of students,” Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeff Brenzel said in an e-mail. “As always, we only accepted students that we were certain we would also accept in the spring."
SCEA is really for students with exceptional GPA's and test scores, recruited athletes, legacy's, URM's, Developmental Cases, Questbridge applicants, or student's who have shown amazing promise at an extracurricular activity.
Although you are a URM, you will be competing with many other URM's in the early round who will have higher GPA's and test scores. If you apply SCEA, there is a high likelihood that you will be deferred. My advice is to not waste your early slot on a reach school, such as Yale. Instead, apply to a broad range of non-binding early schools, such as Georgetown, UChicago, MIT, a State School, etc and apply to Yale RD. In that way, you will hopefully have at least one school in your back pocket come mid-December and still have a shot at Yale in the RD round.
