Hi, I come from a top private school in NYC and I am an URM with extremely good extra curriculars (captain of debate team, founder of TED conference, founder of diversity organization, professional actor & more). I have a B from freshman year, a B+ from sophomore year, and a B & B+ (in honors class) from junior year. The rest are A’s and A-s in many honors classes. With a rec from a very prominent senator. Do I have a chance of getting into Yale?
Standardized test scores?
I’m awaiting my ACT score still
Hmmm…wonder who that could be.
Yale is a reach for everyone and you aren’t providing much information. The rec from a senator is only going to help if they know you and can add information to your application about who you are. I would not worry as a few Bs won’t disqualify your application.
DS got into Yale with less than a 4.0.
I would caution against a generic LoR from a prominent senator. It might have the opposite effect from what’s intended if it’s viewed as insincere.
Too many times I see students overweight the importance of EC’s. Unless you are a national level winner/finalist in some type of well known contest or unless you are an athletic (or possibly musical or artistic) recruit, EC’s are pretty far down the list of importance by themselves. EC’s are used to round out the story of who you are, and gives the school an idea of your energy level, ability to commit, perseverance, leadership and other desirable characteristics. Looking at your list, I would say it is pretty typical of the list competitive candidates for Yale would have. What will be critical is how your EC’s tie in with the essays and rec’s that you will submit, and to a much lesser extent, how you can use them to create a memorable interview.
On the Senator’s recommendation, if it is a “generic” this candidate is smart, ambitious and would be a great asset to your school type recommendation, it won’t be of much help. It needs to be specific with personal knowledge of facts and circumstances that back up the compliments. https://admissions.yale.edu/supplementary#recs Yale is really looking for 2 great teacher recommendations https://admissions.yale.edu/instructions#recs.
Yale is a reach for anyone. However, you will not even be in the “game” if you do not meet a basic threshold of academic achievement as measured by your GPA/class rank, rigor of coursework and standardized test scores. https://admissions.yale.edu/what-yale-looks-for As far as your B’s are concerned, 95% of Yale freshmen in the Class of 2020 were ranked in the top 10% of their class. I would hazard a guess that a vast majority of those were in the top 5%. The 25th to 75th percentile for ACT scores is 32-35.
Finally as a URM, you will get a boost. How much is a big question. I believe that the admissions counselors are pretty savvy these days and distinguish between URM’s. Are you first generation, likely family income level based on zip code or other indicia in application, immigrant, etc… all factor in.
Good luck.
This. Right here.
Grades and test scores rule.
I have to respectfully disagree, otherwise the AO job would be easy peasy. I agree that ECs are over-rated, but I think that LoRs are carefully read by AOs, especially if they have previous experience at the HS.
DS had okay grades and great scores, but so do thousands of kids who are not accepted. There’s no way to prove it, but I am convinced that he was accepted based on his LoRs, including the one from the GC. His essays were probably a factor, but the opinions of professionals who had watched him for four years, IMO, weighed heavily in his favor.