chance for a FL student?

Colleges & Universities Yale University
1

<p>Background Information;

  • white
  • female
  • from Central FL
  • need a lot of aid, parents make less than $60K a year.</p>

<p>GPA/Rank;

  • 3.95 unweighted GPA
  • 4.59 weighted GPA
  • top 10-15 student out of 275
  • highly rigorous course load with 7 APs by the time I graduate, and all honors courses.
  • Catholic school that sends a few students to Ivies every year.</p>

<p>Test Scores;

  • SAT; 800 CR/720 M/760 W (2280 combined)
  • will be taking SAT IIs in Literature, US History, and Math II</p>

<p>AP Courses;

  • Human Geography (5), US History (4), English Language & Composition (5), Biology, US Government, French Language, English Literature</p>

<p>Extracurriculars;

  • Highly involved member of the school Drama Club, commit 20 hours to it every week - have held leadership roles such as Stage Manager and Head of Publicity. Won Best Stagehand Award in 2009 and received a Superior Tech Award at the 2008-2009 District V Florida Thespians Competition.
  • Founded/preside over a social justice club called the Justice League, which strives to inform high school students of global issues and how they can help. Have organized charity drives, letter writing campaigns, and a charity concert for the club.
  • Member of National Honors Society, English Honors Society, and Rho Kappa (Social Studies) Honors Society.
  • President of the French Honors Society
  • Member of Peer Ministry retreat group - participated in planning retreats for underclassmen, set up skits & activities to engage them in their faith, act as a Peer Ministry Group Leader.
  • 75+ hours of community service at the local hospital
  • 30+ hours of community service as an office assistant at my local parish
  • Dedicate time making blankets for Project Linus, a charity that gives blankets to terminally ill, abused, and/or needy children.</p>

<p>Awards/Honors;

  • National Merit Semi-Finalist
  • AP Scholar
  • Highest Honors 2006-present</p>

<p>Recommendations;

  • strong, from my APUSH teacher (a class I excelled in) and my drama director/theatre teacher, who I am very close to.</p>

<p>Essays;

  • hopefully will set me apart from the crowd - one is about the effect of laughter and comedy on my life and my philosophies about life. The other details the effect that moving from New Jersey to Florida at the age of 15 had on me, my goals, and my priorities.</p>

<p>Additional Information;

  • Does anyone know if being from outside the Northeast has any effect whatsoever on admissions? Does it help, or hurt, or does it have no effect at all?</p>

<p>Thanks for taking the time to look at this (: I’ll try to chance back other people, too, but my show starts in two weeks and rehearsal is crazy right now! I’ll do my best, though (: (: (:</p>

2

<p>Oh, I forgot - I’m also applying to Princeton, Georgetown, Lafayette, GWU, and Loyola Maryland.</p>

<p>Yale is my number 1 choice, though (:</p>

3

<p>Anyone?</p>

<p>…Bueller?</p>

4

<p>Your chances probably are SLIGHTLY improved as an applicant from Central Florida compared with central Jersey, but it would be very hard to quantify that… just do your best with the resources and history you have. The odds for almost anyone are too low to count on getting in, so you are looking at the difference between, maybe a 7% chance and a 9% chance (theoretically). Not likely to make a difference in YOUR decisions or actions, right?</p>

<p>There’s no reason for you not to apply – some kids do get in to Yale from Central FL with scores and GPAs like yours. The best guide to reasonable expectations is probably your school’s Naviance results, or just ask the guidance office for some info on previous years’ Ivy applicants and their results. </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

5

<p>That sounds about what I thought - that it might have a small effect, but definitely not a major one. Thanks for the advice!</p>

6

<p>are you doing SCEA?</p>

7

<p>No, I’m applying RD. I had to apply Early Action to one of my safeties to get the maximum amount of merit scholarships.</p>

<p>Is that a bad thing?</p>

8

<p>If you need a lot of (merit) aid, maybe you should be considering applying to Emory, Vanderbilt, U of Rochester, Brandeis, Smith…not an exhaustive list, just off the top of my head thinking of places that academically are more like Yale/Princeton/Georgetown, but do sometimes offer significant merit aid. Also, considering your parents financial situation, you should apply to Stanford and Harvard. If you get in, their financial aid will be excellent. Are you not even applying to UF?</p>

9

<p>I’m not applying to UF - I want a small school, UF is gigantic and I feel like I would get lost there. Plus, my parents aren’t really supportive of going to an in-state school, even if it’s a great one like UF. I want to go away and experience new things.</p>