Possible recruitable water polo player (would love to at least play on a school’s club team)
Majoring in Music (Violin), English (playwriting), or Drama
4.0 unweighted GPA
Top of class (160ish total)
Haven’t taken ACT or SAT yet
By graduation will have taken 12 APs (so far have received one 4 in Environmental Science where I was taught literally nothing)
Awards: Five local playwriting/creative writing awards with one - 10-minute play performed by professionals, Freshman Scholar - Athlete, currently writing a full-length play to be performed
Extracurriculars: water polo (club team going to Junior Olympics), swim, violin (one of the top 20 in state, top 3 in the western region of my state), lifeguard, swim instructor, babysitter, Student Government sports representative, musical theater actress (receiving many lead roles in both plays and musicals)
Dream School: Yale (Yes, I’ve done my research and it seems a great fit for me. No, I’m not choosing it for the prestige alone.)
Forgot to mention that I have someone who is very well respected by Yale (very high profile and honored multiple times by Yale) who will likely be able to write me a letter of recommendation.
Sorry, should have made myself more clear. I know Yale doesn’t have an interscholastic water polo team (they do have a club team open to any experience levels). I took the PSAT and got a 1400 with no preparation, but I’m not sure that means much in the grand scheme of things owing to the fact that it was years ago. Thanks for your insights!
This classic advice from MIT is very much applicable to Yale as well (based on what they have said in the Inside the Yale Admissions Office Podcast and in other places):
The core of it:
Do well in school. Take tough classes. Interrogate your beliefs and presumptions. Pursue knowledge with dogged precision. Because it is better to be educated and intelligent than not.
Be nice. This cannot be overstated. Don’t be wanton or careless or cruel. Treat those around you with kindness. Help people. Contribute to your community.
Pursue your passion. Find what you love, and do it. Maybe it’s a sport. Maybe it’s an instrument. Maybe it’s research. Maybe it’s being a leader in your community. Math. Baking. Napping. Hopscotch. Whatever it is, spend time on it. Immerse yourself in it. Enjoy it.
It feels to me like you are doing a good job on the first and last things. That leaves the middle thing, being nice. And while it doesn’t lend itself to listing qualifications and activities and such, it is very much just as important when it comes to actually getting admitted to these colleges.
And then of course have a great list of colleges other than Yale, including very carefully chosen Likelies and Targets. That’s really the fun part from my perspective. Identifying Yale as an exciting college is easy. Finding those perfect fits for you among the many possible Likely and Target choices is both more challenging, but possibly also more rewarding, even before you get offers to compare.
So please don’t let liking Yale distract you from really diving into the rest of your college search.
It’s just too early. Be the best you that you can be. No one can truly say Yale is anything more than a long shot. Then again, the landscape may change. If they can’t bring international students, more seats would open.
Keep up your great work.
Ps - they don’t want extra LLRs but here’s what they say if you do - it likely holds little, if any weight:
The vast majority of successful applicants submit only required letters of recommendation. If you feel the need to submit extra information, you may ask one additional recommender to write on your behalf. The most useful extra recommendations provide new information and dimension to a candidacy, rather than repeat the strengths and qualities found elsewhere in the application. The recommender should know you well personally or have mentored you closely in some capacity.
I agree completely. I think that this is a very good blog to read for anyone applying to any highly ranked schools. As I understand it this recommends that you do what is right for you, do it very well, be genuine, and treat people well. This is very good advice whether it gets you into a highly ranked university or not.
And I agree with this also. For one thing OP needs to see how they do when they get into tougher AP classes. Yale is also a reach for pretty nearly every student.
Just as one thing to think about, I am pretty sure that Stanford does have a varsity water polo team (actually two, men’s and woman’s). At least they did when I was there, which was rather a while ago. One time after finishing up our squash game two of us just stood there and watched their goalie practice – he was really impressive on the “how is that even possible” level (I am pretty sure that he was also the goalie for the US Olympic Water Polo team). At the time the pool for water polo was right next to the squash courts.
You have a lot going for you, including a great PSAT score, which will likely translate to a high SAT score with some study/practice. Hopefully, the 4 in AP Env. will be drowned among future 5’s. It’s also great that you truly see this school as a fit for you specifically, but keep the expectations low. Beware of the REA process, which prevents you from applying to any other school early (except a public) and it provides no higher admission chances than the regular admissions process.
Regarding the high profile LOR writer, only do that if the person truly knows you in a meaningful way - i.e. spent a long period together working on something.
I’m going to chime in on this to agree but with an important amendment (IMO) based on first hand knowledge with extended family and friends several times over at 3 different T20 schools in recent years.
Your distinguished alum friend probably can’t help you get in on the first pass (unless you worked directly for/with them as @skieurope said…but could very likely help you get off a waitlist if it comes to that. I’d save the letter for that possibility.
Yale mom of a polo player here. I think you have gotten some great advice here. I think what is good about your early check in is there is still time to develop and make a compelling narrative. Good luck at the JO’s went several times with mine.
You are on a good track as a sophomore, but no different than the tens of thousands other sophomores who aspire to get into Yale or similar schools. Too often students and parents view their prospects through a narrow lens that only perceives the “competition” around them and not the wide and deep pool in and outside the US.
I certainly don’t want to discourage you from your aspirations. Continue to work hard, pursue challenging courses, participate in things you like to do. I think it is counter-productive to create a checklist of things you have to do with the singular purpose of college admissions, the opposite of applying sideways. You also cannot be fixated on 1 college and define success or self worth based on college admissions to 1 or even a narrow set of highly selective colleges. Life is bigger than that.
As everyone has said, Yale is a reach for everyone but you’re on track. I have one concern with what you wrote, i.e. about your Environmental Science grade “we were taught literally nothing”. It’s very important to start taking personal responsibility. Not every teacher/coach will jibe with you personally, but if you want to reach the highest heights in college and beyond, let’s start by reframing this AP experience.
Sure, you got a 4, which is not a 5 but is still pretty solid. You don’t think the teacher taught you enough content. How could you take responsibility and come across to future teachers/professors as someone who won’t be a complainer or someone who looks to place blame on others?
A great insight! I will definitely think a lot about that in my future classrooms. I hate to be a complainer and try to find the learning experience in every possible situation. It is unfortunately true that there was a big problem in that classroom across the board that went past simply a lack of learning (major behavioral and class control issues) and while it’s true that I shouldn’t use that as an excuse it was still a major issue. Honestly, the problem was that our class was combined with non-AP students, which just wasn’t right for pacing. Thankfully that has since been changed! Thank you for that.
