Chances of getting the fat envelope?

CorsicanUpstart · July 19, 2006, 10:52am

I was wondering what chances you guys thought I had for getting into Yale.

Jewish Male

WGPA: 96 (I’ve never been given it out of 4.0, and since it’s weighted, I don’t know you’d go about converting it, since it doesn’t seem like it can always be proportional)

SAT: R = 720; M = 710; W = 720

APs: English Lang & Comp: 5; US History: 4

Classes Taken: 5 Honors, 4 AP (6 more APs planned for Senior year)

Class Rank: Not given at my school, but I’d say almost certainly the top 10%, in a class of about 400

Awards:

<pre><code> National Latin Exam – Gold Medal (Perfect Paper)
National Latin Exam – Silver Medal
Excellence in Latin I
Excellence in Latin II
Excellence in Honors Chem
Excellence in Business Dynamics
Excellence in Design and Draw for Production
Junior Science Award
Induction into Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica (Spanish honor society)
</code></pre>

ECs:

<pre><code> Campus Congress: 10, 11, 12
School Newspaper: 11, 12
NHS: 12
School Local Cable Station: 12
</code></pre>

Now I know my ECs are weak, but I did an interview in New Haven and talked with my interviewer for a good deal of the time about my ECs, and that I was passionate about the things I did. In Campus Congress in 10th grade I changed school policy to get sophomores’ study halls converted to free periods at the beginning of the year, instead of halfway through, as was originally the case. In junior year I worked on a committee with faculty and administrators that came up with ideas to promote academic honesty at my school, and our ideas are going to go into effect next year. The reason I’m mentioning this is because, while I didn’t have many ECs, I think I did do a good deal of extra work in the activities that I was in. And I’m going to make sure to talk about that in my application.

And in terms of the SATs, I know they’re decent, but kinda on the low side, so I am retaking them in the fall. And I haven’t taken SAT IIs, yet… I’ll be doing those in the fall also.

So what do you think? Do I have a chance? And should I apply EA?

kwijiborjt · July 19, 2006, 8:45pm

Yeah, I PMed you.

Your SATs are on the low side for yale, but they’re definitely within Yale’s range. Improving them can’t hurt, but they’re already pretty good.

How are you going to take SAT IIs and the SAT I in the fall? Are you doing 3 SAT IIs in october and the SAT I in november? Because you’ll have to if you want to get your scores in time to apply EA (the last acceptable date is November). If you want time to work on your SATs, i’d suggest applying regular decision.

Def. talk about all the CCong stuff you do, and run against me for LGR in the fall! At least one of us should get it!

And i think a 96 is a 4.1 on the 4.0 scale, but as we both go to a school that doesn’t use that scale, i’m not really sure. You’re definitely in the top 10%, but probably not in the top 5%. You’re probably between 5% and 8% for our school. Our class is closer to 325, and there are definitely 16 people with averages above 96. Still, you’re average is right in the group of acceptances on naviance, so good luck with that!

And way to go on your APs! Are you taking one of the econ courses next year (I can’t figure out how else you could take 6 APs… five standard academics… and it’s not like you’re into art… so i figure you must be taking econ).

Anyway, good luck to you! You KNOW that Mr. N. will apply to Yale EA, and he has a WAY better shot than either one of us… underdogs unite!

CorsicanUpstart · July 19, 2006, 9:29pm

Hey, it’s good to see someone I know in real life on one of these boards.

Yeah, I was planning on taking 3 SAT IIs in October and retaking the SAT I in November. If I do worse on the SAT IIs than I’d like to I may apply RD instead, but it seems like the ED people have better luck getting in. That’s according to Naviance at least, and the sample set is pretty small, but still.

Yup, it’s too bad I didn’t make speaker, but I do plan on running for LGR. It should be a good fight.

For the 6 APs, yeah, I’m taking all the usual plus Econ. It might be kind of grueling, but hopefully it’ll pay off.

By the way, I talked to our next speaker and he says he’s probably going to do Princeton early. So hopefully that means there’ll be one more slot for one of us to get.

Anyway, I’m glad you feel like I might have a chance (and given the unpredictibility of those ED and RD threads, that’s the most someone can really have). So hopefully there will be some room for us “underdogs” after all…

CorsicanUpstart · July 21, 2006, 6:49pm

Okay, I made a general [chances</a> thread](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=216208]chances”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=216208) on the main chances forum (I’m a newbie to this board, so I can’t help if I start out by asking all the newbie-style questions…). Anyway, I got a few responses telling me that Yale would be an “impossible reach.”

The situation doesn’t seem quite that bleak to me. I know it’d be tough, maybe even very tough, but I think I’ve got at least a chance for New Haven. Er… right?

BTW, for ECs I realized that I can also add having done Kung Fu in 9th and 10th grade. (I could possibly say 11th, but I most likely won’t, because I wasn’t really practicing it very much at that point)

Chances of getting the fat envelope?

CONNECT WITH US