Yale has been my top choice as long as I can remember. Both my parents went, as well as my paternal grandfather. I’m wondering what my realistic chances are. I’m currently a junior at a fairly notable public high school in the same town as a very very famous private high school. I’m also planning to apply to the Yale Drama School post-grad.
College Major: History or European History
Current GPA: 3.95 UW/4.45 W (this will probably be higher as I haven’t completed any of my AP classes yet)
SAT: Haven’t taken it yet but predicting a 1500 or higher based off PSAT scores
ACT: Haven’t taken but shooting for a 36
AP Classes: 7 (by the end of senior year)
U.S. History
English Lang.
French
Euro History
Biology
Calc
Literature
Extracurriculars:
President/Founder of Jewish Student Union (11/12)
Theater Guild (9-12)
Have won several Best Actress awards
Published in several literary magazines
Selective writing fellowship for 3 weeks this past summer
National Honor Society (11/12)
National Honor Society of Music (10-12, expecting leadership next year)
Community theater (age 4+)
Voice lessons (age 6+)
Research projects for my local historical society
Writing for the Substack of my local historical society
Raised $1,000 at age 13 for a non-profit theater community of 1st-gen children
Any stats/advice would be greatly appreciated. I’m planning to REA!
This is great but more recent is what they’ll seek.
You can apply and see.
Best of luck.
When you have an SAT/ACT you’ll have a better idea but no one can realistically say. I believe Yale requires your APs so you’ll need to submit those too. Short of a 5, it could hurt.
How does being a legacy help? Unknown but maybe less than in the past as schools are being pressured to end the process.
Apply and see and ensure you have others for if it doesn’t work out.
Just FYI, don’t count on your parents’/grandfather’s attendance at Yale to count for too much in the admissions decision-making process. According to Section C7 of Yale’s Common Data Set, “Alumni/ae relation” is “considered” in admissions decisions but it is not an “important” or “very important” factor.
You have really nice grades, and hopefully a great test score. A nice set of ECs, but nothing that will make them sit up and take notice. And legacy doesn’t mean what it used to.
Aside from continuing to get straight A’s in challenging classes, and making that high test score a reality, I think that the most important thing that you could do would be some truly outstanding EC project that sets you apart from the herd, preferably tied to one of your interests, such as theater. Does your district have Unified Theater, the program where disabled kids are included in a theater production together with non-disabled students? If not, founding this, mounting a production, and with a classmate’s help, making a brief video montage of the process of accomplishing this, in order to submit as a supplement, would be connected to your theater interest, and be a really worthwhile EC that makes a difference in kids’ lives, by including them in something that you love doing. I’m just putting this out there as an example - I’m sure that you can come up with some even better ideas. What you want is an EC that’s going to make them think that they really want you on their campus for the next 4 years.
With a 1500 composite SAT or 34 composite ACT & AP scores of “4” & “5”, I would indeed apply REA, especially since Yale is your top choice. I think you’d likely get admitted or at least deferred but then eventually admitted in the spring.
I agree with this. I am an alum who interviews applicants to the College. We are required to attend a one hour briefing on Zoom about admissions—what to ask and what not to ask, etc. Mr Quinlan stated legacy is a thumb on the scale and that policy has not changed. I think he said the legacy admits as both a percentage of the class and as a percentage of legacy applicants has not significantly changed. Assuming you get a 1500 SAT or 34 ACT you should be competitive.
Here’s an idea. Ask Copilot your question. You might be surprised at the results
But how much of that is due to legacy preference in admission versus the legacy applicant pool being generally more advantaged* in building college admission credentials than the general Yale applicant pool? Of course, any legacy preference in admission is adding privilege to existing advantage.
*Not first-generation-to-college, less likely to be low income, more likely to attend good K-12 schools, more likely to have any needed disability accommodations, less likely to be financially limited in extracurricular activities.
What is unknown to the public is what percentage of the applicant pool consists of legacy applicants under Yale’s definition? Is it 10-15%? It certainly isn’t 50%! Who knows.
I agree legacy is not a huge boost at Yale. I in fact know about a lot of excellent legacy applicants who were not accepted.
My suggestion is you listen to the 9/1/26 and 10/13/26 episodes of the Inside the Yale Admissions Office Podcast:
The whole podcast series is very interesting, but these two are really designed to explain what they are looking for academically (Part One) and non-academically (Part Two).
If after listening to those, you think you either already are what they are looking for, or will be by the time you apply, then feel free to apply! They could of course disagree, or in fact agree but simply run out of room that cycle. But as long as you in good faith feel like you fit their needs, give them the opportunity to decide.
It is impossible for anyone to chance you for a hyper-competitive college like Yale which has a sub-5% acceptance rate. Much will depend on things that cannot or should not be shared on a public forum such as essays and LORs. Put your best application forward and see what happens. Agree with comments above and would not include the middle school fundraiser in your application.
I would recommend you focus on developing a well balanced application list with reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable and that you would be excited to attend.
Curious - so you want to study history but go to Yale School of Drama after.
Yale School of Drama doesn’t require you to have gone to Yale - and how will you stay in “theater” shape during your four years? Private lessons? Or participating as a non theater major at a school?
Anyway - good luck. First get back your test. I know others above said you’re likely to get in but I don’t personally see how anyone can say that, even with a 1550+.
Also, you’re not a Hostory major in application.
Per Yale, Every student begins their Yale journey undeclared and has until the end of sophomore year to choose a major.
It’s usually under 1000 legacy applications per year. That’s including children of graduate and professional school alums. About 10-12% of each class is legacy or about 120. You can do the math.
Q: Do you know how constant the 1000 legacy applications per year number is? If it’s pretty constant or experiences a reduction in a cycle, then the more total applications Yale receives (60,000 vs. 30,000), the greater the legacy advantage, assuming that the legacy percentage admitted is relatively constant per incoming class. Yale has been increasing its undergraduate class size since last year & also increased it back in 2017 when it opened up two new residential colleges, Benjamin Franklin College & Pauli Murray College.
I think it’s pretty consistent at being under 1000/year. Which makes sense as the number of graduates every year has increased by not much over the past decades; so the supply of potential legacy applicants doesn’t change much either.
My information comes from checking this from 2000 to 2015 when I was working with some applicants who were legacy. I know that the number of legacy students per class is very stable through last year
It’s impossible to say what the decision will be. If your family has been a significant donor to the school, that could be a heavier thumb on the scale.
Your profile is strong enough that you’re not wasting your time applying. You certainly have a reasonable shot.
You have a nice resume and adding a 1500+/34+ won’t hurt.
But Yale’s admit rate and student profile make it a reach for all but the most hooked applicants. Being a legacy, as has been mentioned, is not the magnitude of hook it once was.
So what is it that you like about Yale? Which preference boxes does it check? Because it’s likely you’ll be going somewhere else, so it makes sense to build a list of schools that have the attributes you desire in a college.
It is really unfortunate when a student comes on here with a “dream school” that they have wanted since childhood. Please do yourself a favor and get interested in some other schools. Absolutely apply early to Yale, but have other favorites. You like Ivies but look at “little Ivies” and check out Colleges that Change Lives ctcl.org. There is some danger of you feeling like a failure or disappointment given how loaded the issue of Yale is in your family, so please protect yourself by having other options you like.
Also don’t start a project just to affect admissions (already late for that anyway).
It occurs to me that you might benefit from a supplement, in whatever area you feel strongest. Writing, theater, music? A supplement usually has a video (or recording for music), a resume related to the area in question, and related letters of recommendation. (Accomplishments need to justify the supplement submission, however. )You could also ask if additional letters related to EC’s are accepted.
