Confused, scared, and...underrepresented?

Colleges & Universities Yale University
1

<p>Well I hate to bore you with the details, so I’ll try to be brief.
I’m a Black Male (my parents are from Ghana, Africa) from Nevada hoping to apply to Yale (my dream school since elementary school.)</p>

<p>SAT I (breakdown): 2150: CR-660 M-780 W 710
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0):not sure probably a 3.9
Weighted GPA: not sure, but it’s definitely over 4.76/4.8
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): not sure top 3 of 680</p>

<p>Should I retake the SATs? I think I could get a 2200 with some prep over the summer.</p>

<p>I’m heavily involved in student council in my school and my state. I am the president of the state association of student councils. I’ve won statewide awards in leadership. I’ve done Student council all throughout high school and I have held leadership positions each year. I am in the medical magnet program at my school. I want to be a physician, but i also want to take my medical knowledge back home to ghana to improve health care and public health. Well I have other ECs that relate to medicine and politics and i feel that my application will show that im passionate about medicine and politics/public health.
Im not entirely sure what else I need so advice would be truly appreciated.</p>

2

<p>bump…</p>

3

<p>You have a very good shot as a black male with those scores and those goals.</p>

4

<p>Thanks. My great-uncle is a yale alum and his son (my 2nd cousin) is currently a student. I was wondering if I should mention them in my application (in the section regarding your association with alumni ). I plan on taking the ACT and 2 SAT II’s. Should I take the SAT 1 for the second time or should I live it as is and focus elsewhere?</p>

5

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<p>Sure, that’s what those spaces are for.</p>

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<p>You know yourself and your academic abilities better than anyone. Do you think that if you retake the SAT your score would improve drastically, say by 100 points? If not, then it’s not a good idea to retake. Try the ACT for a change.</p>

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<p>Well I suppose I’ll give studying another shot and retake it if i increase by 100 points. I was hoping to apply SCEA. Does anyone have any advice? How badly would 4 B’s hurt my chances if I took the most rigorous courses (I was ranked 1 until the second semester of my Junior year)?</p>

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<p>I’m can almost say that I guarantee you will get in.</p>

8

<p>Yeah, your chances are AMAZING! Think about it: URM from underrepresented state with strong enough scores and strong EC’s… Retake the SAT if you want, but you should probably just take the ACT and SAT Subject Tests.</p>

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<p>Can I get some more advice? So 100 point increase? How much will my location help me out? Will the fact that my uncle(only male role model) went to yale and my cousin attends ('12)? </p>

<p>SHOULD I APPLY SCEA???</p>

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<p>student council leadership… (my passion :D)</p>

<p>frosh class rep.
soph class pres.
student body treasurer (Jr) </p>

<h2>student body webmaster(Sr)</h2>

<p>State Board Webmaster</p>

<h2>State Board President (president of the state association of student councils)</h2>

<h2>Summer Internship at the Nevada Cancer Institute (legal department)</h2>

<p>Summer Science program at the Nevada Cancer Institute
medicine is my other passion…i go to a medical magnet school…i hope to combine medicine and government in my future… surgeon general… masters in public health</p>

<p>I ultimately want to improve health care in Ghana, west africa (my country of origin)-- i hope to write an essay abt it as well as one abt my culture and how it defines me…</p>

<p>HELP?</p>

11

<p>ur from nevada? well you would be geographically competing against me but it’s a diff story because you’re a urm</p>

<p>hmmm…wild guess, you go to rancho high school?</p>

12

<p>What are your SAT II’s like ? I think you should retake either your SAT’s or your SAT II’s, whichever is worse. If you haven’t taken SAT II’s, just study and take those b/c your SAT is not at the top end of Yale but plenty good enough.</p>

<p>List your alums such as your cousin. WORK ON THOSE ESSAYS!!! And apply SCEA (be sure to list that you want to be a science major and mention the doctor in Ghana part somewhere). Assuming you keep up your effort in the next few months, I think you’ll have a very good shot of getting in, and then you’ll be able to join the magic that is Yale!!!</p>

13

<p>I’ll take my SAT IIs (math2 and us history)in Nov (not sure abt this since its cutting it close for SCEA but its my ownly option) and im taking the ACT in September in hopes of getting a score good enough to replace my SAT IIs (if they suck) or bolster my test scores as a whole.</p>