<p>Hey everyone, I need some opinions.
I visited Yale last year and absolutely fell in love with it. It was the only college I really liked, it pretty much fit me perfectly. I applied SCEA and was deferred and then rejected. The entire year was pretty much hell and as you can probably imagine I was crushed come April. I have been planning on taking a year off since tenth grade, and am not going to enter into college until Fall 2008. This puts me in the position of being able to apply to Yale again and have a second chance…there is only one problem. I was admitted to another excellent university and am currently committed to an honors program in another Ivy. I know I should be incredibly thankful, and believe me, I am, I just cannot make myself forget about Yale (the mental breakdowns/bawling episodes the past couple of weeks are unfortunately making that very clear :-). My choices right now are to either take the safe way and stick with the school that I am currently committed to, or throw the offer of an honors program at a good Ivy away right now for another shot at Yale (and I am sure I would not get readmitted at the other University again if I throw out their admissions half way through the summer). Do you think I have a chance at Yale if I apply again this year? Or will they look at the fact that I was already rejected once and say no right away?
Here are my stats:
GPA UW: 4.0
GPA W: 4.75
rank: top 1%
SAT I: 2290 in 1 sitting
SAT II’s: 800 Math II, 770 Bio, 750 German with listening
AP’s: German, US Hist, Euro, Bio, BC Calc => all 5’s
fluent bilingual tricitizen (hopefully learning another language during my year off)
EC’s: some clubs (no leadership positions though), alot of art, horsebackriding 20 hrs per week, job, comunity service (couple hours every week)
awards: National Merit Finalist, Art scholarships, Grand Champ in riding, some awards from my school, made states with my one club
Took classes at the university all throughout senior year (3 different classes, got A’s in all of them)</p>
<p>Those were all of my stats from last year, here are some new things which may (hopefully) tilt the scales in my favor which happened during senior year/will be happening next year.</p>
<p>year abroad will consist of 5 months volunteering in Africa at an orphanage and refugee camp and 5 months working in Europe and learning another language</p>
<p>I am now ranked third in the states of PA, NY, and NJ in my division in horsebackriding</p>
<p>I am doing research/work with the nuclear engineering department at a university as a summer job and will have my name on a nuclear engineering research paper.</p>
<p>Also, most important is probably the way things seem to work with college admissions at my school. I come from a well regarded public school. Last year, a HUGE number of ppl got into the best schools (well huge for us). Around 15 ppl got into the “tippy top” schools on academics alone (Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Penn, Stanford, MIT, not putting Cornell in there just because we always get loads who get in there not matter what so it would skew the numbers, doesn’t mean its not great!). Everyone was pretty much flabbergasted by how well everything went. Then came this year. If you don’t count recruited individuals and only look at academics, only two people got offered admission to those schools, and each person only got an offer from one of the schools (myself and a Harvard boy). Two ppl got recruited (athletics) from my school by Yale, and Yale almost NEVER lets in more than two ppl from my school. Pretty much college admissions for my school goes in waves, and everyone, including all of the counselors are sure that we had such a tough time this year because of how many kids got taken last year. Now everyone is pretty much certain that the kids applying next year are going to get a lot of acceptances to balance off this year (plus, there are no good athletes in the upcoming grades). If I applied again, I would have improved essays, and I would have the advantage of applying with next years applicant pool at my school (and there are only about 4 really good students next year as compared to the 20 or so we had this year (that sounds awful and mean, but I don’t mean it that way). Do you think I would have a chance at Yale again and is it worth the risk? Its kind of a situation where I can gain everything or I can loose everything…which is pretty scary 
Am I crazy to be seriously contemplating risking it all for another shot? Do I have any hope of getting in? I know it probably seems silly, but I have never felt more at home than when I visited Yale, it was my own little paradise 
Thanks for any thoughts on the matter</p>