Don't Stress About Scores

Idiosyncra3y
Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:52:51 +0000

Lemme make a stab here:

People come from different backgrounds and these backgrounds affect their ability to do certain things - take the studies regarding the SAT - something like 100 points per 20 000 in parents income. So, is it not right that people who have had less opportunities get more credit for what they have done? These people - when given the same opportunities as others at a great university like Yale will certainly make far more of them than a rich person who has done 25% of what he/she could with his/her opportunities.

T26E4 made an interesting statement somewhere saying that the majority of Yale acceptances are given to people not for what they have done, but for who they are or who Yale thinks they will become. That is why people who many here assume got in because of URMhood actually get in (imho). They have shown great personal character and while in a tiny chances thread look inferior, with the subjective and school information look great.

So

To those of US who have had the opportunities but didn’t use them - our fault. Yale didn’t think that we would use the great opportunities afforded to us by 4 years there, and would therefore not become an awesome person. Obviously (an quite rightly from what I have seen/heard so far) they thought OP would.

So congratulate him/her, realise that for those in different circumstances scores matter more but that his/her acceptance was no easier to get than yours. If you consider Yale’s income brackets of admitted students you will actually see that it is far HARDER for poorer students to get in.

So

It is not the simple fact of being an URM that gets you admitted. It is making the most of your opportunities - the most is just different for all people.