<p>GPA: 3.97 w/ 59 credits after this semester + 4 more after summer. I’ll have completed Calc I, II, III, Gen Chem I and II, Bio I (summer), a year of English, a year of History, yadda yadda…</p>
<p>ACT or SAT score: Not taking. I think my college work is a better indication of my academic ability than a test designed to predict my academic ability… I’ll probably come to regret not taking it though, since it’s supposed to be strongly recommended…</p>
<p>Uniqueness or Hook: None, White Male / lower end of the middle class totem pole…</p>
<p>Life Experience or Work Experience: One of my recommendations was from the person I worked for during the election season. I believe he wrote me an absolutely amazing recommendation. My life story isn’t really that exciting…</p>
<p>Other Applications: Brown RUE, Georgetown, Hopkins, Carolina.</p>
<p>Why EWSP: I like the idea of a program for non-traditional students, the full integration with the rest of campus, they have a specific major I can’t get at any four year school near me, and a professor who does research into something I’m very interested in.</p>
<p>Not sure I’m competitive, some of the comments about Yale wanting people with a hook they can publish something about is rather discouraging… I’m not an olympian, never cured cancer, never walked on the moon, etc… Just a hard worker interested in a top notch education in a specific field and looking for places that will accept me despite my status as non-traditional</p>
<p>Ken, what’s your major? What research is the professor doing that your interested in? (That’s me being curious.)</p>
<p>Regarding a hook, come on, everyone has a hook. Being in sales for many years, I came to see that everyone and everything has something that differentiates them. You just have to think about what that is. It sounds like you have some cool interests and have done interesting work; if you think back to what got you in those fields, or what motivates your curiosities, that may lead you to a hook of some sort. We all have one.</p>
<p>At Yale, I’m interested in their Cognitive Science program… and as far as the research, I’m interested in memory.</p>
<p>I really don’t have any hook. Honestly. My life story isn’t exciting, I’m not someone who has done anything exceptional with my life up to this point. My only “ins” are that I have specific interests that Yale (and very few other schools) are able to accommodate, I’ve done well where I am, and I have good relationships with my professors.</p>
<p>I suppose the fact that I was offered a PT faculty position at the school by a department head due might be somewhat of a hook, but I didn’t have a chance to get into that because of the word limit on the personal statement. Hopefully the recommendation they wrote for me will include it, but I don’t know if that will make any kind of difference.</p>
<p>It seems like the more I learn about this program, the more it seems like they’re looking for people with stories they can publish something about - like willard’s - in addition to someone with academic potential on par to the rest of Yale’s student body.</p>
<p>Ken, put that on your resume. There were somethings I couldn’t slip in to my statement because 600 words isn’t much to work with; but I put those ECs on my resume instead. </p>
<p>I didn’t include a resume with my application, although I believe I listed it as ‘employment’ on some part of the application… I filled out enough that they all kind of blur together at this point.</p>
<p>Ken,
Have you read Wilber’s Spectrum of Consciousness? I am fascinated by the Cognitive Sciences…I think everyone on here has a shot at Yale and like Ilivefree said in a previous post, we are all winners for having the gumption to apply.
You can’t win, if you don’t play!</p>
<p>Hey guys, just wanted to add my stats up here. I applied to EWSP for Fall 2009.</p>
<p>Current School: Community College
GPA: College: 4.0, high school: 2.7 (bleh)
ACT or SAT score: 2110 (Crit. Reading - 790, Writing - 710, Math - 610)
Uniqueness or Hook: Published Writer, Honors Society Officer/Community Service Advocate, have studied Film and English already, musician with a number of record label releases, etc.
Life Experience or Work Experience: Educator at a tech school (for 6 years), also spent time working as a military training subcontractor (2 years). </p>
<p>Other Applications: Brown, Columbia GS (Accepted), Cornell, Oberlin (Rejected)</p>
<p>Why EWSP: I felt I was going to have a better chance with EWSP than as a general transfer candidate, and there are a number of REALLY great writers at Yale that I would love to study with. And, anyway, as a person who has a career already, need to have my life experienced viewed in a positive light, right?</p>
<p>I said that I need a challenge, I want to study with their professors (named some specific profs, one of whom goes way back with one of my current profs, which reminds me… I should go email him again), and said that I had gone as far as I possibly could with my current educational ventures… CC ends now, and its time to get down and dirty with this business.</p>
<p>I know it isn’t anything thrilling like “I was implanted with this dream by visitors for neptune, who told me that the world will end in 2013 unless I get a chemical engineering degree from Yale and design a new core for the earth!”… but, ya know… you are what you are, in the end. Hehe.</p>
<p>I know they can sniff out fake, so I was really conscious about being blunt and honest if not brutally so… in the end the admissions decisions aren’t a personal critique (though they undoubtedly feel like one for a while)… they’re a consideration of the possibility of the student enriching the campus life or finding a leadership place at the school. That being said, I still have my fingers crossed all day until Mid-to-Late May because I want this like… I don’t even know what to compare it to.</p>
<p>No doubt, I am sure there are certain bells that go off when they read the Personal Statement. I haven’t made back-up plans and hopefully I wont need to…(fingers crossed).</p>
<p>current school none
gpa hampshire college didnt have one</p>
<p>act 1170 or something who cares years ago</p>
<p>uniqueness hook: went out and did a ton of amazing work and didnt apologize for any of it. also not gripping the sob story vibe. all around not sorry. movine forward quickly and beyond everyone else, and on my own terms. self educated and brilliant. they can and will have to see beyond the bs of a typical applicant for me to get in. gambled, but there’s no time or space for all this cookie cutter -ez bake applicant business you all are talking. </p>
<p>the sign says the dead shall be risen no one acts as if they see come the next equinox none of your gpas will matter</p>
<p>Best to you, D.H. It sounds like your gamble might work. I speculate that it just depends on what amazing work you did at this point. You only had 600 words, right? So, it had to be clean and very to the point.</p>
<p>Did you get any confirmation from the admissions office yet? Did you apply closer to the deadline?</p>
<p>i used a childhood poem in my statement. wasn’t trying to be clever; i was reciting the poem for my wife for fun and i thought “THAT is what I need to show my true self on my essay!”. before adding it, i felt my essay was a bit dry and serious. not really my whole personality, i’m a five year old trapped in a 32 year old body.</p>
<p>ilivefree, that’s a good idea. Personal flare like that is, I’m sure, roundly appreciated by the admissions committees. </p>
<p>In my EWSP statement, I mostly talked about working full time while attending Community College, the writers there I want to study with, the process I’ve used thus far in my study including some specific situations (I’ve had a great opportunity to hang out and study with visiting authors at a local writer-in-residence program). Yale already had 3 essays on file from me because I originally applied as a Transfer student and only switched to the EWSP two days before the deadline. In one of those essays I made bizarre claims to have invented a time machine, but was reticent to disclose the details at the moment.</p>
<p>thanks, pressure wave! like i said, i wasn’t trying to be clever, just wanted to be myself. and yeah, hopefully the poem offered a moment of entertainment in all those essays. </p>
<p>i also originally applied as a transfer; i’m not sure if they’ll read all those transfer essays at EW; I think they may just stick to the EW statement. it would seem an unfair advantage to have transfer essays read as well.</p>
<p>curious about the time machine; but i’ll wait to see it on the news!</p>
<p>I got the impression from the Transfer coordinator that I spoke to (who, coincidentally, coordinates both the Transfer and EWS, if I understood correctly) that she “already had my transfer essays, but I may want to update with another when I switched to Eli Whitney” - so, I get the impression they’ll just consider whatever the heck they have from us.</p>
<p>Regarding the time machine, the secret is… it was an anecdote for insecurity about missteps in life. Or, conversely, it was just nonsense, which is an important part of my personality for them to know about. :D</p>
<p>YAY! love it. my favorite quote may ring true to that: “never regret yesterday, life is in you today and you can make your tomorrow.” - l. ron hubbard (i know, i know, but it’s a great quote).</p>
wasn’t trying to be clever; i was reciting the poem for my wife for fun and i thought “THAT is what I need to show my true self on my essay!”. before adding it, i felt my essay was a bit dry and serious. not really my whole personality, i’m a five year old trapped in a 32 year old body.</p>