How do I prepare for Yale?

WWWard
Thu, 12 Dec 2013 14:41:23 +0000

I guess this means that you were a Matched QuestBridge Finalist… so First of All - Congratulations!

I am a parent of a Yale SCEA applicant. I myself attended Johns Hopkins University, which was also a challenging academic environment. Having been accepted to Yale, you clearly have the skill set to not only survive, but also to prevail there. The key to making the transition to college, in my opinion, is balancing out the multitude of new distractions and figuring out a time management system that works for you and also prioritizes the actual school work.

College is different from HS in the sense that there are often breaks between classes and a lot more down-time than HS students might think would be the case. The challenge is to simply use your time wisely and to not allow yourself to get behind. Most students willing to dedicate 1-3 hours each day to the schoolwork necessary outside of the classroom will have no problem doing as well in college as they did in HS. Those that have issues are the ones who get caught up in all of the other distractions that college offers, allowing themselves to get behind. It is hard to catch-up once that happens. So… have fun, but keep all of those EC activities in balance. Also keep your social life in balance. Make school a priority, and the talent you clearly already possess will be more than sufficient.

Good Luck at Yale… :)