<p>Hi, I’m a freshman in Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. I really want to attend Yale in Fall 2009. I didn’t apply in high school because I thought I didn’t have sufficient grades, score on the SAT or extracurricular activities(I had 3.50, I got a 4 in AP Math and a 4 in AP English, an apalling 1340 in the SAT and I was vicepresident of Newspaper in 10th grade{Private school} but when I changed schools in 11th grade, the school I attended had no extracurricular activities). I started college in January 2008 since I was taking a trip around the Northeast of the U.S in August. Since I got good score on the AP exams, the university validated 12 credits (2 english {we have to take 3 english} and 2 maths). That said, I took 6 classes, two days a week (total 17 credits) this semester. My GPA is 3.82 (I had all A’s except one B in Spanish). I am currently taking 2 more classes. Having a total of 35 credits (the avg: 28). Im in the Honor Program, applying for Big Brother and Sister, work on Daycare and I will be tranfering to another branch of the same university (San German) where I have more extracurricular activities and I can take classes towards my major (Political Science). I’m 18 years old and puertorican.</p>
<p>What are my chances? What can I do to improve my chances? Any advice is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Here’s a few things you need to know.<br>
(1) the post you wrote is filled with grammatical errors (you misspelled “appalling”, “transferring”, “vicepresident”) and you capitalized words that shouldn’t be capitalized (Newspaper, Daycare),
(2) your sentence structure is terrible in the post,<br>
(3) you come from a fairly low-ranked university relative to other schools with more demanding curriculums, and<br>
(4) you’ve taken exactly one semester of college courses at this point (17 units–although you have credit for 29 units).</p>
<p>Since you do not have at least two years of college completed, Yale will rely very heavily on your SAT scores, which as you admit are terrible.</p>
<p>So, I’m not saying you should give up, but let’s be blunt and recognize that your background at this point is not giving Yale any reason to admit you.</p>
<p>What you need to do:
(1) Spend at least one more year in college and get 4.0s and nothing less,<br>
(2) Work on getting recommendations from the people who you do the volunteer work with and from at least two college instructors,
(3) Retake the SATs and improve your scores dramatically–to at least 1450 out of 1600 on the critical reading and math sections alone, so that the 1340 score (on 2 parts, I presume) will seem like an anomaly,
(4) work on your writing skills and start writing an essay that explains your interests and why you are Yale-worthy, and
(5) Work with some political leaders of Puerto Rico and see if they will write you a recommendation commending your leadership and work ethic.</p>
<p>If you do all of the above, then you would have a chance at getting accepted to Yale.</p>
<p>Thank you for your advices. They are greatly appreciated. Regarding advice #5, right now the puertorrican government is in great stress (since our governor is charged with 19 felony charges and a few more politicians are also charged with corruption). Our economy is a total disaster. They are laying off people that work in the government and they refuse to hire or to accept any volunteers. What will be a better substitute? What else can I do?</p>
<p>You might consider working for local politicians in your city or county–especially if you live in either San Juan or Ponce (the larger cities). Try to help work for “change” in improving services for the local citizens (things to improve their daily lives).</p>
<p>Good luck (and thanks for being receptive to the advice–that’s a positive sign that you want to do what’s required to reach your goals).</p>
<p>I will do that. Thank you. I have another question, should I take the SAT or can I take instead the ACT? I want to point out that my SAT was relatively low because I barely prepared for it. Also, the education I received, concerning math, was very poor. I actually got the education I needed in my senior year of high school. I was blessed with a great teacher and all those subject I couldn’t do before, I was now able to easily dominate them. I was one of the highest scores in my AP Math but I’m afraid that I won’t do that well on the SAT and I think maybe I’ll do a little bit better with the ACT. I’m not quite sure yet. Thank you so much for taking time and give the sort of advice that I needed. I really want to get admitted to Yale and I understand that they are very limited spaces for transfers. So I’m trying to do anything possible to better my chances. Again, thank you. </p>
<p>For Yale, you need to stress your financial difficulties and focus on growing up in Puerto Rico. My friend from Penn was denied from Yale as a transfer with a 3.8 and tons of ec’s. My friend from NYU was accepted as a transfer with a 3.4, but focused on being raised in Russia (until he was 12). Good Luck!</p>