Is being admitted to Yale a possibility?

Colleges & Universities Yale University
1

<p>I know no one on here can really evaluate my “chances.” But am I moving along the right track?</p>

<p>African-American female
Small Town, Georgia
ACADEMICS
GPA: 3.857 UW 4.295 W hardest course load with 7 APs by graduation
SAT: CR: 660 M: 590 W: 700
(retook in Oct. and hoping and praying for a 1300+ cr+m)
SAT II: Biology: 760 U.S. History: 760 Literature: 610
AP: Biology: 5 U.S. History: 5 World History: 5</p>

<p>EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Book Club -President and Founder
-Members meet monthly to discuss a book
-Hosted creative writing contest for three years at two local elementary schools.
-Participated in Reader’s Rally</p>

<p>Church-Assistant Sunday school teacher
-Helped the lead teacher put together weekly lessons for four through six year olds
-Aided children in completing written and oral activities</p>

<p>Library Youth Volunteer
-Shelved and organized library books
-Helped during special vacation summer reading programs (parties, puppet shows, etc.) </p>

<p>Emory University School of Medicine Summer Science Camp
-went freshman year and learned more about biology after hon. bio </p>

<p>National BETA Club
-members must maintain a 90 academic average</p>

<p>National Honor Society
-members must maintain a 93 academic average</p>

<p>Spanish National Honor Society-members must have maintained at least a 90 average in three honors level Spanish classes
Regional Spanish Honor Society
-Spanish students across county with a 95 average in at least three honors level Spanish classes are nominated to be inducted </p>

<p>Elementary Spanish Immersion Program (September 2007-present)
-teach Spanish to first through fifth graders at elementary school twice a week
-developed a six-week Spanish lesson plan, where students learn Spanish words that fit a certain theme each week (ex: foods, numbers, greetings, body parts, etc.)</p>

<p>WORK EXPERIENCE
District Attorney’s Office-Intern [Unpaid]
-Performed Executive Duties (filed papers, made copies, etc.)
-Gave my opinion to attorneys on particular cases
-Observed various court proceedings and learned more about the legal career</p>

<p>Doctor’s Office-File Clerk
-Performed executive duties </p>

<p>ACADEMIC HONORS
Academic Excellence in Honors Language Arts
Academic Excellence in Business Law
Chattahoochee Valley Regional Library System Youth Volunteer of the Year nominee
Georgia Governor Honors Program Nominee in Social Studies
Honorary Mention in Laws of Life Essay Contest
Columbus State University Spanish Vocabulary Bee First Place Winner
Daton Community College Oral Spanish Contest Second Place Winner Semifinalist for Discovery Tribute Scholarship Award
AP Scholar</p>

2

<p>Minority with good stats…I say pretty good shot</p>

3

<p>your SAT IIs are good (Yale only needs 2 this year, so the lit score doesn’t matter) and your APs are good. Your SAT I is low, but you are URM, so that will count less than for others.</p>

4

<p>Any idea what your class rank is? If, for instance, your school has a ton of people with 4.0s, you’ll be in trouble. Does your school have any track record with elite colleges? The context of your school and of you within your school are important.</p>

<p>How long have you done your various extracurriculars? I’m having a hard time judging by what you’ve written if they are in the Yale range or not. </p>

<p>By the way, on your app, don’t say you performed “executive duties”. Those are what the people at the top do. It sounds like you performed administrative duties.</p>

5

<p>Now that i’m at college, i think that suggesting it’s easier for URMs to get in is a little bit insulting. The people of color here are just as smart and accomplished as anyone else…</p>

6

<p>I agree with AA, you did administrative work for both the law and doctor’s offices. One suggestion, when describing these volunteer positions (they should not be called work unless you were paid), do not be overbearing in your description. In my opinion, telling the AOs at Yale that you gave opinions to lawyers on cases while an unpaid intern (for how long?), sounds a little pretenitous. I don’t doubt that they asked you for your opinion, but that may have been more out of courtesy than for your legal expertise. You have enough going for you, that you don’t want to come off being too naive or too full of yourself.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the responses guys!</p>

<p>Admissions Addict, my school doesn’t rank because it “induces unecessary competition and harms our academic and social lives” according to our hand book lol. I am in the top 5% of 339 seniors. I just transfered to the #3 magnet school in GA second semester junior year, and my old school was noncompetitive and in a semi-urban area.</p>

<p>kwijiborit, I agree. I think I am just as intelligent as any other person. Are you a URM as well?</p>

8

<p>Ok I will take out the executive duties part. I didn’t know that I was coming off as pretenious; I thought I was describing what I did. I put the time details in m app I took the off here to make the descriptions shorter. i interned there for about two months over the summer. Thanks for the advice entomom. </p>

<p>Any other opinions. I took the SAT again in Oct. and am anxiously waiting for my results.</p>

9

<p>I think not having spent a sustained amount of time on any extracurricular may hurt you. The Spanish immersion at the elementary school is great, but you just started it. Your internship was only for two months. The various honor societies appear not to have any real activities (or activities that you devoted substantial time to); you just get in for having certain grades. Not saying the honor societies are bad, they just don’t sound like hardcore ECs. That leaves the library, Sunday school, the doctor’s office, and the book club. They may be so much more than you described, but my overall impression is that you haven’t dug as deep in your extracurriculars as Yale usually likes. They may cut you some slack b/c transferring schools makes leadership and long-term dedictation to an extracurricular difficult. Again, this is just my sense from what you posted, I could be totally wrong and these activities may be much deeper than they appear.</p>

<p>Totally agree about taking out the sentence about advising lawyers on cases. They were just making small talk with an intern.</p>

<p>Good luck. You DO have a lot going for you, it’s just that admissions at the super elite college level is a whole different game.</p>

<p>And for the record, all the URMs I knew at Yale stood shoulder to shoulder with everyone else. Ditto for all legacies and all but one athlete I knew.</p>

10

<p>“Now that i’m at college, i think that suggesting it’s easier for URMs to get in is a little bit insulting. The people of color here are just as smart and accomplished as anyone else…”</p>

<p>I’m a person of color too, and just to be clear, i wasn’t belittling anyone - it’s a fact of the admissions process that the SAT I scores are not weighted so heavily for URMs compared to other applicants. The question that was asked by the applicant herself related to how her profile stacked up as a Yale applicant - a non-URM with that SAT I would need to be recruited for something…but with great SAT IIs and APs, it’s a strong academic profile in the applicant-specific admissions context, as I said. </p>

<p>(There are lots of facts of the admissions process like a different context for legacy, athletes, international students, North Dakota :slight_smile: etc - which is not a negative statement about any of those categories.)</p>

11

<p>Thanks guys (especially Admissions Addict and Ailey) for the insightful posts. I just wanted to quell my nerves a little about my subpat SAT score and other aspects.</p>

12

<p>Have you considered taking the ACT? I know a lot of people who did much better on the ACT than SAT.</p>

13

<p>yes, but taking the ACt would cost money because I have to pay to take the test and send the scores for all the colleges. Plus I’m not really familiar with the test. But I might consider taking it, if I found out that I bombed the SAT come Oct 25th…</p>

14

<p>You can apply for a fee waiver for the ACT through your high school if you qualify.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.actstudent.org/faq/answers/feewaiver.html[/url]”>http://www.actstudent.org/faq/answers/feewaiver.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

15

<p>^^Cool, I might look into it if I am not happy with my SAT score on Thursday.</p>

<p>Any other comments guys?</p>

16

<p>If I have fairly good stats and scores should I summarize them, so they are easier for the admissions officer to find or would this seem pretentious? I</p>

17

<p>The Yale admissions officers know how to find your GPA and test scores in your application. It would be weird to summarize them. Even a 4.0 with a 2400 isn’t going to blow their minds.</p>

18

<p>Thanks. FYI - Also, I am a Ford Model. Would you advise including a composite card from Ford Models or would this be considered a non-intellectual pursuit?</p>

19

<p>Include. It’s a unique EC and if you’ve been signed by Ford, it shows that you are good at what you do.</p>

20

<p>I think you have very good chances at getting into an elite school–note that your chances of getting into any specific elite school, including Yale, is much more difficult to predict. I would suggest that you apply to several elite schools.</p>