Please, chance me. Yale. SCEA

gibby
Wed, 15 Apr 2015 18:02:42 +0000

Although the ivies are high reaches for all, some student’s should NOT apply in the SCEA round because their application is going get buried by other more accomplished student’s who have near perfect GPA’s and test scores along with an extraordinary EC, such as a recruited athlete, Intel Science Finalist, concert musician, Broadway playwright or actor, National Debate Championship winner etc. I wrote the below on the OP’s Yale chance thread, but felt it needed to repeated here for student’s in the same situation.

Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Stanford have all said they don’t take anyone in the SCEA round that they wouldn’t take in the RD round. That’s Admissions speak for “We take the best of the best in the early round.”

Generally, that means Admissions is looking for students who are ranked in the top 1% to 5% of their high school class. Students, like you, who are ranked in the top 10% to 15% are usually deferred in the SCEA round – no matter what their ACT/SAT score – as Admissions Officers want to compare you with a larger applicant pool.

So, just based upon your ranking, my gut tells me that if you apply SCEA, there is a high likelihood you will be deferred. The better strategy for students in your situation is to apply to a broad range of non-binding colleges in the early round and apply to HYSP in the regular round.

Full Disclosure: Both my kids applied to Yale SCEA. My daughter applied as the salutatorian of her large specialized math and science high school (academically ranked #2 in her class of 860), with a 97.8 unweighted GPA, 2280 SAT, 34 ACT, 6 AP’s tests all 5’s, 6 SAT Subject Tests all 750+. She was deferred and then rejected in the RD round. She also applied to Princeton (waitlisted) and Harvard (graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa). Did Yale regret rejecting her? I don’t think they gave it a second thought. If kids like her are getting rejected, what realistic chance does someone else have ranked in the top 10% to 15% of their high school class? My son applied to Yale SCEA with similar stats to his sister (he was ranked about 16th in his class out of 900 students) and was accepted and will be graduating this May. IMHO, if you are not ranked in the top 5% of your high school’s graduating class, you shouldn’t be applying anywhere SCEA. It’s that competitive!