<p>If current Yale students could help me out, I’m wondering how difficult it is at Yale for an unhooked applicant to succeed (maintain a pretty high GPA). </p>
<p>I go to a pretty well regarded school in Mass. and am friends with 4 current Yale students who graduated from my school in the last 3 years, and in speaking with them, they’ve all told me that the hardest part for an unhooked applicant is getting in. They are all studying pretty different fields so it definitely isn’t a result of major choice and they have told me that because of geographic diversity, hooks, AA, athletics, etc., it is a relatively easy time for kids who graduate from my school/schools of similar caliber. But since I’ve only talked to 4 people, I don’t know if it is really that accurate.</p>
<p>Could any current Yale students give me some insight on this? I’ve been lurking through CC looking for anything that would be relevant and found some Penn students saying that it really isn’t that cutthroat/competitive there due to the large number of students that had a hook or something other than academic strength which helped push them in.</p>
<p>I would agree with what your friends say, although I’m only a freshman, so take my perspective with a grain of salt. So far, the “difficulty” has been about the same as my high school (a well-regarded public magnet with an IB program), and I am happy with my grades.</p>
<p>it really depends on what you mean by “doing well,” and no, don’t assume that just bc people are “hooked” the competition is less, Yale people are AMAZING, in every sense of the word. I continuously find myself amazed/impressed by my peers. The thing is, though, Yale CULTURE is not competitive so much as cooperative. The horror stories I heard about at other top schools don’t seem to exist here.
But back to your original question, I wouldn’t expect a 4.0 but the workload is manageable, if you stay on top of it. I know people who are seriously struggling, but generally speaking, if the adcoms pick you, they think you will be fine at Yale (from a cynical point of view, the kids they pick dropping out would be bad for the “Yale” image, no? )</p>
<p>My school sends a considerable amount of people to HYPS each year and is generally regarded as one of the country’s top magnet’s. From what I’ve heard from my friends/people who attended my school who are now at those schools, most of them agree with OP’s friends and Livorneo. A friend of mine at Yale even joked that it’s easier there than it was at my HS. While these schools are obviously primarily academic institutions, it’s quite clear that many students are not accepted for their academic strength and that’s not necessarily a problem as these students obviously have unique talents/experiences/perspectives/backgrounds that Yale believes would better contribute to the whole experience.</p>
<p>I go to an OK school in NY (nothing like those top prep/magnet schools) and an unhooked friend of mine who got in 2 years ago said that the overall strength of the student body in terms of pure academic strength was really much lower than he had originally imagined. However, he said that those people who don’t usually have some cool special talent or a really unique background or something like that. But in terms of how “academically smart” they are, I pretty much agree with the other posters. I’d imagine that schools with smaller undergraduate classes and the same amount of hooked students probably experience this much more though.</p>
<p>It’s not too difficult of a workload, especially if you enjoy reading and writing. I think it’s a little pretentious to assume your hooked classmates will help secure you a better GPA. If anything, I’d say it’s the male, caucasian, pricks who’ve helped me secure a great GPA. Their heads are so full of hot air, that they can’t recognize that professors see right through that; thus, making it significantly easier for me to snag a spot in a coveted seminar or research position. And if you’re hoping to go through easy, lecture classes (where you will find a lot of the hooked athletes you mention) you should know most of your grade comes from discussion sections led by TAs and work those same TAs grade. And let’s just say, TAs hate dealing with snot-nosed brats who think they’re above everybody else. For your sake, let’s just hope you don’t rely on the potential failure of hooked classmates for your own success.</p>
<p>Depends on the classes. I mean, I came from one of the top high schools in California and I had a rough time in freshman orgo. If you’re taking fairly normal classes, it’s very easy to get a B and not very difficult to get an A. But I think in classes like freshman orgo that have a high concentration of you know, extremely high-achieving science students or whatever, it’s not easy to be at the top.</p>
<p>Every student at Yale is quite bright; there is definitely diversity in the level of preparation of students coming in though, and this will probably be most apparent in the early part of your Yale career. Students that come from schools where there may have been 15 AP courses offered may have an easier time than someone who came from a school that offered one, because they’ll be more used to the workloads and will probably hit their stride a little earlier. However, I really believe that as long as you take appropriate level classes and have a strong work ethic (most important), you can succeed in your classes no matter your background. Classes definitely aren’t going to be “dumbed down”, and certain ones are notoriously harder than others, but as long as you’re on top of the work and willing to seek help when necessary, you’ll be fine. It is really apparent that Yale doesn’t want students to fail, and there are resources in place to make sure that doesn’t happen.</p>
<p>Taking a variety of courses (some lecture, some seminar) helps maintain a reasonable workload.</p>
<p>To say that hooked kids are going to be the ones that struggle is somewhat naive and definitely an oversimplification.</p>
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