<p>Personally, I think any personal contact that you have with someone who will be evaluating your application or can speak on your application’s behalf can be critical in whether it’s a yes or a no, even from Yale although more so for other schools mentioned earlier in this forum. Visiting campus, attending info sessions, even dropping off dossiers at admissions offices won’t do anything at Yale unless it’s in conjunction with personal communication (and often admission reps say extra paper just serves to frustrate).
I recommend:
- at a local info session, stop by afterward and introduce yourself to your local representative. It’s his/her job to read your application and present it favorably or negatively to the rest of the committee, so their opinion matters. Follow up with an e-mail.
- e-mail Director of Undergraduate Studies of departments in which you’re interested and ask them questions about the major. If you have a chance to visit campus, schedule an appointment with them. Even if you don’t have any sure idea about what you want to study, this shows a lot of initiative.
- if there are extracurriculars you’re interested in organized by Yale faculty (music lessons come to mind), contact the faculty member in charge and profess your interest. If you can send extra info to them, so do, as they have time to read/look at/listen to it, whereas your admissions rep has thousands of other applications to review. </p>
<p>None of these ideas are at all guaranteed, but the point is to make you memorable in someone’s mind and get their support. If even one person supports you because of a dialogue you began, it could make a difference.</p>
<p>Hope that helps somewhat!</p>