<p>I was wondering, did anyone get REJECTED SECA EA from Yale with Siemens Semis? I just did and I was expecting a deferral. </p>
<p>Not sure if there is something glaring on my app, but I want to fix this for my RD apps.</p>
<p>I’m also a published author, have published research and did a Yahoo research internship in addition to an internship at my hospital for mobile development. </p>
<p>I’m so confused??!?!?</p>
<p>Your stats are probably fine. Unless you made an F junior year or kicked your interviewer in the balls (assuming he’s male), there’s probably nothing that raises a red flag. Ask trusted friends and teachers to give an honest assessment of your essays though. Or let your GC look over your application if you are still worried.</p>
<p>But my theory is this. Yale is a crapshoot. Your file may have gotten read when your adcom was in a bad mood. I don’t know. In the article by Y, it was stated that more lower income and first gen students applied. So they may have took up more space, again idk. I’m sure practically none of them were siemens semifinalists / published authors though. Keep looking. There is a school that really wants you.</p>
<p>Nope, none of those. All of them loved my essays and one kid (got HYPSM) looked at my profile and said it’s fine - he was surprised when I got rejected. He’s asking me to call the office to check if the decision is correct?</p>
<p>Adcom in a bad mood? I thought two read it at once so the chances would be very low.</p>
<p>There is that tiny possibility that they made a mistake. But look at it rationally. If they took your file and put it next to a URM’s (with all references to race or any hooks taken out), you would have probably been admitted or deferred. But Yale, at that point and time, didn’t say: “Darn I wish this kid were a little ‘smarter’ so we could take him”. They probably thought you weren’t a good fit or just decided that your profile wasn’t sought after that year.</p>
<p>It’s time to get a new username bro.</p>
<p>Hahahahahahaha yeah I couldn’t think of anything. OH WELL YALE HOPEFULLY HARVARD TAKES ME. </p>
<p>Good game y’all; signing out and cranking those essays.</p>
<p>Ugh. I have to admit I’m pretty surprised they rejected you, since a)Yale has been trying so hard to recruit STEM people in the last few years and b)Yale tries hard to give off the image that it cares more about deep involvement in extracurriculars than about grades. </p>
<p>Well. They did a study a couple of years ago in immigration courts that found that judges are five times more likely to rule in a petitioner’s favor immediately after lunch than immediately before. So much of this process is outside of your control.</p>
<p>If it’s any consolation, you’ll find stronger CS and astro departments at Harvard and MIT. Best of luck and keep your head up!</p>
<p>Are there any other colleges that try to give off that image?</p>
<p>And honestly, if I got rejected by Yale as a STEM major I don’t think I would stand a chance at harder schools like MIT, Stanford and Harvard since they have an overabundance of STEM majors. I’m just looking into USC at this point…</p>
<p>Send your essays to people who don’t know you. A lot of people get rejected from Yale: a friend of mine who had a silver medal in IChO, was a varsity athlete, topped university courses at a major university taken in high school, won language prizes and who came in the top 0.002% in standardized high school exams was rejected.</p>
<p>yalehacker - I looked at your stats and I do see some significant gaps when comparing you to typical Yale students. For instance, not having any community or volunteer experience, no clubs, hobbies, sports, or leadership positions is very unusual. I think Yale likes to see kids who were broadly engaged in their school/community. The atmosphere on campus reflects that.</p>
<p>I think Stanford would be a great fit for you and they seem to appreciate the kind of stuff you’re into. They seem to like kids who are super focused in one area within or external to the high school setting.</p>
<p>Mind you, my impression is just from what you reveal here so perhaps I’m completely misinterpreting - which, of course, could have been the problem with your Yale ap also.</p>
<p>Eh I’m the EIC of my yearbook and political review and l teach math to a class of disadvantaged students but I didn’t really talk about those in my essays. </p>
<p>Is it just Yale that thinks that or does it include other ivies?</p>
<p>yalehacker - Yale is especially eager to attract kids who do a broad range of extracurriculars (and have a passion for one or two things in particular) and you should have mentioned those two things somewhere and built at least one essay around those activities. All highly selective schools, of which almost all do hollistic admissions, like to know about stuff like that. In fact, having worked with a “famous” researcher is probably less important.</p>
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<p>For the record, you do NOT need community or volunteer experience to be admitted to a selective college. My son is at Yale, and my daughter is at Harvard – and both of them had no community or volunteering experience – none, zero, zilch. These days colleges discount volunteering and community service on an application because they are aware that some high schools require it for graduation, while other kids just do it to make their application look good. </p>
<p>keesh17 is correct though about passion. Yale, and other selective colleges, look for students who have a passion for something beyond academics. The theory being that “passion” is translatable, and if you were to attend their school, you could develop a passion for an activity that you’ve never participated in. So, generally speaking, your applications must demonstrate a passion of at least one year of participation in something beyond the classroom. Otherwise, you come across as a dweeb who just exists inside a classroom – and all colleges want more than that!</p>
<p>If you highlighted your yearbook, political review and teaching of math in the EC section – provided each of those was done for more than one year, you should be okay. Where you could have gone wrong is the “tone” on your essay. Did you come across as like-able, somebody they would want on their campus. Another area of concern could be your teacher recs. Did one of your teachers possibly give you a back-handed compliment? Or, maybe they gave you a tepid recommendation? I would review your essay for tone and ask your recommendation writers what they think could have gone wrong, as being deferred is one thing, but out-right rejected for a Siemens students is HIGHLY unusual.</p>
<p>There was one thing actually now that I think about it. When I went for my interview we just talked about computer science the whole time and in the end he was confused to why I applied for astronomy. + all of my credentials are all comp sci so I guess the admission officers were confused about that also, warranting a rejection.</p>