<ul>
<li>Be yourself.</li>
<li>Don’t sign up for a bunch of EC’s just so your application can look more complete.</li>
<li>Write really really good essays.</li>
<li>Don’t do the National Youth Leadership Program (lol) or any summer program that costs a few thousand dollars and that isn’t at all selective… adcoms know which these programs are, and they also know that these supposedly ‘enriching’ summer programs just show that your mommy and daddy have enough money to pay for the program.</li>
<li>SAT scores do matter… to an extent. Applying to Yale with an 1800 will be more likely to be a factor in their rejection of you than getting a 2350 will be in getting you in. In other words, low scores can only keep you out, but high scores won’t get you in to HYPMS, etc.</li>
<li>Demonstrate a passion in one or two things (the trombone, ice hockey, MUN, etc - something you commit to over a long period of time)</li>
<li>If you are white or Asian or Indian… good luck - you’ll need it.</li>
<li>If you are a first-generation, half Native-American, half African-American applicant out of North Dakota with a family income of $23,762… never mind.</li>
</ul>
<p>There is SOME luck. For example, you can be lucky that you had the opportunity to pursue activities outside of school. Lucky that someone inspired you to learn a subject or explore it further. </p>
<p>And admissions is BS a little. I got into HYPS but was waitlisted and Cornell and Penn… go figure. </p>
<p>My BEST advice (and I wish someone told me this in September when I started looking at the applications, I guess I had to learn it the hard way) is to be disgustingly honest in everything you write. No fluff. (Looking back, thats probably why Cornell and Penn didn’t take me).</p>
<p>
LOLZZZZZ. Well that gave me a lot of confidence…</p>
<p>
You could say this about many other things in life…
And yea, at the end it doesn’t matter. Some more fortunate people go to Harvard. Some don’t. You are still yourself (hopefully). It’s just college.</p>
<p>Ugh, I’m not sure what kind of niche I fill. I have a ton of leadership positions, like class president, concertmaster of orchestra, math team/tennis/physics team captain, editor of newspaper, founder/president of poli sci club.</p>
<p>I sorta went the well rounded route. I could try to pursue a math/music/political niche, but it seems a bit late now.</p>
<p>Advice?</p>
<p>I totally agree about the niche theory and how you are competing against people in your niche. To me, it makes complete sense. I view it like this:</p>
<p>If you’re a asian good at math/science you’ll probably be competing against 5,000 people (the numbers are off, I know, but just to give an idea) who beyond good GPA, test scores have similar math/science ECs. What will make you rise to the top is either being absolutley outstanding and better than everyone in your niche, or being more unique.</p>
<p>Now, if you’re a cheerleader, humanities-loving asian (quite an rarity) with good GPA/test scores you might only be competing against 100 other people. You have a much better chance of getting in.</p>
<p>You just have to stand out in your niche by either being outstanding, unique, or able to make your EC’s come alive with a great essay. Just my 2 cents (and take my insights with a grain of salt because I haven’t even gone through the admissions process and will probably be proven wrong when I get a bunch of rejections ;)</p>
<p>I love what is accepted as wisdom these days. Molding your life freshman year to fit the mold of a certain institution. Pursuing a “passion” not because you’re an interesting person, but because you want to make an admissions officer interested. What we’re talking about is different from writing a story or crafting an argument. This is your life. Who wants to get in the habit of crafting your life to fit a certain predetermined standard? </p>
<p>The sad thing is, this might all pay off. The experiences and opportunities at a school like Yale can almost be said to be worth it. Still, it doesn’t matter if you have the most qualified, interesting application in the world. If your application is being read at 10 pm on March 15, after the committee has just admitted two kids from your area and only has a handful of spots left to fill, you probably won’t get accepted. There is definitely a lot of luck involved regarding when and under what circumstances your application is read.</p>
<p>A recommendation: read The Organization Kid by David Brooks. It’s an article that appeared in The Atlantic. Makes me doubt my life… lol</p>
<p>bump 10 characters</p>
<p>great post by op. its funny - i didn’t know that “why yale” was an essay. i just wrote some crap down. if i may comment, it’s probably hard to say why one person got in necessarily, but that person may associate everything he or she did in the application process as the correct thing to do. watch out. (not applicable to dbate, im just saying in general because it popped into my head)</p>
<p>What you have to understand is how admissions has evolved.</p>
<p>It has, or at least, will, get to the point where significantly MORE applicants than spots have a ‘great personality’, unique passions, excellence in their own niche, as well as a solid backing of SAT/GPA. Everyone on CC looks to what got the PREVIOUS class into HPYS and models after that - that is setting you up for a game of luck because the fact then becomes you have two candidates with their own different quirky personalities for every one spot. There was a point where just being the really interesting person was enough - but that time is going. Now just being really interesting, having all of the qualities Dbate talked about, is not enough to reduce the game of admissions to a science. </p>
<p>What you must do is learn from the past, but prophesize, figure out what the future of admissions will be and model your application in a way that will communicate the things that were communicated yesterday, but more importantly, will be communicated tomorrow. I know it sounds nebulous, but that’s the best way to describe it. You don’t win in the stock market by understanding the current situation and past - you do decently well with a slight chance of excellence by doing that. You do consistently well in stocks by having a sense of how things are evolving, how certain companies are going to interact with a constantly changing world. </p>
<p>So in my parents day, it was GPA and SATs. That’s all you needed to get into HYPS - or knowing the right people. In the past few years it is that + ECs + 1 constant passion throughout your life + writing skills + really interesting and standout personality. But it’s changing; too many people catch on to what needs to be done to get in, and the criteria shifts. </p>
<p>I made a hypothesis about what it was shifting to and I supplied it. I don’t know if I was right. I urge all future applicants to formulate their own guess - a researched guess, drawing on what you have learned about the world. You gotta build upon what you have observed this year. Everything is fluid.</p>
<p>Accept that no one is ever going to tell you how to get in. They will only tell you the 9786907869078 ways to not get in; You have to come up with your own strategy for maximizing your life in the admissions lens. And then accept that you are, however, going to have to form that strategy by intense introspection and by doing a lot of investigating and researching with both curiosity and skepticism.</p>
<p>Eh. Do your best, and do what you care about the most. That way, you’ll get into a college that cares about what you care about.</p>
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<p>Not sure about this…I didn’t have any constant passion, but I have a hodgepodge of different interests…yet I got into HYP</p>