Unitiated Parent - SCEA vs. ED

[Descartesz]

<p>

Extracurriculars
What constitutes as great extracurriculars? Does being Captain of the Cross Country team her junior and senior years? She is alos a member of Mu Alpha Theta; Latin Club; National Honor Society. Is her job at the National high Magnetic Field Laboratory considered an extracurricular?

Whether or not it is called an “extracurricular” a job is a very good thing to include on an application (on the Common App it would go in the “Activities” section.)</p>

<p>Here is an earlier qualitative assessment of the credentials of successful Yale applicants, especially of extracurriculars, based on an analysis of about 200 CC results posted in this forum.</p>

<p>

You can peruse the SCEA results thread at the top of this forum for sample profiles and look for the statistical summary SCEA thread of a couple months back. But it almost goes without saying that excellent GPA’s (3.9+ uw) over a rigorous curriculum (multiple AP/IB/post-HS courses, if available) and test scores (2250+/750+/34+) are helpful, but not de facto required.</p>

<p>It is more difficult to summarize non-academic factors. However in reviewing the EC’s for SCEA admits, I found they almost always had participated in at least three (more often four) of these five areas. Typically at least one had excellent achievement levels (probably best in school or better) and another good achievement levels (e.g., varsity sports, major acting roles, placing in local competitions). Outstanding achievement (at the state or national level) appears helpful, but diversity of interest with only a little less success might be more so.</p>

<ul>
<li>arts (music, dance, studio, design, drama, writing)</li>
<li>sports</li>
<li>academic competition (e.g., math, science, debate)</li>
<li>activism or community/religious service</li>
<li>employment or entrepreneurship</li>
</ul>

<p>Commitment and focus in one or two areas and interest in a few others (but not so many as to be purposeless) appears to be valued. Naturally demonstrated leadership and initiative contribute to the assessment of achievement in these areas.</p>

<p>It is, of course, possible to have a successful application even if your credentials fall short in one or more of these areas, but I think it is fair to say your chances are improved if you meet these standards.

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/7579507-post3.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/7579507-post3.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>BTW, regarding SCEA vs. RD, most of the threads on this debate whether or not SCEA applicants enjoy increased probability of success. It is true that the SCEA admission rate is around 14% while the RD rate is closer to 5% but, as has been pointed out, the SCEA pool is considered to be more highly qualified in aggregate. Thus it is difficult for an outsider to determine how any randomly selected application might fair in either pool. Yale admissions usually says the two factors balance out and that the decision to apply SCEA should be made on other grounds (such as those already mentioned).</p>