<p>he is a male asian, from MD. In the IB program at a top 10 in the nation school</p>
<p>4.0 uw 4.8 w</p>
<p>SAT I: M: 780 W: 800 CR: 800 (2380)
SAT II: Math II: 800 Chem: 800 French: 780</p>
<p>Extra curriclars</p>
<p>starting a peer counseling group at our school
4- year varsity letter of school tennis team
numreous clarinet awards
1st chair all eastern orchestra (best clarinet player on east coast)
Started up a successful tennis coaching business (revenue of over $10,000 a year)
Its academic 4 years
Volunteered at hospital 2 years
2 year NIH internship
National Merit finalist
Triem (music national honor society)
french honor society
national honor society</p>
<p>maybe because he looked like a cliche applicant? I couldn’t tell. Anyways, places like Yale have the privilege to decide on factors other than numbers, since they probably receive bunch of apps like your friend’s.</p>
<p>He’s asian. It’s a disadvantage because he could have been compared to other male asian applicants whose SAT scores and grades are typically just as high or near perfect as his. His application probably didn’t stand out among theirs. Besides, I don’t think he was recruited for tennis. And a lot of people play musical instruments, especially very talented asians. His ECS don’t seem to be unique and eye-catching.</p>
<p>I suspect the friend is actually you. In any event, Yale got about 2000 more applicants - probably Princeton wanabees that could no longer apply early decision - so the competition was rougher with many others having similar stats. It was probably the essay not really impacting whoever read it.</p>
<p>The recs and essays are very important. Stats don’t tell you much. </p>
<p>In terms of being the best clarinetist on the East Coast, it’s really hard to say that for certain based on a few competitions - maybe some other clarinetists applied who have already played clarinet concertos with the Berlin Symphony when they were 13 years old. It’s Yale, so this is actually not so uncommon.</p>
<p>Several years ago, Yale rejected 60% of their applicants that got perfect 800’s on their SAT’s–and that was several years ago, when the competition was not as intense as it is this year. Gotta let go, move on, think of applying to grad. school at Yale…</p>
<p>Maybe he just wasn’t a good fit for this particular college socially. I got rejected by Dartmouth, and now realize I probably would never have been able to thrive in that environment, whereas Yale is just right for me. It’s not all a numbers game.</p>
<p>OP: you’re asking a question that will forever not be known. You’ll only get peoples’ opinions and speculation on CC. No one who read his file can publicly answer anyways.</p>
<p>Your friend obviously has many talents – he’ll do fine at whatever school he decides upon.</p>
<p>I think it’s important to remember that just because “your friend” didn’t get in doesn’t mean that applicants with similar resumes have no chance. People often like to point out that a large percentage of kids with perfect SAT’s get rejected. Their acceptance rate is still better than that of the overall applicant pool. So my message is really directed to the Yale board rather than the OP. There are guaranteed to be surprises in any large applicant pool. Don’t let those outliers make you pessimistic about your own chances. The applicant in question looks very good on paper, and with a polished essay, he/she probably would have gotten the nod over a great many other applicants.</p>
<p>It could be that students prefer Harvard and Princeton in previous year. Yale wants to keep the yield high. However, he may still be accepted in RD.</p>
<p>I think maybe Y saw your friend as a very strong applicant but what he wanted to major or showed passion was one of the weak dept at yale but know that it is very strong at H or P.
So Yale might have thought he just applied to Y early and probably would accept H or P over Y where his strong passion for his major lies. Yale did not want to take risk of taking him now but to defer until RD.</p>
<p>Anyone agree with me? cause I have seen so many amazing people get deferred</p>
<p>I don’t think the OP is cookie cutter at all, but I agree with everyone who says it’s an unpredictable process. Recognize that, and don’t set your heart on any one school (my mantra is ‘don’t fall in love with any school until after you are accepted.’) </p>
<p>You have a terrific profile - make sure your app presentation is the best it can be (a useful easy to digest book on this topic is the recent release The New Rules of College Admissions, which does a good job of emphasizing good presentation and how to do it) and then go out there and apply to a bunch of great colleges, and be enthusiastic about all. </p>
<p>The only mistake you can mkae is to fixate on any one college - Yale or otherwise. It’s a college, not a marriage, all the questionable advice about ‘finding your match’ to the contrary - there are many great choices out there that will make you happy.</p>
<p>My guess as to what kept him from getting accepted is that his ECs are quite unfocused and it’s not clear what 1 or 2 activities he TRULY is devoted to. I think lots of people make the mistake of placing breadth over depth. Anyway, it’s obviously not his scores that kept him out, but lots of Asian applicants are going to have those scores and better ECs.</p>
<p>ailey, what do you think about my opinion? if Yale think that their certain dept is weak compared to HP and the applicant is extremely qualified and they think he will be accepted to HP where that certain dept is the best in the world, wouldnt Y be a little skeptical to accept this student in the early round? They are being very conservative in the EA this year.</p>