Would Yale take a flier on a kid?

worriestoomuch
Sat, 03 Nov 2018 13:00:34 +0000

@penandink - I’m not sure why this post was moved out of the Yale thread, but I’m glad I located it.

You are clearly a clever, artful and skilled writer. Why do you want to go to Yale? There are many colleges that cater to budding writers, such as JHU, NYU, U of Michigan, U of CA at Irvine, BU, Hunter College, Brooklyn College, Wesleyan, Sarah Lawrence, Kenyon, Bard, Vassar, Skidmore, Bennington, Goucher, U of Iowa, Amherst, Grinnell, and Coe College.

Your alter-ego OP doesn’t reveal enough information that would allow someone familiar with Yale to really say what your “chances of admission” are. But just on the basis of your evident writing skill and ability to engage with all the parents who came at you above with their helpful advice, I’d say you have a shot at admission. But there’s something else in your post, its tone, its implicit indictment of an admissions process that allegedly punishes “(an) applicant who hasn’t made it his/her life’s work to fatten up that resume” that is off-putting, since it reveals a kind of bitterness that is odd/unusual in an applicant who hasn’t submitted an application to, let alone been rejected by, Yale.

And that incorrect and unfair assumption shows that you don’t really know anything about Yale or its students. They are not “resume builders” They are what I’d call “ear;y bloomers”; individuals who discovered a passion for dance, theatre, science, music, writing at a very early age and tenaciously pursued those passions without thinking about whether they would help them gain entrance to “elite” universities. And the majority of them pursue multiple interests with that degree of focus, longstanding commitment and evident accomplishment, that most people will never experience, or just discover a lot later in life, making the latter “late bloomers.”

And even the “early bloomers” have experienced disappointment and rejection multiple times on their different paths towards their various goals. All kinds of rejections that have not left them discouraged, but perhaps a bit more humbled and resilient than those students who never aimed high at an early age, making them more thoughtful, self-critical and even empathetic people, These are the qualities I think Yale AOs look for in their their applicants (in addition to the more conventional ones of stellar GPAs, standardized testing scores, LoR). These are the qualities, as well as an array of aptitudes, talents and social commitments, which they believe these students will bring to Yale and make the college community a better, more enriching place for everyone.

Wishing you the best of luck!