Same, I am quite sure my S24’s understanding and valuing of what Yale offers is not really a question. Same frankly with the Morehead-Cain winner who also got deferred, and I believe also was not interviewed. Nor for that matter the kid from our HS who was accepted SCEA–I don’t know if she was interviewed but it wouldn’t surprise me if not.
For these kids it is just a matter of Yale getting so many great kids they were only sure about admitting one of the three so far (and it is not a mystery why they picked her, in fact). But I am very confident Yale will admit some kids like this, it just doesn’t have the space to admit more than a fraction, and that is what it is.
That was also my assumption, but it was interesting to me how direct they were about the other explanation being the main explanation:
[Mark] So you’re probably wondering, why do we send these letters to a small group of regular decision applicants? You may be thinking that this is some super elite group of students, that it’s like being admitted to Yale with laurels, like with extra points on top of it. That’s not how you should think about this at all.
[Hannah] Right, right. One reason we send likely letters is that we read your application and we’re really excited to admit you, but that’s not the real reason that these letters exist. We decide to send likely letters to students based on the strength of their application, but also based on our understanding of how low the chances are of this student eventually committing to Yale.
[Ashleigh] So we only issue likely letters to regular decision applicants. So if a student is applying early action, we feel pretty good about the fact that Yale is probably their first choice. If an applicant is applying regular decision, they may have applied somewhere else early or there’s a good chance that they’re just going to have so many compelling college options to choose from in April.
That said, Hannah’s statement implies both are true, meaning it was likely also sufficient to knock out deferrals from contention that they were not easy admits. But apparently in their view it isn’t even necessary to get to that question because early applicants are not a yield concern for them anyway.
Interesting about the STEM types. My child is a STEM kid. Still Yale is their first choice and they did submit a LOCI. Hopefully the LOCI will help for RD.
Just listened to the podcast. The thrust of the podcast was about why LL which is all about trying to yield certain students that are tougher yields. The explanation on why deferreds are not given LL’s is kind of an aside and they are linking it to the fact that they think those applicants will yield higher in any case. But if we think about it, deferrals are deferred first and foremost bc the AO’s want to compare them against the RD pool before they make a yes or no decision. LL recipients as they state in the podcast are definite yes’s. I guess there could be that case where a deferred has made it through committee before the end of February and has become a penciled yes who would not get a LL because the yield concern is less.
Yeah, they discuss how there are special committees that meet in late January to determine Likely Letters. They didn’t quite say this, but given the rest of what they said my assumption is that deferred applications simply are not sent to those committees, so that is that.
And in fact, you can actually get considered for a Likely and then sort of deferred from that!
[Ashleigh] And we hold a few special committees to review these students in late January typically. And likely letters usually go out throughout the month of February. Very often there are students who we strongly consider sending likely letters to, but just decide we need more time to consider their application in our regular committee process. Sometimes that’s just because we want to wait for more information, such as an interview, updated grades, et cetera, and sometimes we just need more time to evaluate their application.
Holding aside deferral cases, I guess I had just forgotten how blunt they were about the strategic considerations involved in Likely Letters. It all makes sense, but they even have a part where they discuss calling a Likely and finding out that person is ready to sign up right away, and that being a mistake in the sense they realize they didn’t need to make that person a Likely!
[Mark] And I’ll say, sometimes we get those predictions wrong. I mean Sometimes we imagine, oh, maybe this student is not that keen on the Yale, they’re going to need extra time. That’s actually the best thing when it happens. And we call up a student and we say we want to give you extra time. And they say, “I want to commit right now. Yes, Yale’s my number one choice.”
[Hannah] Right.
[Mark] We Say, “Well, awesome.” Wonderful. Thanks for that. I guess we guessed wrong on that part, but delighted that you got the news a little early.
Obviously their point is that is a happy sort of mistake, but it is still funny to me to think about it that way–it really underscores how yield is still a concern even at these most selective levels.
Will having sent many updates (as in over their limit, like around 7-8 between ea/rd) hurt my application? I have very unique circumstances that I had to clarify through the use of updates, had achievements won, sent in my loci, sent in my ap scores that were somehow not reported on my original app, etc. So every update was necessary. Will my AO be annoyed? I apologised to them more than once.
So generally speaking I think people should try to do everything in one update, but if that was obviously not possible in your case I would not worry about it.
hi! just want some reassurance that i personally didn’t screw up my ability to access an interview - i for some reason never waived my rights to see an interview summary umm would this affect the admission’s office decision of giving me an interview? i feel like it looks bad bc the advice has always been to waive ur rights for anything.
i could be wrong, but i believe that you could only see that interview summary after you’re a student at yale, because you can request to read your file and the interview notes are part of that, and wouldn’t be if you waived your rights to see it.
so if you didn’t waive your rights, it would be a part of the file and you would basically only see it if you were admitted and attending. could be wrong idk but that’s what it seems like! i would not worry about it if this is the case.
Last year my kid was given an online interview in the middle of March. Some said it was a good sign, but my kid was later rejected. I just wanted to let people know March interview isn’t always a good sign.
Hello I don’t know if this is a pointless question but here it is. My tired senior self sent in my application to Yale in late December, but I sent a full essay update (document attached to the update) in early January because I forgot to copy over the draft I wanted for submission and that was no bueno for me since that draft was actually SO much better (they extended the deadline so I sent that update the day it was due)
I haven’t thought about that update since but do you think they got annoyed that I sent that update? Do you think they would read the new draft without ignoring the previous horrid draft I sent in before? Even worse, is it likely that they didn’t even see the update?!?! Please do advise. Thank you and have a great day.
I don’t think there is any way for any of us on the outside to truly KNOW what happens inside the office in cases like this. But I can tell you my impression is they are generally kind people who like kids and want to help them put forward their best applications. And so I would personally be comfortable assuming it is all fine.
Please do advise. Thank you and have a great day.