Yale University

“I was sufficiently exotic, at the right feeder school,Sep 25 2006English
I was sufficiently exotic, at the right feeder school, had mostly above B grades, had won a few writing awards, spoke a few languages, and was involved in enough extracurriculars. And I bought the 10 SATs book and studied it (tested myself, then looked at why I got the answers wrong) until I increased my score by about 400 points. It's just a system. You can figure out how they want you to think if you play with it for a while.
SAT: 1400 Female

“Based on statistics, applicants who do well in schoolApr 09 2006Undecided
Based on statistics, applicants who do well in school have a better chance. However, at the heart of the matter, Yale is looking for cool kids who are leaders. Make that apparent in listing your extracurricular activities and essays. Be original. Be yourself. Be weird. Yale apparently likes that. Once you get here, you'll realize that EVERYONE here is weird; some people are just the legitimately-strange kind of weird, while others are just the legitimately-cool kind of weird. Weirdness breeds genius, I guess.
SAT: 1600 Female

“I was busy all the time doing different things-Aug 10 2005Undecided
I was busy all the time doing different things- basically always volunteering, working, etc. besides doing well academically. Most importantly, I focused on one activity and innovated new programs for the field.
SAT: 1320 Female

“It's largely luckJul 12 2005History/Histories (art history/etc.)
It's largely luck. If you are within a certain range of test scores and grades, it is all based off where you live, what race you are, and what you spent your non-academic time doing. You can have the greatest 'hook' in the world, and be rejected because someone else has the same hook and also is able to play concert-level clarinet. Just try to appear unique, and hope for the best.
ACT: 34 Male

“I think I had it pretty easyJul 12 2005Economics
I think I had it pretty easy. This isn't really because I am any smarter than people that are here. Rather, it was luck and strategy. I had a chance to attend Exeter but I chose not to. I wanted to stay close to my hometown friends and frankly, I did not really care about the quality of my high school education. Unlike those smart, brilliant kids who went to competitive schools (private and public alike), I didn't have to worry about cut-throat competition. I did just enough to get an A or A-. Instead of filling my schedule with meaningless AP courses, I took an occasional art or music class with no GPA boost. While many of my peers skipped lunch to take another AP/Honors course, I had lunch and ran an a cappella group (ironically, I am not involved with the a cappella scene here, which is quite big). Granted I still ended up taking 8 AP courses and 9 AP exams, but I was definitely known as the slacker of the bunch. I think I was ranked 13 or 14 out of 500 when I graduated, but I was the only one to get an offer of admission from Yale or Harvard. I really think that this is because I was able to show character through my transcript. My essay was ok and my extracurricular activities were average. I had good test scores but at least three people in my high school class had near-perfect scores and higher ranks. Take a look at your transcript. Does it say something about you? Or is it just a compilation of difficult classes?
ACT: 35 SAT: 1600 Male