Yale has an initial culling of applications; does anyone know the SAT/ACT cutoff?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pre-pandemic, I was an alum interviewer for Penn, back when they tried to guarantee an interview for every applicant. One of my interviewees was a young man who I met at a Starbucks in a neighboring town. He told me his Dad was tired of him doing nothing with his life, and had forced him to apply to a bunch of Ivy league schools. He worked part-time at a warehouse distribution center, his primary activity outside of work was playing video games and partying with his friends, and he had graduated from high school two years earlier with a 2.5 GPA and bare minimum state-required classes. He volunteered all this info, as an interviewer I didn't see grades or any application detail. He was very nice, but I left the meeting wondering why my Alma mater wasted an hour or 2 of my time. With Yale's name recognition, I am sure they have way more applicants like this than Penn. Probably very easy to make a first cut.

Uh, because Yale runs alumni interviews to get YOU, the alum, involved so you will feel empowered and give more money. All Ivies do this for this reason. The interviews mean nothing. Your report back to Yale means nothing (they say it does, but it doesn't). Everyone knows this. I did it for Harvard. It's all about marketing you.

The point was that I met a wildly unprepared applicant, who had a 0% chance of getting into the school. I am sure there are a great many of these applicants that Yale is now dispensing with right away.

I would have been annoyed about this as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Princeton admitted a student from deep south. He was supposed to be the best student ever from that county in decades.

The student ended up in rehab as he could not keep up with the rigor that other classmates who are used to that in HS. You can look this up.

Ok that's one student. I can think of several similar students off the top of my head who did great at HYP. They were my classmates so I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Princeton admitted a student from deep south. He was supposed to be the best student ever from that county in decades.

The student ended up in rehab as he could not keep up with the rigor that other classmates who are used to that in HS. You can look this up.

Ok that's one student. I can think of several similar students off the top of my head who did great at HYP. They were my classmates so I know.

The point is from a relatively unknown HS, AO's tend to be a lot more hesitant to avoid these kinds of issues. If a HS is very familiar like say the top 50 HS's then this is not even a factor if they have all the right metrics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yale admits 2100 students per year, not 1600.

No. 1610 undergrads this year including transfers. This is what yale president, Maurie McInnis, said in her speech welcoming incoming students. This is also the newsletter mentioned.

That’s how many attend. Not how many are admitted.

You are right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pre-pandemic, I was an alum interviewer for Penn, back when they tried to guarantee an interview for every applicant. One of my interviewees was a young man who I met at a Starbucks in a neighboring town. He told me his Dad was tired of him doing nothing with his life, and had forced him to apply to a bunch of Ivy league schools. He worked part-time at a warehouse distribution center, his primary activity outside of work was playing video games and partying with his friends, and he had graduated from high school two years earlier with a 2.5 GPA and bare minimum state-required classes. He volunteered all this info, as an interviewer I didn't see grades or any application detail. He was very nice, but I left the meeting wondering why my Alma mater wasted an hour or 2 of my time. With Yale's name recognition, I am sure they have way more applicants like this than Penn. Probably very easy to make a first cut.

Uh, because Yale runs alumni interviews to get YOU, the alum, involved so you will feel empowered and give more money. All Ivies do this for this reason. The interviews mean nothing. Your report back to Yale means nothing (they say it does, but it doesn't). Everyone knows this. I did it for Harvard. It's all about marketing you.

The point was that I met a wildly unprepared applicant, who had a 0% chance of getting into the school. I am sure there are a great many of these applicants that Yale is now dispensing with right away.

I would have been annoyed about this as well.

Be annoyed with the parents. I don't know what percentage of applications go into elite colleges that are there because the parents tell the kids to send it in but it has to be a decent percentage.

[Anonymous]

https://admissions.yale.edu/sites/default/files/yale_classprofile2029web.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://admissions.yale.edu/sites/default/files/yale_classprofile2029web.pdf

Looks like going "test flexible" i.e., SAT, ACT or AP Exams eliminated 7,000 low scorers from applying versus the prior year when 57,000 students applied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://admissions.yale.edu/sites/default/files/yale_classprofile2029web.pdf

Very interesting -- Physics, Chemistry, Math, Philosophy are not in the top 15 of intended majors! It all seems rather mercenary (a whole bunch of pre-med adjacent majors, Econ and CS) is all the rage. Where's the seed corn for the next generation of scientists?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://admissions.yale.edu/sites/default/files/yale_classprofile2029web.pdf

Very interesting -- Physics, Chemistry, Math, Philosophy are not in the top 15 of intended majors! It all seems rather mercenary (a whole bunch of pre-med adjacent majors, Econ and CS) is all the rage. Where's the seed corn for the next generation of scientists?

Here is the actual list of intended majors, what's wrong with it?
Biomedical Engineering; Computer Science;
Economics; English; Environmental Studies;
Ethics, Politics, & Economics; Global Affairs;
History; History of Science, Medicine, & Public
Health; Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry;
Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology;
Neuroscience; Political Science; Psychology;
Statistics & Data Science

Also, your outrage seems manufactured. Not sure how popular philosophy is anywhere, but one of Yale's most popular majors is Ethics, Politics & Econ which has some philosophy built in. This has been a popular interdisciplinary major for a long time at Yale by the way. And while Physics, Chem and Math are not on this list, a other STEM majors are, including Molecular BioPHYSICS & BioCHEMISTRY. MB&B has also long been popular at Yale, and attracts a lot of really smart kids.

[Anonymous]

Not outraged. Just remarking. And I have a PhD in physics and am on the faculty of a neuroscience program. Biophysics is not physics and biochemistry is not chemistry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: https://admissions.yale.edu/sites/default/files/yale_classprofile2029web.pdf

Makes sense. Some of the kids I know who've gotten in from our private school in the last few years had none of those majors.
Think instead: Anthro; Classics; East Asian Languages & Lit; Ethnicity, Race & Migration; Jewish Studies; LatAm Studies; Middle East Studies; Slavic/Russian Studies; Women's Studies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not outraged. Just remarking. And I have a PhD in physics and am on the faculty of a neuroscience program. Biophysics is not physics and biochemistry is not chemistry.

My kid is interested in Yale Physics + music, 1530/3.86/4.76, with research and EC to back up the intended studies. Sadly judging from his school scoir, he has no chance at Yale. Really too bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://admissions.yale.edu/sites/default/files/yale_classprofile2029web.pdf

Very interesting -- Physics, Chemistry, Math, Philosophy are not in the top 15 of intended majors! It all seems rather mercenary (a whole bunch of pre-med adjacent majors, Econ and CS) is all the rage. Where's the seed corn for the next generation of scientists?

Not in this country right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not outraged. Just remarking. And I have a PhD in physics and am on the faculty of a neuroscience program. Biophysics is not physics and biochemistry is not chemistry.

My kid is interested in Yale Physics + music, 1530/3.86/4.76, with research and EC to back up the intended studies. Sadly judging from his school scoir, he has no chance at Yale. Really too bad.

That SAT is too low, especially for physics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not outraged. Just remarking. And I have a PhD in physics and am on the faculty of a neuroscience program. Biophysics is not physics and biochemistry is not chemistry.

No, it's not, but perhaps some of the kids who would have majored in physics or chem at another school are choosing the interdisciplinary MB&B major at Yale.