Reply to What does one need to have a better than 5% chance at Yale?

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[quote=Anonymous]Longtime interviewer here. Lately what seems to do well is something that in the grand scheme of things be thankful that your child does not have - extremely bad life circumstances that they still managed to successfully shine in academics and extracurriculars. That doesn’t mean that I’ve never had a UMC DMV kid get in, but hardship helps. Have answers to the “Why Yale” question, but just citing interdisciplinary is what they all do. Also common, establishing to help targeted underprivileged groups. They are all great things and keep helping your community, but you don’t stand out from my stack of interviews.

The most important intangible is hard to prep for - be interesting and be interested (in topics). Practice conversing with adults. Be able to carry a two-way conversation. Don’t be afraid to geek out on your chosen topic in the essay or interview. I had one student get in and we basically spent the entire interview talking about their favorite pop culture-type topic. I’ve geeked out with applicants on linguistics, mechanics, theater, etc. Yale has a type. Confident, not arrogant, able to be in a room of people and engage in substantive topics without being star struck. Appearing to know what we’re talking about without being a dick about it. I see a lot of dual-alum kids get in (and some are not big donors at all) and I think one element is that their social and conversational norms were influenced by two parents who were already the “type”. Even if it doesn’t fully come out in the short interviews I do, it’s going to come out in ther statements and recommendations.

And five percent is five percent. A few win, but tons of great kids don’t. [/quote]

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