I speak as a college counselor that just retired after 30+ years. Yes, Yale is a lovely place to spend 4 years and get an education, I have no doubt, but it is a nearly impossible admit.

In the last 10 years, I saw only 3 kids from my school get in and they were so unique and different that I remember each of them:
- white, UMC male who showed immense commitment and dedication to a specific public service cause over many, many years
- white, poor male, single parent home - his extracurriculars were working two low-paid jobs while helping take care of a younger sibling
- URM female that came into this country as a refugee with her family

All three were also excellent, high stats students. But my point is how can a great, hard working, high stats kid whose parents worked hard to provide him with a stable MC or UMC upbringing stand out against kids like this? That’s why I am saying that it is a crapshoot.

Anonymous wrote:Dd wants to SCEA Yale. URM, great grades, SAT, ECs and a compelling personal history, but otherwise we are your average uppermiddle class parents. I am wondering if she is throwing away her ED card! Humanities kid. Should she try for another school? Dartmouth? Brown ? Barnard ? Penn?

Well, none of these schools have ED2 so it’s one or the other….I would not count on an upper middle class URM having any kind of boost.

Dartmouth is a much more bro-centered community. Which fits some kids.

Anonymous wrote:My nephew attends Yale right now and loves it. He's just started his junior year.

Yale alumni like their school more than almost any other Ivy. Yale has the prestige of Harvard and Princeton while having rampant grade inflation and a strong sense of community. Yale has the housing system and doesn't have the elitist eating clubs or final clubs of Harvard and Princeton. There are secret societies, but they aren't nearly as important on campus as they were decades ago.

In contrast, Columbia, Penn, Cornell, and Dartmouth are much more divisive places.

Got it. So:

Eating & finals clubs are good.

Secret societies are bad.

It can’t get any easier than that.

Anonymous wrote:Dd wants to SCEA Yale. URM, great grades, SAT, ECs and a compelling personal history, but otherwise we are your average uppermiddle class parents. I am wondering if she is throwing away her ED card! Humanities kid. Should she try for another school? Dartmouth? Brown ? Barnard ? Penn?

Whether early or regular round, if she does apply to Yale make sure she reads up on the Directed Studies program and includes some reference to that in one of her essays. It’s kind of the ultimate humanities deep dive across freshman year. My DD decided to add a humanities double major just because she loved her Directed Studies experience so much that she kept wanting to add on more humanities classes “for fun“.

Anonymous wrote:My nephew attends Yale right now and loves it. He's just started his junior year.

Yale alumni like their school more than almost any other Ivy. Yale has the prestige of Harvard and Princeton while having rampant grade inflation and a strong sense of community. Yale has the housing system and doesn't have the elitist eating clubs or final clubs of Harvard and Princeton. There are secret societies, but they aren't nearly as important on campus as they were decades ago.

In contrast, Columbia, Penn, Cornell, and Dartmouth are much more divisive places.

The "rampant grade inflation" has, over time, diminished Yale's prestige relative to other top schools.

The secret societies at Yale are every bit as elitist as the final clubs at Harvard and probably more elitist than the eating clubs at Princeton (about half of which are open to any student).

And Dartmouth has a greater sense of community and alumni loyalty than Yale. Not even close.

Other than that, your boosting sounds about right.

Mostly I loved it. I was —and am—very academic-minded, so, while navigating the shift from a public HS to Yale had challenging moments, I loved it. The residential college system is a wonderful way to have a smaller, diverse community within the larger College. I really did make lifelong friends, and post-COVID, I’ve appreciated the local and the larger alumni community. I also got into my first choice PhD program, so I’m sure that my Yale degree was a useful stepping stone.

I’m happy to answer any questions, but I’m guessing that more current information and experiences would be more valuable to you.

My niece is currently a junior at Yale and she is having a great experience.

We have visited twice so far, and I’ve been amazed at the level of resources available to these kids. You definitely walk around and feel “ok, money is really not an issue here”. Yale feels wealthy, not in an ostentatious way but in a very subtle way. As someone who went to a state school I have to admit I have felt a tiny bit jealous!

The only downside I’ve heard my niece talk about is how competitive Yale is and how challenging it is to get into certain clubs, get certain fellowships, etc. Other than that, she is really loving it.

Anonymous wrote:Dd wants to SCEA Yale. URM, great grades, SAT, ECs and a compelling personal history, but otherwise we are your average uppermiddle class parents. I am wondering if she is throwing away her ED card! Humanities kid. Should she try for another school? Dartmouth? Brown ? Barnard ? Penn?

My feeling is try for whet you want and have a backup plan.

Dd wants to SCEA Yale. URM, great grades, SAT, ECs and a compelling personal history, but otherwise we are your average uppermiddle class parents. I am wondering if she is throwing away her ED card! Humanities kid. Should she try for another school? Dartmouth? Brown ? Barnard ? Penn?

Not an alum, I actually attended the rival school up north for college. But my kid is at Yale now and absolutely loving it! I liked my time at Harvard, but I think he is having a much better undergrad experience than I did.

I went to Yale in the 1990s and I truly loved it, it changed my life, I made lifelong friends, etc etc. I'm sure lots has changed since then. It was not an insane pressure cooker. Kids were happy to be there. It has a reputation for being an undergrad school that is challenging but that kids love attending. Good luck!

I'm a Yale alum and loved it, but I am sure it is much different now. Everything is. I think the experiences of parents of Yalies on this board is more relevant. Also, though, consider your kid's interests. My high stats kid didn't even want to apply because Yale wasn't strong in their interests. Made me sad though realistically the chances of admission were slim. They are at another T10 now better suited to them, but I don't sense the energy and excitement I experienced at Yale.

My kid’s top 3 last year were Yale, another Ivy and T10 that both have ED. He’s a “what if” and also had some big scholarships in play so wanted to see it through and know all options on table. He chose REA to Yale because they don’t defer as many, so at least if was a signal to how competitive his application was early on. He was deferred and later rejected. Ended up at other Ivy he wanted. Don’t think it was a bad game plan and he wouldn’t have done anything different.

I believe in ED for 3rd choice if your top choices are places like Yale. You can move way down in the RD process.