Applying as an international student at Yale?

[Nooth]

Hey people! This is my first post at the forums, so please bare with me!

I'm about to start pre-ib next term, and I'm curious as of what extracurricular activities I should engage in to maximize the chances of being admitted at Yale? I've already done quite a few projects wich I think will look good on the app, but I'm unsure of what activities I should proceed with. Also, is ther anyone here who've got any offers from Yale and could perhaps give me a hint of what scores they graduated with? Thanks in advance!

Lux et veritas!

Ps. The forum is kind of broken on the iPad using Safari, just a heads up.

[Daedalus]

I don't think Yale requires any specific extracurricular activities and I think it's pretty sad that people choose their extracurricular activities based on what they'll get into Yale with.

In other news, you will need a roughly 4.0 GPA and also an SAT score of 2000+...

[Nooth]

I don't think Yale requires any specific extracurricular activities and I think it's pretty sad that people choose their extracurricular activities based on what they'll get into Yale with.

In other news, you will need a roughly 4.0 GPA and also an SAT score of 2000+...

Well, thank you for your response. I won't be attending to High School in the US, so I guess I won't recive a GPA? Hence my question about applying internationally. I'm not going to choose what activities to engage in based on what Yale or any other Uni for that matter likes - I'm simply looking for hints as of what direction I should look. And the reason I formatted the first post as I did was to boost the keywords on Google.

Edited December 3, 2010 by Nooth

[Sandwich]

...aren't you asking exactly that though, what you should do extracurricularly if you want to get into Yale?

There is, in my opinion, nothing wrong with doing an activity purely to tick a box if it gets you to where you want to be and to do what you want to do. It's ridiculous to lose out on something because you wanted to follow your own path re: your hobbies and extracurriculars if said path basically screws you over on your application, so I'd disagree with Daedalus. No laws against playing the system (at least until they invent a better system).

Generally speaking, although I'm not at Uni in the US so can't really comment with 100% authority, it's a good idea to do as wide a range of activities as possible when it comes to showing off personal characteristics. So a role in a team, a role organising something to show that you're motivated, a role leading something, preferably a sport or musical instrument that can contribute to the college, anything unusual which might grab their attention (some weird obscure activity perhaps) and so on. I hear that in the US they're big on showing off what a wonderful middle-class American AMAZING individual you are by doing some charity stuff (the cheesier the better, think American High School films), but you should do some of that for CAS anyway.

In a nutshell more + variety = good. Few or lots of the same = bad. Very high level at a sport = extra good.

Also, just for future reference, the phrase is "bear with me", not "bare with me" unless you're planning some kind of organised nudity! So many people get that wrong, so no worries, I just feel I ought to correct people when they do!

Finally, re: answering your question via Google search, the majority if not all the people who regularly give answers here are already members and will find your thread via looking at recent posts, not by searching Google, so there's no real need to keyword things unless you really want to. I am perhaps also biased as I find it's just easier to read something sans mega-formatting!

[dessskris]

First off, scroll dooooown til you see IB Survival 3.0, English, Time, etc. Change IB Survival 3.0 to IP.Board Mobile. Perhaps it looks better now but some features might be disabled. You can always change it to any theme, though.

I am not sure about Yale, but for uni in general, you should just take 1-3 particular ECAs and be committed in it. They might want students who do sport, art, music, dance, robotics, etc. I think the important thing is that you love&enjoy the activity, you attend often and you gain a lot of experiences from it. Perhaps you could join some competition then.

e.g. take swimming ECA and join a swimming competition

If you win the competition, it would look even better in the app

[Matthew Sinclair]

Contrary to some of what was above, variety isn't always good.

I'd recommend doing some activities that are outside your main area, but for college I think it's great to have one area that you really focus on. Colleges, such as Yale, sculpt/mold their class. This means they will try and find people with certain interests who are a great fit in making the class awesome. So someone who's mediocre and only somewhat involved in like 10 ECs is probs not as good as someone who's so genuinely passionate about 2 or 3 in the one area, and maybe 1 or 2 others just to show you do have that bit of balance

Yeah, if you're amazing at sport (or music) that's a huge plus!!!

[JoeG]

Oh, US colleges love leadership positions too.

Don't make a fake club just so you can have a position, actually participate in it.

You can always try to get elected as a class Government Officer, or elected for an already existing club.

For US universities, volunteer hours are in a way, almost becoming mandatory*.

As said above, try to have a variety of activities that show something about YOU. Uni's see hundreds upon hundreds of applicants with the same activities, try to have new and interesting combinations of activities.

The issue is that you have to show your personality through your activities, but try to get enough to have a nice resume.

Remember to have neat clubs too.

* Most Uni's will ask if you have issues that prevent you from participating in EC activities so it won't impact your admission chance negatively. This includes financial, family, work, medical and possibly religious obligations.