How to Get Into Yale: Essays and Strategies That Worked — Shemmassian Academic Consulting (2023)

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Yale admissions requirements

Part 3: Applying to Yale early action vs. regular decision

Part 4: 2022–2023 Yale supplemental essays (examples included)

Part 1: Introduction

As you research, visit, and imagine your child attending an Ivy League or Ivy Plus school, your mind has likely flitted to New Haven, Connecticut, home to Yale University.

At Yale, you’ll find gothic spires and aged residential colleges reminiscent of Oxford and Cambridge, a library designed to look like a “cathedral to knowledge,” a whale-shaped hockey stadium home to an NCAA-winning team, one of the oldest and most famous student newspapers in the country, and a campus thrumming with a cappella groups and theater.

As the third-oldest university in the country, Yale is proud of both its history and its modern evolution. From pre-Revolutionary War buildings scattered around New Haven to architecture designed by Maya Lin and Eero Saarenin to state-of-the art labs on “science hill,” including a particle accelerator that even freshmen are allowed to use, Yale’s centuries of campus life truly persist every day.

Undergrads may study constitutional law alongside students at the top law program in the world or launch technology startups with the help of world-renowned biomedical engineering faculty members. They can travel the world on reporting trips with the Yale Globalist or international debating competitions with the Model U.N. team.

You don’t need us to tell you what Yalies go on to do: write Pulitzer-prize winning novels and journalism, earn Rhodes scholarships, get elected to public office (everything from New Haven aldermen to the Presidency), play professional sports, work on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley, or as magicians in Las Vegas.

So how can your child be a competitive applicant for this dream school? Read on to find out.

Yale University ranking

Yale is always near the top not only of Ivy League rankings, but of all major university rankings.

• Forbes: 8

• Niche: 4

• U.S. News and World Report: 3 (tie)

• Wall Street Journal: 6

Where is Yale?

Yale is located in New Haven, Connecticut, a small city about 90 minutes via train from New York City, and about 30 minutes from other urban centers in Connecticut including Stamford and Hartford.

New Haven has its own airport, but it’s small. Students may fly into New York airports (JFK, LaGuardia, or Whiteplains in Westchester), Hartford, or Newark, New Jersey. Shuttles and trains connect to New Haven.

Yale setting

New Haven is an urban area with a population of about 135,000 people. It’s a diverse city that’s undergone a major renaissance as farmer’s markets, new businesses, and environmental initiatives crop up. Yale has spearheaded much of the urban makeover.

New Haven is a major cultural center in Connecticut, home to theater, restaurants, shops, and cafés.

Yale student population

• Undergraduate students: 6,494

• Graduate and professional students: 8,031

Yale acceptance rate

Here are the admissions statistics for Yale’s class of 2026:

• Applications: 50,015

• Acceptances: 2,234

• Matriculants: 1,557

  (Video) HOW TO GET INTO YALE UNIVERSITY: Admissions Strategies

• Acceptance rate: 4.5%

  • Early Action acceptance rate: 10.9%

  • Regular Decision acceptance rate: 2.8%

(Suggested reading: Ivy League Acceptance Rates)

Yale tuition and scholarships

Yale’s 2022–2023 cost of attendance (i.e., tuition, room, board, and fees) is $80,700.

Yale offers need-based financial aid only and vows to meet 100 percent of demonstrated need without loans. Typically, families earning under $75,000 per year are not expected to contribute to the cost of attendance. 52 percent of students receive some amount of financial aid, and the average award is $66,362.

Who gets into Yale?

In order to help you assess your child’s odds of getting into Yale, we’ve put together the following statistics related to successful applicants:

• 96% of students rank in the top 10% of their high school graduating class.

  See Also

  How to Get Into Yale: 4 Expert Admissions TipsHow Hard Is It To Get Into Yale Grad School - CollegeLearnersHow To Get Into Yale: The Complete Guide - The GradcafeHow To Get Into Yale

• Average GPA: Yale doesn’t publish its students’ average high school GPA.

• Yale average ACT score (2020):

  • 25th percentile: 33

  • 75th percentile: 35

• Yale average SAT Evidence Based Reading and Writing score (2020):

  • 25th percentile: 720

  • 7th percentile: 770

• Yale average SAT Math score (2020):

  • 25th percentile: 740

  • 75th percentile: 800

• International students: 12%

• First-generation students: 18%

• Legacy: 12%

• Among the class of 2026, 46% identify as white, 27% as Asian American, 14% as Hispanic or Latino, 13% as Black or African American, and 3% as Native American.

Part 2: Yale admissions requirements

Yale academic requirements

Yale students aren’t just smart, boasting high grades and test scores. They also tend to be passionate about one or a handful of activities, and intellectually vivacious. You might meet anyone from the national debate champion to the national jump roping champion on campus.

That means there are no to few official requirements. Your child can be impressive and excellent in any number of ways. But overall, they should have challenged themselves, taking whatever advanced courses they have access to (APs, IBs, or community college classes, for instance), and invested time in extracurricular activities.

Yale notes that, not only should your child excel in rigorous coursework, that coursework should also be well balanced. This means taking courses each year in English, science, math, the social sciences, and foreign language.

Yale application requirements

In addition to all that, here’s what else your child will need in order to apply. Yale accepts the Common Application, the Coalition Application, and the Questbridge Application.

• Common App essay

• Optional in 2022–2023: ACT or SAT test scores

• Optional: IB, AP, or AICE test results

• 2 teacher letters of recommendation

• 1 counselor letter of recommendation

• School report, transcript, and midyear senior year report

• Optional and not necessarily encouraged: Supplemental materials only from students who have outstanding or unusual accomplishments, including musical scores, published research papers, films, etc.

Part 3: Applying to Yale early action vs. regular decision

Students can apply to Yale via single-choice early action, submitting all material by November 1st.

Yale, like many of its peers, shows higher acceptance rates for those who apply early. However, those numbers should not necessarily indicate that your child has a “better shot” at getting in by applying early, because early applicants tend to be an overall more qualified and better prepared pool.

Your child can also apply to Yale regular decision. The Yale regular decision deadline is January 2nd.

Should my child apply to Yale early?

Applying to Yale early is a good choice if Yale is your child’s top choice school, and if their application is ready. If they need another semester to improve their GPA, or another chance to improve test scores or extracurricular profiles, we recommend waiting to apply regular decision.

(Suggested reading: Early Action vs. Early Decision: Pros and Cons and What Your Child Should Do)

Part 4: 2022–2023 Yale supplemental essays (examples included)

(Note: While this section covers Yale’s admissions essays specifically, we encourage you to view additional successful college essay examples.)

In addition to the Common App personal statement, Yale applicants will answer a series of short answer questions as well as write several supplemental essays.

Before seeing some examples, let’s meet a few students, all of whom are closely based on or composites of the applicants we’ve worked with in nearly 20 years of advising.

• Jason is an avid musician and scientist. He participates in piano competitions around New Jersey, and has also pursued independent research in a family friend’s neurology lab over a summer. He’s also interested in computer science.

• Priya loves dance, theater, and history. She’s drawn to Yale in part because of its reputation in history, literature, and the arts in general.

• Sergio is concerned and passionate about the environment. He grew up hiking and biking outside in California. He also has a knack for the sciences and has attended some gifted STEM student summer programs.

• Olivia is heavily involved in her school’s newspaper, serving as both a writer and photographer. She’d like to spend a portion of her undergraduate years abroad, with a goal of studying history or journalism.

For 2022–2023, the Common App Yale supplemental essays are as follows.

Yale short answer questions

Question 1: Students at Yale have plenty of time to explore their academic interests before committing to one or more major fields of study. Many students either modify their original academic direction or change their minds entirely. As of this moment, what academic areas seem to fit your interests or goals most comfortably? Please indicate up to three from the list provided. Why do these areas appeal to you? (125 words or fewer)

Olivia chooses: Film and Media Studies; Ethics, Politics, and Economics; and History.

By the fifth buzz, I started pawing at my nightstand half-asleep, wondering who was texting me at 7am on a Saturday. My newspaper editor had heard about yet another protest occurring right outside our school. I dashed out of bed and rummaged through my closet for my Nikon so I could meet her at the scene. As I gathered my belongings, questions raced through my head. Who was there? What were they protesting? Why?

At Yale, I’ll continue asking important questions like these. By understanding the historical and political contexts that give rise to these events, I'll be able to tell better stories.

What’s great about Olivia’s answer?

• Passion and intellectual curiosity. Olivia is clearly committed to her craft, waking up early on a Saturday to cover a protest in her neighborhood. She also seeks to develop an understanding of the larger societal forces that shape small communities like hers.

• Specificity. In her first sentence, Olivia pulls the reader into the scene with descriptive and relatable language about “pawing at her nightstand.”Instead of “getting out of bed for a camera,” she “dashes out of bed, rummaging for a Nikon,” keeping the reader engaged and eager to know what happens next.

Question 2: Tell us about a topic or idea that excites you and is related to one or more academic areas you selected above. Why are you drawn to it? (200 words or fewer)

Jason writes:

“The A.I. Winter.” The first time I heard that phrase, I got shivers. It sounded like a phrase right out of a doomsday science fiction novel. And I learned that it was just about that. A PhD student in the neuroscience lab I worked in explained to me that there was a period when society lost interest in artificial intelligence. Scientists stopped imagining robots walking around, talking, looking like us, and helping us make society better.

And yet today, we live our lives around robots all the time. We keep artificial intelligence in our pockets and I’m writing this essay thanks to many versions of A.I. My neighbor lost a limb in a car accident and can walk because of a computerized leg. My father can’t wait for a driverless car to replace our commute. What happened between that A.I. winter and the technology boom today?

I’m interested in how society relates to these technologies. What made it possible for us to obsess over A.I. in the 70s, then “forget” about it for a while, and now return to it with new ideas and philosophies driving us? I hope I can use college to study Cognitive Science or even the History of Science and Medicine in order to better understand our brains and the machines that might increasingly resemble them.

What’s great about Jason’s answer?

• He’s specific. First he hooks us with the term “A.I. winter,” which not every reader may be familiar with, and which shows that he’s thinking about a very specific idea—rather than, say, “I’m interested in technology,” which is too broad.

• He illustrates the concept in a number of ways. The second paragraph shows that he’s thought about how technology manifests in today’s world and how it might manifest. He’s drawing intellectual connections, which is exactly what a liberal arts education requires.

• He spins it forward. By mentioning what he might want to study, Jason carries through his interest to Yale. For a bonus, he might add a line about what makes Yale such a superb place to study Cognitive Science or History of Science and Medicine, but that’s not crucial, and might in fact come off as a little much if done wrong.

Question 3: What is it about Yale that has led you to apply? (125 words or fewer)

Here’s Priya’s answer.

As I strolled down Old Campus Courtyard with my father, I noticed a young woman hard at work on an oil painting beneath the trees. Students walked by oohing and ahhing in appreciation of the lifelike scene on the canvas. Looking back on the numerous art shows I’d attended in NYC, I struggled to recall a time when I’d seen art met with such rapture. I want to be a part of Yale’s thriving artist community, where I can feel at home discussing the merits of serif vs. sans-serif, writing a paper on the genius of Jeff Koons, or perfecting my own lighting sculptures.

What’s memorable about Priya’s answer?

• Demonstrated interest. Priya lets admissions officers know that she visited the campus, without saying so explicitly.

• Continuity. Priya’s passion for the arts is clear in an academic light, but the reader gets the sense that her love of art bleeds into other areas of her life.

• When answering the “Why us?” question, the biggest mistake students make is rattling off a list of classes, which can be easily discovered online. Priya’s reasons for her interest in Yale go beyond online research and make it clear that she’s not just another applicant tossing her name in the hat.

All this is proof, by the way, that it’s a great idea to consider a campus tour for at least your child’s top choice schools.

Quick responses in 35 words or fewer:

Question 4: What inspires you?

Jason writes:

My grandmother raised me in Seoul before I emigrated to the U.S. to meet my parents. She taught me how to read and cook. Talking to her reminds me whose shoulders I stand on.

Question 5: Yale’s residential colleges regularly host conversations with guests representing a wide range of experiences and accomplishments. What person, past or present, would you invite to speak? What would you ask them to discuss?

Sergio writes:

Believe it or not, I want to hear from Kanye West. I’d ask him what makes him want to live his life so out there and in public all the time.

Question 6: You are teaching a Yale course. What is it called?

Priya writes:

The Big Business of Mad Money. A history of the major musical artists of the 20th century, with a look into what made their music and their empires successful.

Question 7: What is something about you that is not included anywhere else in your application?

Olivia writes:

Most people think of me as a journalist, scurrying behind the scenes. Fewer know about an equally important passion: stand-up. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved to make a room laugh.

What’s awesome about all these quick responses?

• Personality. 35 words isn’t good for much except showing off a bit of personality, humor, and color! This isn’t a place for your child to go staid. Encourage them to be playful.

• Unpretentiousness. Relatedly, these answers convey intelligence and curiosity without seeming too self-serious. Even Jason’s answer, which isn’t funny or light, manages sobriety without seeming pompous.

Yale supplemental essays

Question 8: Applicants should select ONE of the two prompts below and respond in 250 words or fewer.

Option 1: Yale carries out its mission “through the free exchange of ideas in an ethical, interdependent, and diverse community.” Reflect on a time when you exchanged ideas about an important issue with someone holding an opposing view. How did the experience lead you either to change your opinion or to sharpen your reasons for holding onto it?

Priya writes:

The first time my parents dropped me off at Hindu Heritage Summer Camp, I was furious. I didn’t want to spend my summer in Rochester, New York, with a bunch of other Indian kids. I wanted to go to theater camp. I wanted to play Anita in West Side Story. But by the end of the summer, I’d changed my mind.

Growing up with mostly white friends, I’d never been comfortable wearing a bindi or a salwar kameez. I quit my Kuchipudi classical dance classes when I was twelve and the teacher moved thirty minutes away. I replaced them with tap, jazz, and eventually some hip hop. But at HHSC, the days were filled with Indian things that, for the first time, didn’t make me feel strange. My grandparents had tried to teach me slokas and yoga when I was younger, and I’d always preferred to watch TV. But when I was surrounded by other desi kids my own age, I didn’t mind the prayers and pujas, and I actually loved yoga, the way it slowed down my constantly moving brain.

HHSC isn’t a constant community, because we always have to leave it. But I’ve gone back to be a counselor since, and I’m always in touch with some of my best friends from each summer. More than anything, HHSC taught me that the Hindu community in the U.S. is a home you can carry with you all year.

What’s great about Priya’s answer?

• There’s a sense of story. Though there aren’t any specific anecdotes, characters, scenes, or even images in Priya’s essay, there’s still a sense of story. Why? Because she talks about a change she underwent.

• She reflects on the community personally. Many people will interpret this question as an opportunity to discuss their community service hours. That might be fine, if your child can really tell as personal of a story about their community service hours as Priya does about her summer camp. But this question is an invitation for the applicant to get intimate, not to talk about the soup kitchen that may or may not have personally affected them.

Option 2: Reflect on a time when you have worked to enhance a community to which you feel connected. Why have these efforts been meaningful to you? You may define community however you like.

Jason writes:

I started learning piano when I was seven, shortly after arriving in New Jersey from Seoul. When I first met my teacher, Mrs. Bruno, I was nervous and worried because I didn’t speak much English. “Hi Jason,” Mrs. Bruno said brightly and shook my hand. We sat down on the piano bench and she played a scale, then motioned for me to imitate her. As my fingers hit the keys, I began to relax; I realized music was its own language.

I studied with Mrs. Bruno until I was fifteen. By then, I was beginning to enter the competition circuit. One day, Mrs. Bruno sat me down and said she felt she’d taken me as far as she could—if I wanted to keep improving, I needed another teacher.

I was crushed. Mrs. Bruno was one of the first people I came to trust after emigration, and her guidance had helped me adapt to my new life. But the more she explained, the more I understood she was trying to help me.

Since changing teachers, I’ve greatly improved as a musician. Though I hope to become a scientist, having a creative outlet in my life helps me access another side of myself, one attuned to emotion and beauty.

But equally valuable is my relationship with Mrs. Bruno. I no longer see her weekly, but we do catch up over coffee every few months. I’m proud to say that, though she’s no longer my teacher, she is now my friend.

What stands out about Jason’s essay?

• A sense of narrative that’s grounded in specific anecdotes. Jason does a great job of anchoring his relationship with Mrs. Bruno in memories like shaking her hand and relaxing as he played the piano for the first time. His journey towards becoming a serious musician also gives the essay forward momentum.

• Jason discusses what learning piano has meant to him from multiple angles. Not only does playing music provide a valuable counterpoint to his rational, scientific side, it also helped him develop a highly meaningful friendship.

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Final thoughts

Yale is a natural choice for any ambitious and precocious high school student. As a large research institution with a liberal arts approach to education, it will offer your child myriad opportunities. Every applicant should focus on getting to know Yale—and every other school to which they’re applying—so they can write with passion and specificity about why they’re the perfect fit.