Yale GEPN 2021

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Hey all! I am reapplying and wanted to create this for everyone applying. I won't be as involved as I was last year, but good luck to everyone! I know they're having seminars and allowing people to schedule one on one consultations for applications.

Anyone else taking the GRE soon? I'm taking it Sunday and I'm feeling more depressed about it the closer it gets. I'm confident I'll do well enough in verbal but the math I just don't remember. What's bumming me out is this is all very learnable, I just don't have time. Hoping I get lucky on enough problems that my score will be passable. I think I'd have a strong app otherwise. Yale's my top choice and I can totally see this being the reason I don't get in ?

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Good luck Secondtimer14!

Would it be appropriate to ask the adm. team whether you can add explanations for your GRE scores? I would imagine Covid-homeschooling one's kids could be be brought up in your materials if you didn't get the scores you are looking for

I was very disappointed that Yale stuck to their GRE requirement when so many prestigious programs dropped theirs with Covid...

I am not sure I shared my GRE scores but in case it's helpful: Verbal 84%, Quant 39% Analytic 64%. I think I had a total of 305 or 315 pts? (This was my first time ever taking standardized tests so I had no idea what this meant).

I did not get in but attended the info session at YSN and many applicants had worse scores, I don't know whether they got in of course.

I will be thinking of you on Sunday!

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6 minutes ago, CPMtoCNM said:

Good luck Secondtimer14!

Would it be appropriate to ask the adm. team whether you can add explanations for your GRE scores? I would imagine Covid-homeschooling one's kids could be be brought up in your materials if you didn't get the scores you are looking for

I was very disappointed that Yale stuck to their GRE requirement when so many prestigious programs dropped theirs with Covid...

I am not sure I shared my GRE scores but in case it's helpful: Verbal 84%, Quant 39% Analytic 64%. I think I had a total of 305 or 315 pts? (This was my first time ever taking standardized tests so I had no idea what this meant).

I did not get in but attended the info session at YSN and many applicants had worse scores, I don't know whether they got in of course.

I will be thinking of you on Sunday!

Thank you! My impression is they're just looking for above 50th percentile, so I'm *hoping hoping* I manage that but if not I will add an addendum and then hope for the best. Or I may try to cram for two more weeks and squeeze in a retake (my impression is also that they only see your highest score). The one silver lining - you get your scores right away so I don't have to wonder. 

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Also they say the deadline is firm but they accepted GRE results way later than they initially said they would.

I was scheduled to take my GRE on Sept 15th which I believe was YSN's latest suggested date to take it in time for their Oct 1st deadline. 2 days before the test, I had a sick kid, so I asked for YSN if I could move it to a few days later, they said that would be fine. 

They moved their deadline to Nov. 1st after I submitted everything on Oct 1st (I think I heard about it Nov 2nd or 3rd because I was still receiving the Admissions automatic emails).

When I showed up at YSN for the applicant meeting (I believe Mid-Oct? ), I was floored to realize some folks had even obtained later dates for the GRE and some hadn't taken it yet Mid-Oct. To think what I could've done with one extra month if they had told me...

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that because they say the deadline is firm doesn't mean it really is.

Again best of luck! 

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GRE DONE! It feels so good. I got exactly the minimum score I was hoping for on quant. ?  Verbal went well!

Yale is very competitive so I have no idea if I'll get in, but at least I don't think my GREs will be the thing to hold me back. Big, big sigh of relief. 

Just waiting on one more recommender to submit a letter and then the waiting really begins ?

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41 minutes ago, secondtimer14 said:

GRE DONE! It feels so good. I got exactly the minimum score I was hoping for on quant. ?  Verbal went well!

Yale is very competitive so I have no idea if I'll get in, but at least I don't think my GREs will be the thing to hold me back. Big, big sigh of relief. 

Just waiting on one more recommender to submit a letter and then the waiting really begins ?

Congrats on the gre!! I won't be able to take it again due to financial constraints so I'll be focused on the other aspects.  Question for you and anyone else willing to answer: did you waive your right to see the recommendation and/or look at what the recommenders said before submitting?

 

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I did not waive. Someone told me this wasn't great and some reference letter writers don't like it. I don't know if it's true. I just figured if have a right, why waive it? 

I didn't really care so I never checked if there was any way to see what the recommenders had written about me.

Secondtimer, congrats! this is wonderful. All the best and I am crossing my fingers for you!

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I was wondering also if there were any foreigners reading this thread?

I am, and was wondering if I'd be the only one:) Probably not?!?

 

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3 minutes ago, CPMtoCNM said:

I did not waive. Someone told me this wasn't great and some reference letter writers don't like it. I don't know if it's true. I just figured if have a right, why waive it? 

I didn't really care so I never checked if there was any way to see what the recommenders had written about me.

Secondtimer, congrats! this is wonderful. All the best and I am crossing my fingers for you!

I personally am not, but I'm pretty sure there's always more than one foreigner every cohort. I've waived my right before because I was told the same thing. However, last year I was told I got points against me because my letters were not considered good enough. No one said anything bad, but they wanted more. So I am being more proactive in seeing specifically what they are planning to say this time. 

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Thanks Psychmeout--That is a really good point.

Some of my reference people are not American and from a culture where writing "not bad" means good and "quite fine" means terrific (you would never write X is fantastic!) so I would need to do a lot of hand holding here...

I am still insure what to do...anyway...Good luck everyone!

 

O

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1 minute ago, CPMtoCNM said:

Thanks Psychmeout--That is a really good point.

Some of my reference people are not American and from a culture where writing "not bad" means good and "quite fine" means terrific (you would never write X is fantastic!) so I would need to do a lot of hand holding here...

I am still insure what to do...anyway...Good luck everyone!

 

O

I think that abides even for some people in American culture so I totally get it ?. Even if they think highly of you, they may not use the same words/phrases the committee is looking for. Yeah I'm doing as much hand holding as possible just to try to increase my chances, thankfully no one has been offended so far. Good luck everyone! I believe they let us know about interviews by mid to late december latest. We heard near the beginning of December last yeat. 

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4 hours ago, Psychmeout2 said:

Congrats on the gre!! I won't be able to take it again due to financial constraints so I'll be focused on the other aspects.  Question for you and anyone else willing to answer: did you waive your right to see the recommendation and/or look at what the recommenders said before submitting?

 

I waived! I think it's pretty standard to waive. 

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