Admitted Student Profile
GPA (Unweighted)
3.90–4.00 (unweighted)
SAT Range (Middle 50%)
1560–1590
ERW: 760–790 · Math: 790–800
ACT Range (Middle 50%)
35–36
Acceptance Rate
~4.6%
📌 Yale is test-optional through 2026. Students who submit scores are generally in the top 1% nationally.
The Official Prompt
Academic Passion
"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?"
Yale rewards intellectual depth over breadth. This prompt is asking for your actual academic obsession — the thing you read about outside of class, the question that doesn't have a clean answer yet. Specificity is everything.
The #1 Failure Mode
Most Common Mistake
Describing a course you liked or a subject you're good at. This prompt is about intellectual passion, not academic performance. A B in a class you genuinely love is more interesting than an A in one you don't.
Weak vs. Strong: Score Benchmarks
⚠️ Weak (~58/100)
"I am deeply interested in political science and international relations. The way nations interact and negotiate fascinates me. Yale's political science department is world-renowned and I would love to study these dynamics at the highest level."
✓ Strong (~90/100)
"The question I keep returning to is why international sanctions rarely work but are used constantly — the gap between their stated purpose and their actual effects is enormous. I've been reading secondary literature from IR theorists and the disagreements are fundamental, not just empirical."