How to get into Yale?

How do I prepare to get into Yale?

• I am a freshman in highschool and I know that its too early but my dream is to get into Yale. What can I do to prepare myself? My grades are As and Bs but I promised myself next year I will get all As and take AP courses. Right now I take all prep-ap. Next year I will also take dual credits and volunteering, lots of volunteering. I cant take it this year because I am freshman. But I need advice to get closer to what I want to acheive in life. Thank you so much xoxo

• Answer:

  You're on the right track. It's never too early to prepare. :) The most important things are (and you already seem to know most of them): 1. Get good grades. Straight A's are best. But a mix of mostly A's and a few B's is OK, especially if the B's are in tough AP/honors courses. So, yes, try to get straight A's, but if you get a B, don't kill yourself over it--just work harder. Try to stay in the top 10% of your high school class. 2. Take challenging classes. Honors, AP, etc. Don't take soo many at once that you overload yourself and get a C. But take as many as you can take with good grades. 3. Volunteering is good. Other clubs/extracurriculars are also helpful. It doesn't have to be all community service. The most important things are commitment (do the same activities for long periods of time) and leadership (being president, or treasurer, or committee chair...). And you should have at least 1 or 2 community service activities, but your other activities can be clubs, or student council, etc. You can start doing these things right now! 5. Get as high scores on the SATs as you possibly can. Start studying a little bit this year or next year, so you will be very well prepared to take the exam late in your junior year (or early in your senior year, but better to get it out of the way in junior year if you can). You'll need a few SAT II subject tests in addition to the SAT I. 6. Think about what teachers you might ask for recommendation letters, because you need good ones. Try to take more than one class with them, so that they get to know you well. Or the reverse: in your senior year, ask the teachers you've taken the most classes with (or done the best with) to recommend you. But if you start thinking about that now, you can perhaps plan accordingly. 7. And of course write a good essay that you have proofread and reviewed by others. --- But, what do you mean by dual credits? I didn't get that part.