Yale University Requirements

Step 1: Choose application

Every person who plans on applying to Yale university is required to submit one of the following applications:

Keep in mind that the Common application is accepted at a great deal of universities. Also, there isn’t a limit as to how many colleges you can submit your Common application to. However, specifically for Yale, you would also need to submit the Yale-specific questions + two essays

QuestBridge is a non-profit organisation which helps students find educational + scholarship opportunities for various great universities. If you choose this as your way of applying to Yale, you would need to send your application to QuestBridge and be chosen as a Finalist in the QuestBridge National College Match. If you are a Finalist, you will be able to rank Yale in the QuestBridge National College Match. Another option is to just apply for single-choice early action or regular decision. Also, if you are a Finalist, the QuestBridge team will send your transcript + recommendations to Yale, and you will only need to send the Yale QuestBridge Questionnaire through the Yale Admissions Status Portal. 

Step 2: Further requirements

$80 application fee / fee waiver 

If by Feburary 1, you have some new grades, you should submit a Mid-Year report. However, if not, you don’t have to submit the report. 

Even though for the 2022-23 admissions cycle, the SAT and ACT exams weren’t required, normally it would be good to provide high scores on these standardized tests. 

If you are international students (so if English wasn’t the language of instruction in your high school and isn’t your native language), you are required to take English proficiency exams. You can take the IELTS (aim for at least 7), TOEFL (aim for at least 100), Cambridge English Exams(aim for at least a score of 185), or the Duolingo English Test(aim for a score of at least 120). 

 Your counselor or other school official should send a school report with transcript which provides information about all the courses you have taken throughout your high school career. There is a School Report form with questions, yet if something doesn’t apply to your school, you have the option to leave it blank. 

Recommendation letters: from two of your teachers + one college counselor. It is best if the teachers that you ask for recommendations have been teaching you during 11th or 12th grade. Also, since not all schools in Bulgaria have college counselors, you can ask the principal of your school to write you a recommendation/give information about the school and the academic programs offered there. 

Step 3: Financial Aid

Yale has a need-blind admissions policy. This means that whether or not you are able to pay doesn’t play any role in the admissions process and won’t affect your chances of getting in. If you are admitted into the school, you will receive need-based financial aid based on your own needs.