I'm interviewing at Yale on the 28th. I was pretty surprised to get an interview there, since my GPA is only average; I have a 3.6 overall. I did well on the MCAT though (37-39Q), so that helped some too, I suppose. I have a fair amount of ECs, but nothing extrodinary. The usual research (no publications), clinical experience (I translate at a local clinic), volunteerism (tutoring, etc.). I'm part hispanic, which I did note on my Yale secondary, so if they chose to count me as a URM, that probably helped some too. I've been active in the hispanic community at my university, and have spent quite a lot of time in Mexico, nearly a year between high school and college and last summer I got a grant from the Hewlett foundation to design and implement a project in early childhood literacy at an orphanage on the Baja. I suppose if there was one thing on my application that would stand out, that would probably be it.
I honestly don't know if I count as a URM, so I just tried to answer Yale's ethnicity questions as honestly as I could. Anyone know about this?
Anyway, good luck to all those who are dreaming about Yale. I'm with you on that one, although I'm trying to get over my bitterness about their rejecting me for undergrad. 🙂