Yale F&ES, UPenn MES UW SEFS Fall 2019 environmental programs

[kxj5906]

Hi, I am applying to Yale F&ES, UW SEFS, and UPenn environmental graduate programs. Is anyone else applying/applied in the past to these schools by chance? What was your experience? Accepted or rejected?

I heard that the acceptance rate for Yale and UW hovers around 30%. Yale has a total of 155 new students accepted to the 2018 class.

My stats are as follows

Undergrad GPA/Institution/Major: 3.94/University of Washington (UW)/Environmental Studies

Awards/Honors: Magna Cum Laude, Veterans Scholar/President's List. Received a full ride scholarship at both community college and at University.

Work Experience: Six years of working in the military as an Environmental Compliance Officer. Two years of working in the environmental field in the civilian sector. One year spent helping a company complying with federal and state environmental laws/emissions tracking/storm water management and one year spent working abroad in Kuwait on environmental issues. 

GRE Score: 155 Verbal/153 Quantitative/5.0 writing

Other: Volunteer at my church for six years/served abroad on missionary trips/homeless shelter/children's ministry. Taken courses in Biology, Chemistry, Ecology, Environmental Law, Environmental Science, Statistics, Precalculus. Have not taken Calculus yet but planning on it. Met and spoke with professors there who I am interested in working with in projects.

I have professors that fully support me going to graduate school, got all my letters of recommendation in. I think the only thing holding me back are my mediocre GRE scores, because my work experience and GPA are very in align with Environmental work and I have international environmental work experience in Kuwait?? 

Can anyone else please chime in?

[kxj5906]

BUMP* I am also applying to University of Chicago's Harris Master of Environmental Science and Policy. The acceptance rate is 50%-60%, which is incredibly high for such a prestigious university. Anyone know why?

[kxj5906]

Just found out UChicago's academic program is extremely rigorous compared to Yale and UPenn. If I get into UPenn or Yale, I won't apply to UChicago.

[morawel]

Hey @kxj5906, any luck with your applications? I've applied to UW SEFS for the PhD program. Were you applying for PhD or master's?