<p>Girl with SAT scores below 1980 RIGHTFULLY got into Harvard Yale and Stanford because of an amazing life story. Unlike the title of the thread, it's not a miracle. She deserved it. </p>
<p>Her story if you don't want to go through the whole thread:</p>
<p>"Both my sister and I were raised in the Westboro Baptist Church. For those of you who are not familiar, this is the church that protests outside of Iraq War veterans' funerals, organize demonsrtations that claim that God Hates America, and makes posters and yells at passerbys that "God Hates Fags!" The church is quite infamous in America for vehemently arguing that God hates America with a passion, that he hates our veterans, and that he hates gay people. Our parents indoctrinated us with this b.s. and would make us make posters and stand outside and "protest" and "demonstrate." We would be forced to say extremely hateful things about gay people and America in general. My sister eventually came to realize, on her own terms, that this was immoral and disgusting. She ran away from home. She tried to go to our aunt's house in California, but she wouldn't take her. So she illegally traveled in train boxcars for 4 months (she missed some H.S. and had to repeat a grade), until our aunt in Cali finally took her in. This was what her essay was about."</p>
<p>C'mon now, though not this extreme, people have stories that show their character. Don't judge just by objective stats.</p>
<p>I was trying to avoid any negative feelings toward my acceptance by saying I had a "source." The "source" is myself. I am a legacy... and I am so grateful for my fortunate bloodline. I can't help feeling guilty for having been admitted over those who I know are more qualified than I am. I know that so many people that love ND as much as I do were rejected. I have not looked into whether or not they achieved their goal of admitting 50% of legacies, but I know for a fact that the letter stated that they "hoped to admit at least half of all legacies applying." (I will quote this more accurately when I get home.) But they also stated that they would not lower their standards to meet this goal, meaning they weren't going to take a C-student with no extracurriculars and a horrible essay just because his or her dad went to school there.</p>
<p>I hope no one has any negative outlook on me because of my acceptance. I can't state definitively that I was accepted because of my father, and it does weigh on me a bit that that could be the biggest reason, but I also have a full-ride scholarship through the U.S. Navy.</p>
<p>Don't you for one second doubt the reaon why you were accepted at Notre Dame! You applied - Notre Dame decided that they wanted you - and you were accepted. You do not need to justify or prove your acceptance to anyone! You deserve to be in the Class of 2012 just like all of the other accepted students deserve to be in it - do not let the negative people on this board make you question your talents and reasons for being accepted at Notre Dame. I am sorry that this legacy discussion made you feel this way - just continue to be happy with your accomplishments and your acceptance and shame on anyone who tries to make you feel differently.<br>
Congratulations on your acceptance - you honestly deserve it!</p>
<p>As I learned from an earlier post somewhere, the ND admissions office (and most admissions offices) are "forming a class." So, let's imagine what that takes. (1) Since this is a co-ed school, we'll need close to 50-50 males and females, (2) We need to keep our athletics strong because it is the epicenter of our school's sports spirit, so we'll need more athletes in XX sports (football?) because we've been weak there before, and we need a stronger quarterback, (3) Since ND is not a public school, not funded by federal funds, we need to keep our family/community tradition and spirit, and be able to continue to afford providing financial aid to qualified students who need financial assistance, so, we'll need qualified legacies whose parents have generously donated to the university, (4) We'll need a lot of academic scholars, to keep the standards high and inspire other students to greater heights, so, let's bring them in and offer scholarships to the best-of-the-best because we have to compete against other top schools for them, (5) We'll need some people with leadership and initiative who can generate other school activities to keep our students engaged and give them choices, since there is not much to do in South Bend; so, let's bring in the qualified "activity initiators and the passionate service-oriented students", (6) since ND is viewed as homogenous by most outsiders, and our society has become diverse/complex and the economy has become globalized, we need somequalified internationals and URMs who can expand the experience of our student body beyond their limited upbringing in their hometown and make them men or women of the world, (7) As a university that believes in helping "the least of our brethren", let's find some very poor qualified students who would not otherwise get a shot in life unless they are given these opportunities, and we can fund those with legacy donations (8) and finally, let's bring in a couple of people like DarkHorse90, so people will say - "What the HECK? How did that son of a donkey get in?" , just to remind people that "God truly works in mysterious ways" and that life is not a predictable state. So, looking back, at any of those decision points, anyone of us could have been cut. "Too many males, let's cut out DarkHorse90..wait, no, we need him for category 8." But they still have to pick "qualified" students, qualified means those who can do the level of academic work at Notre Dame. And the number of qualified students who applied to Notre Dame (or other schools) will far exceed the available seats. If they brought in ALL scholars or ALL who got SATs over 1500, no athletes-no legacy-no student leaders-no musicians, this would no longer be NOTRE DAME that we all seem to love. And who among us would even want to apply here?</p>
<p>Also important to note that those categories are not mutually exclusive of each other, there are many overlaps. Except maybe category 8, that looks like the wild card.</p>
<p>I wonder if the ND athletic teams use the same philosophy in recruiting athletes. After all, recruiting the best and most qualified athletes would not be a a true reflection of our society.</p>
<p>Don't bash the athletics.
The football team's bowl game money helped finish the inside of Jordan (Hall of Science). Without the money from it the inside wouldn't have gotten done as quickly(and probably not as nicely).</p>