Because CCers thrive on evaluating each others' chances...

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Notre Dame
1

<p>...and I'm a procrastinator...</p>

<ul>
<li>White Female</li>
<li>Small public magnet school in FL (142 in c/o 2005)</li>
<li><p>Currently on a gap year</p></li>
<li><p>New SAT: 2280 (790R/740M/750W) <- single sitting</p></li>
<li><p>SATI: 1520 (770 V/750 M) <- best combined on old test</p></li>
<li><p>SATII: 770 Wr/720 IIC/710 Chem</p></li>
<li><p>ACT: 34</p></li>
<li><p>PSAT: 225 (70 V/77 M/78 W) - NMSF</p></li>
<li><p>GPA: 3.789 UW, 4.596 W - school does not rank, but I'd be in the top 10-15%, not really sure</p></li>
<li><p>APs: (8/9 total) 5s on Calc BC, English Lang, Bio; 4s on French Lang, Euro; 3s on Chem, Physics C Mech, Physics C E&M, US Gov't</p></li>
<li><p>Almost all other courses are Honors, and if not, Honors level is not offered</p></li>
<li><p>ECs:
Unique Leadership Program (10-12) - serving on not-for-profit board of directors, 80+ hours leadership/community training, led workshop about program at national conference
Freedom's Answer (12) - state advisory council member, school coordinator, district coordinator, liaison to county supervisor of elections advisory board, etc. (200+ hours over 4 months)
French Competition Team (9-12) - state champions 2 of past 4 years, individually highest rank all 4 years
Hospital Volunteer (10-12) - 200+ hours, student trainer
Varsity Tennis (9-10) - Letter and Scholar Athlete
Habitat for Humanity (9-10)
Speech and Debate Team (9-10, Treasurer 9-10) - National Forensic League Member
French Honor Society (10-12, Treasurer 11-12)
French Club (9-12)
Mu Alpha Theta (10-12)
National Honor Society (10-12)</p></li>
<li><p>Honors/Awards:
Nat. Merit SF
AP Scholar w/ Distinction
Phi Beta Kappa Certificate of Commendation
Most Outstanding Research Poster at FL JSEHS
National French Contest (3rd state/national in 10th grade, something a bit lower in 9th, 11th)</p></li>
<li><p>Summers:
2002 4-week backpacking/rock climbing/rafting trip (outward bound-like experience) in Blue Ridge Mnts.
2003 7-week university-level research program, including oral presentations, research paper, etc.
2004 - working (see below)
2005 - working: student trainer for leadership program described above</p></li>
<li><p>Work:
Child caregiver (ages 0-4 yrs) in church nursery (4 hrs per week, 6/04 - 7/05)
Teachers' aide (ages 1-5 yrs) at daycare center (45 hrs per week, 6/04-8/04)
Babysitting (ages 0-12 yrs) since 7th grade (0-12 hrs per week)</p></li>
<li><p>Gap Year (thus far):
4 months in Central America: 3 months volunteering in an orphanage and a school in Guatemala City, 2 weeks Spanish immersion in Guatemala, 3 weeks travel in Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize. Now home for 3 months working for the social services branch of the local YMCA and tutoring. No definite plans yet for spring - most likely volunteering either in Africa or somewhere away from home in the US.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Teacher rec(s) should be good (haven't seen them), essay good (I hope - haven't done it yet), counselor rec awesome.</p>

<p>Last year I was accepted by Boston College, Tufts, Bates, Trinity College (CT), George Washington, American, U of FL, and Georgetown (off waitlist); waitlisted by Brown, Amherst, and Haverford; rejected by Yale. Since my 1st semester of senior year, my GPA has dropped about .05 UW/.1 W.</p>

<p>You're awesome if you actually read all that...I copied and pasted from last year's posts and updated it...</p>

<p>What do you think? Please be honest...I know ND is quite competative, and I've been through all this once already, so I'm really not sensitive to rejection.</p>

<p>Thanks for any responses!!</p>

2

<p>Well couple of those stats while impressive really won't mean squat when it comes to admission criteria...
- PSAT, when I applied was only used as the entry level criteria for whether you would qualify for the National Merit Selection Process.<br>
- Your SAT II's. When I matriculated here, scores on language ones would get you no credit, but would get you advanced standing as far as where you would start in the curriculum. I did check FYS webpage, that hasn't changed....SAT II's in subjects other than language don't matter for credit here at all.<br>
- AP scores, don't count on getting credit for classes you got 3's in. In fact I pulled up the First Year Studies page and you will get no credit for any of those threes. But do get a nice bit for the 4's and 5's. Be warned if you want to do hard science programs or go pre-med, while not required, you will be "heavily encouraged" to re-take the intro chem and bio classes.
- SAT I (old) score is above what the average was when I started here, heard from admission reps you needed a 1300-1400 back a couple of years ago. The standard probably has climbed a little, can't offer my opinion of SAT I (new) it started once I was already here.<br>
- GPA seems about what average was when I was freshman for incoming classmates....</p>

<p>The big things I would be wondering if I read this file would be:
- Impressive amount of extra-curriculars, were they done for resume padding or did she do them because she enjoyed these activities. Working in what some of these meant to you in your essay's couldn't hurt.....</p>

<ul>
<li>If this girl graduated in 2005, what did she do for the last year? Why not go to college, why re-apply to us? If you can explain why you chose to do what you've spent the last year doing, it could impress the admissions committee because it is unique and that does matter....</li>
</ul>

<p>Since you've been through this you already know this last part. Admission to highly selective schools is a crapshoot, role of the dice...whatever you want to call it. You saw it last year, made it schools comparable to ND if not better, yet not ND. Good luck with the application process, hopefully your persistence is rewarded..</p>

3

<p>Nemo, you forgot to state her chances. Also, she isn't reapplying to ND it doesn't look like, she never mentioned ND as one she applied to last year.</p>

<p>I think you have a good chance of getting into ND. I also disagree that admissions will sit there wondering why you did your EC's because A. they don't have time and B. it is a question really they can never answer. I think you have good EC's, but that is just me</p>

<p>I do agree that you should talk about why you took a year off, however, and what you did over that year as that is something they will probably be interested in. Hope that helps</p>

4

<p>As a clarification, I did not apply to ND last year. The schools I applied to are listed in the OP.</p>

<p>I am writing a letter to any and all schools that I apply to explaining why I took a year off and what I have been using the time for. I may or may not write my essays on an aspect of my gap year, depending on the prompt and such.</p>

<p>My ECs were not done for padding, but besides writing essays about them (and I only have so many essays for each school...if more than one...so there's only so much I can explain beyond my resume and any explanation in recs) I don't know how to get that across to the adcom. Some of the activities seem fleeting because I either (a) lost interest/was forced to stop for one reason or another; (b) didn't know about it until whenever I started (Freedom's Answer...I had never heard of it until I went to the National Youth Summit to present a workshop and met a bunch of FA students there...and that's how I got involved with the Supervisor of Elections stuff); (c) didn't have time to do much because of school or already being involved in other things. I felt like doing things to pad a resume would be stupid because I already had so many things that I was interested in and passionate about. Sometimes I tried things for a while and they just didn't work...like tennis, the HS coach was irresponsible and unfair, so after 2 years of putting up with it I didn't want to deal with it anymore. I wanted to keep taking lessons outside of the HS team, but my parents wouldn't pay for lessons unless I was on the team.
Any suggestions on what (besides essays) I could do to keep them from thinking I was padding my resume would be great, but I don't think there's much I can do about it.</p>

<p>Thanks for the feedback!</p>

5

<p>70, I have been on college message boards like this now for four years (I started out as Irish80122 on the PR board) and as such I have seen a lot of applicants, I have heard a lot of stories, and I have learned a whole lot about admissions.</p>

<p>That being said, it is my experience and opinion (and I think others will agree when they see this thread) that you are merely trying to pad your resume. That would be a very presumptuous and just plain rude assumption for someone to make without a good reason, and I don't see admins at ND or elsewhere making that assumption. I think I see where Nemo sees it, just in that you have a lot of different activities) but you were in most of those activities for several years and showed commitment to them. As such, I would classify them as passion and not just padding. Now if you had just magically joined several things as a senior, that would be different.</p>

<p>I personally disagree with Nemo, I think that your commitment to your EC's will come off very well (that is what you have to do nowadays to get into top colleges) and will NOT come off as padding. If Nemo or anyone else wants to take issue with that, I am all ears, but I don't see how it could be padding. I think your EC's are solid and you need not worry about them.</p>

6

<p>Hey, irish68178 I'm just going off of what an admissions counselor made a point of mentioning when he pitched ND back when I was looking at the school. You yourself mentioned it could be seen as resume padding; while that is perhaps unfair and I agree it is presumptuous, its merely one perception. I had a good friend in HS who didn't include all his activities or awards on his apps. He didn't want to go for the massive "fruitsalad" but instead posted the ones that mattered the most/were the most prestigious, and highlighted clubs and involvement that mattered the most. Yes ND looks for the well rounded student, yes they want to see you involved with a diverse group of activities because they don't want just simply a bookworm. That having been said, he stressed that a few you've done a lot with and had a passion for mattered a lot more that a potpourri of things you had dabbled in.</p>

<p>As for the Gap year I never said it was a bad thing. Know a couple of students up here who took some time off. They had some activities they had been very involved with and wanted to pursue them before college. I brought up using it for an essay if you could because your experiences show how you could "bring a unique view" to the school or however you want to phrase it.</p>

7

<p>I see your point but looking at his activities he does have several where he was involved from 9-12, he has some leadership positions, and a lot of the shorter ones (at least appear to me) are ones that you really couldn't have done your whole high school career. </p>

<p>I agree that in certain cases it looks bad to the comittee and I have heard that too; I just don't think this is one of those cases.</p>

8

<p>Oh, and just as another clarification, I will not be reapplying to any of the schools I didn't get into last year. The reason I'm applying to schools this year and didn't just choose one of the ones I got into last year is that what I'm looking for in a school has changed quite a bit since I applied last winter and I wasn't 100% comfortable with choosing any of the schools when May 1st rolled around. I knew I wanted to take a gap year, so I decided that rather than making a hasty, uncomfortable decision, I would wait until this winter and see where I was interest-wise, spiritually, etc.</p>

9

<p>what did u do on ur gap year. my friand and i have contemplated communty college in tahiti if our dream plans don't work out. A gap year might be interesting- just like prince william. Also- i was impressed- don't let the naysayers get you down.</p>

10

<p>Thus far I have spent my year working as a trainer for the leadership program I did in high school (graduation to mid-July), doing Spanish immersion in Guatemala (late-July to early Aug), volunteering in an orphanage and school in Guatemala (early Aug to end of Oct), and traveling around Central America (first 3 weeks of Nov; weekends during my volunteer time). Right now I'm home and just started working for the social services branch of the local YMCA. I'll also be doing some tutoring and a bit of volunteering while I'm home. I'm working on plans for my spring activities, which will probably consist of volunteering abroad again or in the US (away from home though...can't stand the parents for a whole semester).</p>