CHANCE ME--Notre Dame, Boston U, Duke, Georgia Tech, PSU, Pitt

Hey! So I’m getting all my last applications in and was wondering my chances for these colleges. Here are my stats:

Intended Major: Mechanical Engineering
Race: White
Gender: Female
Religion: Catholic

School: public, but considered a very good public school
Senior Year Classes:
AP Calc BC
AP English Lit and Compostion
Concert Band (have been playing clarinet since 5th grade)
AP Government/AP Economics (each half a year)
AP Chem II
Honors Engineering Design and Development (PLTW)

I’ve taken a total of 13 AP classes and 8 honors and only one college prep class (calculus in 10th grade). After this year, I also would’ve completed the Project Lead the Way program.

ACT: 34 w/ 10 out of 12 for writing
SAT: 1410 (just sending ACT though)
Weighted Average: 102.61
Unweighted Average: ~96
Class Rank: Top 5% out of about 590, but I don’t think my school includes that on the transcript

AP Scores:
World History (5), Human Geography (5), Physics 1 (4), Calc AB (5), Statistics (4), Language and Composition (5)

ECs:
-President of school’s Technology Student Association (TSA)
-Regional Officer for TSA
-Girl Scouts since 3rd grade
-Member of American Red Cross Club (volunteer work)
-Member of club that raises money and does events for special needs kids
-Captain for three years of Odyssey of the Mind team
-Volunteer at my church’s CCD (Sunday school)

Separate Awards:
-AP Scholar with Distinction
-National Merit Scholar Semi-Finalist (finalists have not been listed yet)

Legacies:

-My cousin did grad school at ND, and my other cousin and her husband work for the school/sister school (she’s an admin for St. Mary’s, and he’s a lawyer for ND)–I’m very close to my extended family, but I doubt ND puts much weight on extended family legacy, although they include it on their application
-My brother and many cousins go to Penn State, and some other cousins went to Pitt

Recs:

Only one letter to Notre Dame (+ guidance counselor): I talked to this teacher a lot about Notre Dame and he promised back in 10th grade he would write it. He tailored it specifically to ND, mentioning my work in the church and my love for ND, but obviously I never read it. I’m assuming it’s pretty good though.

Duke, Georgia Tech, Boston: One letter from a teacher I loved in a social studies field, and the other from a teacher I had twice for a science/math field. Two of my favorite teachers, and I’m sure they wrote good letters.

Essays:
In all honesty, Notre Dame is my top school, and I stressed in my essays about how ND is like a second home to me and how much it has been a part of my family (we’re big Irish fans). For the common app essay, which would go to ND, Duke, Boston U, and Georgia Tech, I talked about an experience I had with a teacher assuming I would not work as hard in my engineering classes because I am a girl. My English teacher helped me with it, and when we finished, she said she really liked it, so I think that one’s pretty good. I do love Duke, so I stressed this and how I felt I could reach my full potential at Duke and how the student life at Duke seemed amazing (I put this all much more eloquently, I swear!) but it’s a very short essay limit, so my Common App essay would probably be the focus. Same with the others.

Thank you to anyone who puts in the time to help me out!!

I think you have a decent shot to get in everywhere. I applied to Notre Dame this year and got rejected although I’m legacy. My parents were told the acceptance rate this year is 12% (a big drop). So, I think Duke and Notre Dame you’ll be a qualified candidate but don’t be surprised if you’re rejected based on the quantity of applications and qualified students they’re getting. I hope for the best though! It’s tougher to get into Duke and Notre Dame when you don’t apply early though.

Chance me back? http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1946391-emory-emory-oxford-wake-forest-davidson-nyu-holy-cross-gw.html#latest