I have heard a rumor that ND will be releasing decisions later this week and I am very nervous about receiving my decision!
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2040 (700CR, 680M, 660W)
Weight GPA (4.0 scale): 4.44
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 10-11% out of ~190
Senior Year Course Load: ACP Cadet Teaching Honors, AP Physics I, AP Latin IV, Great Catholic Thinkers Honors, AP Micro Econ, AP Gov’t, AP English American Lit, Honors Pre-calc
Major Awards: Yale Science and Engineering Association Award for Research, South Bend Medical Foundation Award for Outstanding Research, Indiana Academy of Science Junior Research Grant (both '14 and '15), 1st place in Microbiology at Northern Indiana Regional Science and Engineering Fair, school and leadership awards etc.
Subjective:
–Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Cross Country (Captain), Mock Trial, Track, Latin Club (President), Campus Ministry (“Leader”), Student Gov’t (Senior Class VP), Sound team, NHS
–Job/Work Experience: Lifeguard (Head-Guard for past two years), Photography
–Volunteer/Community service: 80+ hours with NHS (mostly random)
–Summer Activities: Cross Country conditioning, lifeguarding (I was working 35-40 hrs a week), went to Thomas Aquinas College in California and participated in a Great Books Summer Program (as cheesy as the name is, I was reading Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, etc. and discussing the works over a 2+ week period).
–Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Why ND: 9/10. I gave three qualities which I had observed in Notre Dame and explained why these things mattered to me. I spent a lot of time on this essay and I think it was pretty good.
How are you incomplete: 9/10 Spent a lot of time on this one as well. I talked about how I am not well traveled and how ND would give me opportunities to travel abroad, participate in mission work, and encounter different cultures.
Ideal Field-trip: 8/10 It was creative but not too crazy.
Common App: 9/10 Very personal, talked about my growth in photography. I also included a link to my online portfolio in the “extra information” section (I am hoping to impress them with my photos).
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): 8/10 knew both teachers very well but they may have written generically.
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Biology
State (if domestic applicant): Indiana (South Bend)
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Small-midsize (700 students) Catholic, very competitive class (32 classmates applied to ND and several got accepted early action!)
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 100,000+
Hooks: Legacy (both parents), 3 siblings attending/graduated, grandfather was a prof in the law school, perform college level research on campus in an engineering lab
Reflection
Strengths: I think my GPA and grades (especially senior year) are solid. My extracurriculars are a bit vanilla but I was dedicated and did most of them for all 4 years at school. I
Weaknesses: SAT scores could have definitely been better. I didn’t do much volunteer work due in part to my busy schedule (course load, sports, clubs, work, etc). Didn’t take Calc.
Other schools I’m looking at: Accepted to Indiana University, denied by Georgia Tech (I didn’t have any connection and my essays really weren’t that great), waiting to hear from Emory
Any response appreciated!
