Chance me please

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Notre Dame
1

<p>[x-posted in Chances section, fyi]</p>

<p>Hi everyone. I'm a junior white Catholic female and ND is one of my top choices. I have been to visit.</p>

<p>I want to study biology and will most likely go pre-med. Both of my parents, grandparents, and various aunts and uncles went to ND, so I do have the legacy advantage there.</p>

<p>*Grades *
My school does not calculate a GPA or rank, but I am in the top 10% of my class. I know this because I was inducted as a member of the Cum Laude Society, which is composed of the top 10% of the junior class.
I have taken the highest level classes that I could and have gotten mostly As and a few A-s, with an occasional B+ mixed in.
I have made Honor Roll every year as well.
I took AP Biology, AP US History, and AP Spanish Language this year and got all As. I project 4/5s on the exams.
I will take AP European History, AP Spanish Lit, AP Calculus (probably AB, but possibly BC) and AP English Lit next year.</p>

<p>Test Scores:
I got a 2350 on the SAT (790 CR, 800 W, 760 M).
I got a 790 on the Chem SAT II.
I am taking the Biology M, Spanish, and Math II SAT IIs in June.
I also qualified for the National Merit Scholarship thing from my PSATs</p>

<p>ECs:
First off, my school only allows you to hold one leadership position at once. So it's impossible to be the head of a club and class president etc.
I have been a member of my school's Key Club for 3 years and the head of the club for 2. Two summers ago I traveled to Costa Rica for 3 weeks with a program called Academic Treks. We participated in sea turtle research and took classes on marine biology.
Last summer and this summer I have/will worked (paid internship) in a prominent bioengineering lab. The director of the lab is often in the national news for his work. I will definitely be having him write a letter of rec for me.
I have also volunteered for over 200 hrs in the maternity department at a local hospital.</p>

<p>I have been on varsity swimming for two years. I was also on JV swim as a freshman, where I won the excellence award.
I have been on JV soccer for 2 years, where I won the sportsmanship/leadership award.
I have also been a member of my schools peer tutoring club for 2 years,; I tutor in Chemistry and Spanish.
Finally, I have also been a member of my schools yearbook club for 3 years.</p>

<p>I am also a fairly active member of my Roman Catholic church.
I have volunteered through them in a soup kitchen many times and I will be going on my church's teen service trip this summer.</p>

<p>I go to a fairly prominent independent school in the New England area. It's not at the Exeter/Andover level but it's still academically rigorous. I will not be needing financial aid.</p>

<p>Any sort of insight would be much appreciated. If any more info is necessary, I will try to provide it. Thank in advance.</p>

2

<p>pick a better school than notre dame</p>

<p>haha…but seriously ND should be a pretty safe school for you (although you never know with college admissions people)</p>

<p>best advice i can give (cause i messed up so much) is really focus on your application (which judging by the resume you just posted on a random college forum shouldn’t be a problem)</p>

<p>make it seem like the school you are applying to is the only school that exists for you, and make sure they know how much you have worked/ and how much you want to go there.</p>

<p>this is in addition to the general knowledge of making yourself look “special” in your application</p>

3

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Maybe ND’s academics are of a slightly lesser quality, but there’s something I love about the community and the athletics…we will see, I guess. I’m certainly not making decisions yet so whatever haha</p>

4

<p>I wouldn’t worry about getting in with those SAT scores, your activities and athletics, and both your parents being ND grads. But you already knew that didn’t you? Certainly your parents are to be commended for doing a great job raising you and motivating you----so obviously their ND education has paid off. </p>

<p>Which is why I then scratched my head when you said “ND academics are of a slightly lesser quality”. Slightly lesser than who? ND attracts one of the most competitive undergraduate student bodies in the country and takes a back seat to virtually no one in terms of quality of undergraduate education. You will have plenty of top flight competition for those pre med classes at Notre Dame.</p>

5

<p>Shankapotamus, I made that comment in response to another poster telling me that I should apply to a better school. I definitely agree that ND attracts top students. It’s a really exciting place and I would love to attend.</p>

<p>…any more chances?</p>

6

<p>shankapotamus…the parents education paid off because they raised a solid academic student? do they have classes on parenting at notre dame now</p>

<p>and with her high scores and intense resume notre dame really isn’t much of a “reach.” yes notre dame is excellent, but it still isn’t ivy league. </p>

<p>thats all she meant by “slightly lesser quality”</p>

<p>unless you see notre dame the same as MIT, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale i guess you would agree that the academics are of “slightly lesser quality”</p>

7

<p>awesomeness. No you misunderstood what I said. Her parents are obviously very intelligent people who passed along their smarts and work ethic to their daughter. So to see ND as a school with “slightly lesser academics” is not only being a little unfair to ND (because in terms of undergrad education it really takes a back seat to no one), but its also a little unfair to her own parents, paradoxically enough. This silly idea that the Ivies are the be all and end all is the silliest aspect of this whole forum. ND was ranked as a top 10 school for quality of undergraduate teaching by USNews, ahead of other Ivy schools. Any more questions?</p>

8

<p>It is a great school shank i am not denying that, but it isn’t #1 and as long as it isn’t it will be “slightly lesser academics” we can argue how slight that is all day long, but i don’t see the point. </p>

<p>no reason to get defensive on a school you clearly feel a lot of pride for, because i am not trying to belittle it in any way (perhaps the opposite by comparing it to Ivies) </p>

<p>when i said look at better schools than notre dame it was merely a joke, but with such a great resume, their is no need to narrow ones college choices simply to notre dame.</p>

9

<p>If you only consider the #1 school (Whatever that is) then, yes, technically every other school in the country is “slightly lesser”. That is kind of silly isn’t it? And where did I tell her just to narrow her choice to Notre Dame? I was trying to point out how the overemphasis on Ivy League schools as somehow the be all and end all is overdone and silly, especially on this forum. ND stacks up right there in many areas with many Ivies and better in certain categories than many Ivies. For one thing, at ND you will be taught by professors. Which is not the case at Harvard. So lets avoid easy stereotyping and encourage digging deeper and not simply to knee-jerk rankings like they are gospel.</p>

10

<p>sorry for the confusion i was merely saying that she shouldn’t narrow her college choices down to just notre dame, not that you had said that.</p>

<p>:)</p>