Hey folks so… I just sent in my REA application a month ago and was hoping some of you would be able to chance it for me. Thanks!
SAT (composite)- 1540 (compares to a 35 ACT)
GPA- 3.96 weighted (school only reports weighted)
Class rank- school does not rank
White Male, well-regarded public high school, family income highest bracket
Honors/Awards- AP Scholar (national), Scholar Athlete Award (school for every year)
Extracurriculars- Basketball (9,10,11), National Honor Society (11,12), Band and Marching Band for 4 years, first chair etc. etc.
volunteered for over 90 hours for the Honor Society and have 20 hrs/year volunteering at my church each summer… I work during the summer as well.
Classes- Foreign Language (five years), virtually all accelerated classes plus 7 AP classes (1 sophomore- year school only allowed one, 3 junior year, and 3 senior year)
Common App Essay: 10/10
ND Essays: 7/10 (okay, but not great, I struggled a bit and recognized an error after I submitted).
Teacher Rec: 9/10 (probably good enough based on my grades merits already and got an A in her class)
Counselor Rec: 10/10 (had a great relationship with him, I know he wrote a great letter).
@howdy99 Your profile looks fairly strong. ND seems to be incredibly “test sensitive” so your SAT should be a plus. The 3.96 weighted GPA did catch my eye. For someone with 7 AP’s, 4 of which were taken in the soph/junior years, I would normally expect the GPA to be up in the 4.2+ range, assuming you had only a few B or B+ grades on the transcript. (I assume your school is on 4-point scale.) 4’s or 5’s on the AP exams might solidify things if you got, say, a B or B+ grade in one of those AP classes.
Did you consult your regional admissions rep to solicit his/her feedback on putting in for REA? Best of luck to you with your ND application! Here’s hoping you get in.
How important is language to ND? I see you have five which sounds good, but I only have 2 and was wondering how that will look in their eyes compared to someone like you?
@ak9800 For acceptance, I assume more is viewed better than less. But I wouldn’t think that means only 2 years is a deal breaker if other parts of your app are strong and you took a rigorous course load. If you are admitted, some schools within ND require you to take a language, some don’t. I know Arts & Letters does require it and requires you to graduate at the intermediate level. There is an ND language placement test over the summer, and they use that score plus any AP score you have to place you at the appropriate level. If you place into Beg 1 or Beg 2, then you have more foreign language courses you have to take. If you place into Interm 1 or Interm 2, then you only have to take 1-2 classes (not sure if they require you to grad at interm 1 or 2)
@howdy99 I think your profile looks good too. I agree with the above poster that your GPA is probably not the strongest piece of your resume. But with all the APs, you did take a rigorous course load, which ND values. So hopefully that will help you along with the high SAT score. Good luck!
@waitingmomla@GeronimoAlpaca Thanks. My school only goes up to a 4.00 weighted GPA, it is impossible to get any higher. Also, AP scores were alright. I had all 5 and 4 but one 3.
Current ND freshman here, I’d give you a decent chance. Your extracurriculars are holding you back a little, and I believe ND weights essays stronger than people expect. prob around 60% chance.
I am also a National Merit Semifinalist but I’m not sure how much that helps. I thought it would be a ticket into top schools so I was hoping all summer I would get it but after I looked into it a little but it seems as if a lot of top schools don’t really care. Also, @OwlEyes17 , my essays are good except one errorwhere I used the wrong word. However, both of the other supplemental essays are top notch.
@GeronimoAlpaca I don’t know what the @howdy99 used, but FWIW, the PrepScholar site has a conversion calculator which when you input a score of 1,540 for your SAT, you get an ACT score of 35. I have no idea if it’s right or wrong or how they can know, when the CB hasn’t published new concordance tables.
@sushiritto Thanks for the PrepScholar link. The funny thing is that the PrepScholar conversion calculator says it is based off of the College Board’s SAT to ACT conversion tables that were published in May 2016, so it seems like PrepScholar may have keyed in the wrong conversion score for a 1540.
@GeronimoAlpaca Unless I’m reading it wrong, and that’s entirely possible/probable, even the CB’s own tables have different numbers for an ACT score of 35. One table has a 1,570 and another has 1,560.
Again, people keep telling me you can’t believe everything you read on the Internets. :))
@sushiritto Actually, I see no conflict between the 2 tables (Table 7 and Table 15) that the College Board published. One table just includes more SAT values than the other, but I did not see any conflicts. But you’re definitely right – just 'cause it made the interwebs doesn’t mean it’s right.