<p>This is my first post on here so bear with me! </p>
<p>So I'm a rising senior and I plan on applying to the University of Notre Dame within the upcoming months. I've read enough on here and elsewhere to know that it will not be an easy task to get admitted. But anyways, here are my basic stats. Please chance.</p>
<p>ACADEMIC:</p>
<p>GPA: 3.98 unweighted (1 B in 9th grade, nothing below an A since)
ACT: 31
APs: I have taken AP Chem so far and plan on taking AP Bio and Calc in the next year. My high school is not what most of you would call "competitive". Those are the only APs my school offers. I have taken a couple of local community college courses offered through my school. Basically, I've taken all I can at this stage.
RANK: 3rd in my class out of 116
AWARDS: I was awarded the Bausch and Lomb Honorary Science Award by my Anatomy teacher. Also, I've been awarded football all-conference academic every year. I've also earned the Honorary Math Award given out by my high school because I scored above 30 on the ACT Math section and got an A in our Functions/Statistics/Trigonometry class.</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:</p>
<p>FOOTBALL: All four years of High School. Started last year and will start this year. Also will be captain this year. Academic all-conference.
COMMUNITY SERVICE: 350+ hours of community service
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: I was selected to represent the youth on our town's Chamber of Commerce.
PARISH COUNCIL: I was selected again to represent the youth of our parish on the parish council.
HOSPITAL: I'm a junior volunteer at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics.
HI-FIs: I'm a member of my school's glee club show choir.
ALTAR SERVER: I've been an altar server at my catholic church for 5 years.
TUTOR: I tutored a 5th grader who was having a tough time after the death of his mother.
ANTI-DRUG GROUPS: I'm a member of my school's substance abuse awareness groups. </p>
<p>MISCELLANOUS:</p>
<p>CATHOLIC: Born and raised catholic.
ETHNICITY: I am a registered native american. I have a tribal ID and everything. Will this help any? Is it considered a hook? Also, I'm filipino and caucasian.</p>
<p>Sorry if this was wayy too long! Please chance back!</p>
<p>I honestly believe you have a great chance of getting in and you shouldn’t have to worry at all. You seem like a catch with that mixed heritage but definitely making great use of what you have. Good luck!</p>
<p>Anyone else feel free to chance! I forgot to add that I’m in National Honor Society. Not that it makes a huge difference, just thought I should get it all out there.</p>
<p>I am a Notre Dame graduate and a minority. Your scores in ACT are very good. I also like the AP courses. I would say you are a qualified applicant. The “catch” though is if you are willing to study 4-8 hours per day in college. Because you will be competing against other very good students. At Notre Dame, I witnessed very good HS students who always go A grades in HS to suddenly get Cs, B-, or even D/F because the classes are much harder.</p>
<p>This is why a lot of Native American students from the reservations left. The issues were (1) HS was too easy, (2) ACT score was too low, (3) culture shock (especially for those who are full-blooded and learned English as a 2nd language), and (4) racism from white students. But that was long ago.</p>
<p>In modern times, I think ND has learned to not lower academic standards for the sake of diversity. So a Native American with a 22 who would have gotten accepted in 1989 would probably get rejected now. In your case, you have a 31, so I see that as very good. As for racism, modern Notre Dame does not have the racial tension of the 80s/90s. You also are not full-blooded Native American. You are part white and more into mainstream society than a Navajo from some place remote like Tohatchee who doesn’t speak English that much and prefers to speak Navajo. In that regard, you should be (1) successful in admission and (2) successful on campus as long as you can face cold winters and are willing to study 4-8 hours per day for some very, very hard classes with students who all got ACT scores in the 30s or SAT well above 80th percentile. ND is very competitive academically. </p>
<p>It’s like sports. Imagine playing a football game in HS where the fastest guy only runs a 4.5 in the 40 and the biggest guy is only 6’2" and 220 lbs. But suddenly in college you are playing a college game with a large cluster of guys who can run a 4.25 to 4.5 in the 40 and most lineman are >6’5" and can bench over 400 while squatting at least 600 lbs. Academic competition is the same way - ND is much harder than HS in most cases.</p>
<p>Thanks secgrad that was really helpful. What you said about the difficulty of classes and “very good HS students who always go A grades in HS to suddenly get Cs, B-, or even D/F because the classes are much harder” is really what scares me. At my high school, classes are quite easy to say the least and I feel like I’m hardly challenged. I live in Iowa, so in your opinion would you go to Notre Dame for pre med, or go to the U of Iowa and be involved in the honors program there? My family is upper middle class, so we don’t qualify for financial aid, but we aren’t completely loaded either. I just want to go somewhere where I can set curves and get the As. What would you do?</p>