<p>White Catholic Male
Florida
Small Private Catholic High School</p>
<p>All through my HS career I have taken the single hardest course curriculum offered to me. This includes all honors courses and well as 8 AP's total.*
*<em>9th-AP World
*</em>11th-APUSH, AP Lang & Comp
**12th-AP Chem, AP Calc AB, AP Lit & Comp, AP Gov and Politics, AP Macroeconomis</p>
<p>W GPA 4.14
UW GPA 3.67
ACT- 29 Twice
SAT-taking in Oct and Nov (possibly December)
Class rank- I am not sure to be honest. As well, I have a concern here. My freshman year I was at a highly competitive Public high school (top 10 in nation) and enrolled in the pre-IB program and in an AP course. Due to the competitive nature of the school and courseload, my GPA suffered and is now negatively affecting my class rank. (I believe I'm right at or below top 25%. {terrible, I know). Will they be able to see this and realize this, or should I mention it somewhere in my app?*</p>
<p>Extracarricular
*<em>Varsity Track-named best male sprinter by coaches 11-12
*</em>Varsity <em>Football 10-11
*</em>Youth Group-inudes numerous mission and service projects (over 500 hours.) As well , I participated in ND Vision and am a leading member in my youth group's leadership team- 9-12
*<em>National Honors Society-Senior year I am an officer in my NHS Chapter serving as Parlamentarian. As well, i've done service work with habitat for humanity through NHS-10-12 *
*</em>Boy Scouts-I have achieved the rank of Eagle Scout which required the planning and execution of a large scale project. As well, I've worked on numerous other projects totaling over 100 hours of service)-9-11
**Prom Committee-fundraising, planning, decorating, organizing, and cleaning up or school's junior/senior prom. 11</p>
<p>Community Service
*<em>Soul in the City-a nmission trip to Orlando where, with my youth group, I helped a school in the poorest part of Orlando prepare for the upcoming school year by doing things such as landscaping and mulching the outside and well as preparing classrooms for teacher- 300 hours
*</em>God's Katrina Kitchen-a mission trip to mississippi where I helped in drywalling and tiling houses which had been devastated by hurricane Katrina. -75 Hours
*<em>Habitat for Humanity-consisted of sodding the lawn of a home that habitat for humanity had recently built-6 Hours
*</em>Soup Kitchen-includes serving and preparing food to the local homeless and poor-15 Hours
*<em>Eagle Projects-projects included renovating a local baseball parks storage shed, builiding a wooden walkway at a local basball park, building picnic tables for a local school, and my own eagle scout project which included renovating my sisters local daycare-100 Hours
*</em>Book-Sale set up-helped a local school prepare for the coming school year-15 Hours</p>
<p>Awards, Recognitions (help here. Feel weak here. Do I need to describe them or anything like that?)
*<em>National Honors Society
*</em>Spanish National Honors Society
*<em>First and Second Honors
*</em>Named best male sprinter on the track team.
**Eagle Scout</p>
<p>Any advice or feedback would be appreciated.</p>
<p>You’ve done many things you can be justifiably proud off. Becoming an Eagle Scout is a wonderful achievement. Challenging yourself in school is commendable. Those are things in your favor. But in college admissions, numbers are supremely important. What you need to ask yourself is how do you stack up against the competition. Here’s how the Observer described this year’s accepted students – I think you can reach your own conclusions:</p>
<p>From a pool of 14,352 applicants, Notre Dame accepted its most academically competitive class yet, said Bob Mundy, the director of admissions operations. </p>
<p>The average SAT score of admitted students for the class of 2013 is 1434 - seven points higher than that of students from the class of 2012. The average ACT score is 32.6, Mundy said. </p>
<p>On average, admitted students were in the top four percent of their high school classes, he said. </p>
<p>Mundy said the applicant pool for the class of 2013 was the second largest in history -following the class of 2011, when about 14,500 applications were submitted. </p>
<p>The number of applications increased 3 percent from last year, he said. </p>
<p>He said this year marks the first year the University used the Common Application, which could explain the increase in applications.</p>
<p>Mundy said the University also saw the largest minority applicant pool, and hopes that 22 to 24 percent of the incoming class will be non-white.</p>
<p>I’m hoping to boost my test scores when I take the SAT’s. Hopefully with them I’ll be able to be more in range. </p>
<p>Also, any advice on what I should do about my class rank?</p>
<p>I have a feeling that ND sees transcripts from all high schools that you attended. They also look for improvement throughout the years so keep that in mind as well. As far as weeding students out, I do not believe they do it based on class rank. If anything they probably do it with SAT/ACT scores and GPA.</p>
<p>Ok. Thank you for the response. When they look at test scores, do you know whether they place you into a group such as middle 50, bottom 25, top 25 or what. For example, would a 32 ACT be basically the same as a 34?</p>
<p>I don’t know about that. It seems like an arbitrary means of sorting things out. I have faith that the admissions at ND is less mechanized than that.</p>
<p>Alright. If I was to get my ACT it SAT score into the middle 50th percentile, would I have a pretty good chance? I know my GPA and rank may not be phenomenol, but I have good EC’s and Communuty Service.</p>
<p>Any increase in your test scores would definitely help. With that ACT alone I would say that things do not look good. If you can get your SAT well into the 1400 range with a solid writing score I would say that you have a decent chance.</p>
<p>Do you think my GPA and EC’s/Community Service will be good enough if I was able to score in the 1400 range?</p>
<p>Yes, I would say you would have a good fighting chance. Now whether to apply EA or RD is a whole other dimension that you really can’t answer until you get your SAT scores.</p>
<p>I definently plan on applying RD. Admissions officer suggested EA only to the strongest candidates. Those whose stats are close to the top 25%. I feel like that’s not for me.</p>
<p>Based on what you have right now I would say go RD. If you are able to score above a 1450 then EA may become an option.</p>
<p>Honestly, i don’t see that happening. 1400 would be amazing. I know notre dame will be a reach for mr regardless. Hopefully I can study my tail off with the blue book and absolutely do amazing. After being at notre dame, I feel like it’s a great place for me.</p>
<p>A few things I realized I forget to mention. First off, I will the student council senior class vice president. The other, is that I have recieved an award from my school for completing over 100 hours of service in one school year.</p>
<p>Anything you can stick on your app is of course a plus, but I don’t believe what you just added will make major waves at the end of the day. You still got a good chance though.</p>
<p>I felt my position of VP would be a good testament to my leadership.</p>
<p>Well sure it is, but leadership alone won’t get you into ND. Put it this way, a superior ACT or SAT score looks pretty good at the end of the day (at least in your case) compared to a position on the student council. You already know what you have to do. You have to try and up your test scores.</p>
<p>I know that. Thats why I’m studying like crazy for the SAT. I need that to be high so I have a chance. As for the student council, I am not trying to use it to compensate for my low test scores, but trying to show my involvement and leadership.</p>