<p>So I'm a student athlete hopefully to be accepted to the Notre Dame Class of '17! My GPA is 4.0 and I will graduate with 38 credits. My lowest percentage score of a highschool class from 9th-12th grade was 97%. My SAT's are horrible though (had to take it with a week notice and didn't study.) And I'm not a good time tester. At all. Let alone a test with subjects and format I'm not familiar with. How bad do SAt hurt student athletes though? I heard SATs don't matter as much as GPA and how good you are at your sport. So if you in the top 12 in the nation in your sport, how good is your chance? I also applied to Penn State. Which should I count on more? My grandmother however went to Notre Dame. Does legacy status help?Thanks!</p>
<p>Wow! If you’re grandmother attended Notre Dame, she must have been in the first few classes of admitted women! Unfortunately, legacy status (in terms of preferential treatment by the admissions office) is only given to applicants whose parents attended the university.
Depending upon how “horrible” you mean, a low SAT score could hurt. Most of the athletes fall in to an acceptable range of SAT scores. After all, adcoms want to know if you can handle the coursework at Notre Dame. You say you’re nationally ranked in your sport and ask if that will help. I guess that would depend upon whether that sport exists at Notre Dame and whether you’ve been recruited by the coach of that sport. If not, it probably makes an impression as a nice extra curricular, but won’t do much to overturn a poor SAT score.
My last comment - you mention high GPA and high % in your HS coursework, but state that the SAT had subjects and format with which you were not familiar. Most, if not all, of what is on the SAT should be covered in a “rigorous” or “most rigorous” set of coursework at a high school. Did you take a very rigorous set of courses (AP, IB, Honors, etc.) - does your school not offer those options? That will also be used as a determining factor by admissions.</p>
<p>she was actually! I just found this out last week too 
and all my core courses are honor courses. Such as math, english, science etc. They arn’t considered AP though. And I have talked with recruiters and coaches and they really want my application but I was wondering if i actually had a shot though :/</p>