Chances for ND 2020

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Notre Dame
1

I’m not going to make this too in depth, just listing some major points and looking for opinions/advice. I have become increasingly attached to this school (would attend in a heartbeat), made that clear in my supplements in a non corny/cheesy way. I apologize for grammar errors as I am typing this way late at night when I should be studying for a gov test, but I cannot stop thinking about this school…

Weighted: 4.7326
Academic Core GPA: 3.9 something
Unweighted: 3.5556
Just shy of top 10% (very competitive public HS, 751 kids in my class)

Total APs taken by the end of high school:10
APUSH (3)
AP EURO (4)
AP PSYCH (5)
AP STAT : currently taking
AP LANG: (5)
AP LIT: currently taking
AP HUMAN: currently taking
AP WORLD: (5)
AP PHYSICS: currently taking
AP GOV: currently taking

Awards:
AP Scholar with Distinction
Underclassmen awards 9-10; teacher recognizes student excelling in particular course, there is a whole ceremony

ECs
Played flag football 9th-10th
Key Club: 10th grade representative
NHS 11-12
President of French Honor Society (introduced this chapter at my school)
Led HS research team to improve park goer experience at local park
French Club 10-12 (secretary 12)
Volunteer at nursing home summer of 9th 10th

Will be receiving an amazing rec letter (I assume, won’t be reading it) from teacher that taught me two years in an honors and AP course with a great relationship
Essay and supplements are pretty good, maybe even very good. I am very confident in that portion of my application. Focused on my background for common app, how I view society in a different way, what my end goal it to make society better. (broad, but I promise it works)

SAT: took it once beginning of junior year, have been studying ever since, consistently scoring in the 1980 2000 range. I realize this is low for Notre Dame. How will this affect my chances? ACT was low and I do not plan on retaking.

Background: Not sure how this will affect my application. Is Notre Dame holistic?
Roman Catholic
South Florida
First Generation (parents Caribbean immigrants)
African American
income bracket around 50,000- 55,000

Intended major: Political science, I eventually hope to attend law school. Is this major competitive?

2

Forgot to add that I will be taking Oct SAT

3

I suspect you’ll have a good chance of admission. Academic record strong, ECs sort of OK, testing could be better so keep working on that, and you have a good hook. Good luck.

4

Alright thanks! Left some out on ECs because I quickly typed this up, just listed some major points. Appreciate your response, thanks

5

I’m a little confused by your GPA. You provide three values 4.7, 3.9, and 3.55. Your unweighted GPA will be of most importance since weighting varies by school. Being African American is helpful as is first generation. You have sufficient course rigor with all those AP’s but no Calc? Depending upon how competitive your high school is bring right at the 10% threshold is probably okay given other factors. Your EC’s are fine particularly since you’ve formed some clubs or led activities. I’d say you are on the fence, if you improve your SAT a lot your in, if not probably not.

6

Right, so my academic GPA represents only academic course so your science,English, math, history, and any other academic courses including academic electives. I hope that clears it up? My unweighted includes all courses in high school. And no I did not take calc, did not thing that would be a good idea so I took physics instead. Thank you for your response, trying to get a variety of opinions.

7

Hello gm0321: I think you should be careful of any advice about your GPA, I don’t think anyone who doesn’t know your school would have a hard time interpreting it. Admissions will certainly understand how it is calculated, and if the grading is especially tough at your school. If you are just shy of the top 10% then that indicates that you are doing very well at school relative to your class especially if it is competitive as you say.

What are you doing to get your test scores up? My advice is to figure out what you need to do to solve that. Have you been to the SAT prep pages here on CC? Lots of advice there. The rigor of your schedule certainly would indicate you could master those kinds of tests. I’m going to make a wild guess that you are a cautious test taker and run out of time with lots of questions not finished, and that is why you don’t do well on the ACT? If that is the case, take practice tests(SAT of course), in the proper amount of time in a test setting. Near us, the library has offered that for free. I don’t know if you can find that in Florida though. For some people, taking practice tests gets them in the “zone” and improves pacing. However, if you only took it once for real a year ago, you may surprise yourself!

If you don’t get your scores up, sometimes a good essay can go a long way, and you are happy with yours so that is a good thing!

Good Luck to you !

Ruby

8

Thank you Ruby! It’s not really the pacing it’s just the math section. I score around the 700s in the critical reading and writing (used to be 600s), but I’m around 600 range for math which is a killer.

And I’ve been studying on my own, SAT tutoring in my area is pricy, around $100 per hour. My critical reading and math score is In the 1300 range, which is on the lower end for ND I believe. But my courses in high school have been rigorous. Only honors and ap, French I & II (III & IV are honors) and gym were my only regular courses. Hoping that class rigor and my essay will carry the weight of my application but who knows.

And yes my high school is very competitive. I mean rankings are decimal points apart from one another.

But thank you for your response. Just trying to get perspective on my application and possibly a reality check haha! Thank you.