<p>1930 New SAT
3.4 GPA at rigorous private school
21 Courses (3 accelerated in all)
captain of varsity team 2 yrs (played 4)
played jv sport 3 yrs
1 club, small summer internship jr. year</p>
<p>any ideas?</p>
<p>Are you from Colorado by any chance? I just am curious from your name. Anyways, I would say coming out of high school your chances aren't looking too good based just on those numbers (sorry to say). It is important to note that ND looks at a lot more than just numbers, and the essay will be very important to you, and it is possible you will have a chance do to those factors. My fear is you sound an awful lot like myself, though my numbers were actually a bit higher, and I ended up getting rejected and transferred into Notre Dame after my freshman year somewhere else. It can be done, and if you don't get in as a freshman you can transfer. All I am saying is looking just at the numbers and assuming no other advantages (such as legacy, race, doing some really cool stuff that will catch their eye, etc) I think it may be difficult. ND is getting crazy, they rejected the valedictorian from my high school last year! You never know, they obviously have to accept someone or they wouldn't have students, but I would just really work your butt off next year and spend a lot of time on that essay. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you! Your input was very helpful. The profiles of people who got into ND seemed outstanding. Well- there are lots of good schools out there, and if I don't get into ND, its okay. Like you said- there's always a chance to be accepted as a transfer. Or maybe I'll fall in love with a school that I can get into. Who knows? This whole process is a whirlwind.</p>
<p>It is a whirlwind, but don't give up on it. As a lot of people know here, I was rejected when I applied EA out of high school. I ended up going to Creighton University on scholarship for a year and then was accepted to Notre Dame as a transfer...just a year late. Don't give up, I know ND is getting impossible to get into but if you want it bad enough it will happen for you. It will take a lot of work, and it may be delayed, but it does all work out. No matter what, you will have plenty of options out there. Again, I went to Creighton on scholarship and I could have been successful staying there as well; it truly does all work out. If it doesn't work out at first and you want to try to transfer please get in touch with me and I will help as much as I can. If you find the school of your dreams and it isn't ND, then I wish you the best. I am just hoping that you get into Notre Dame, if that is what you want, so that you don't have to worry about transferring. Again, sometimes it is very hard to know why some are accepted and others are not accepted and you may have what ND is looking for. I wish you the best of luck; let me know if there is anything I can do to help! Keep the faith and don't give up, you can do this!</p>
<p>To the original poster: I would certainly not give up yet. Never any guarantees, but the follow-up message to yours was less than reassuring.</p>
<p>It was legitimately pointed out that other factors are always at play: legacy status, connections to members on the Board of Trustees, sheer quality/rigor of your curriculum, geographic location, etc. The old adage, 'It's not what you know, but who you know' certainly applies to college applications as legitimkately as it does to just about anything else.
By now, it is no longer a secret that Harvard itself was the birthplace of grade inflation, and is responsible, indirectly, for millions of high school kids graduating with stratospheric GPAs. I will never forget attending a friend's commencement ceremony, during which the then-president announced that fully 85% of its students was graduating cum laude that day. It was like a light bulb went off in my head at that very moment, as the epiphany, 'It's nearly impossible to be accepted here, but once one is, it is nearly impossible not to excel.' No one is 'average' at Harvard, as Harvard does not want to admit it makes mistakes.
(To put this in context, several friends have attended there and corroborated my hypothesis;students skip tests, don't show up for class all semester, etc., yet still magically end up with 3.7s.)</p>
<p>I digress. Back to the Notre Dame question, I have only one anecdotal case upon which to base my input. A couple of HIGHLY qualified kids I know had been rejected by Duke, Stanford, Washington, etc. a few years back. They'd gone to a competitive, AP/IB public HS and had both graduated in the Top Ten out of 600. Dad had gone to ND. It was their safety. Initially, they were deflated. They just finished up and are off to Med School. They LOVED it there.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>