Engineering chances please

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Notre Dame
1

<p>Hey guys I was wondering what chances do I stand at ND for civil engineering.</p>

<p>I go to a very competitive private high school in New Jersey. Widowed parent my mom passed away in april because of cancer, income around 40k ish, first generation college student.</p>

<p>white male (double damn)</p>

<p>SAT I: 2020 690 CR, 630 Math, 700 Writing
SAT II: Haven't taken any yet but plan on doing math 1 (is math 2 basically required?), chem, and maybe lit/history (any preference for a third?)</p>

<p>I only have the october testing date for the sat 2s since the next one is after the ed date.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.8 something UW I did incredibly poor freshmen year and had to work instensely hard to get my grades up. I don't know if they'll see that but the self-improvement was immense</p>

<p>Rank: top 10</p>

<p>Junior year coursework: Honors English, Honors Chem, Honors Alg2/Trig, Ap US History, Honors Spanish 3, Religion (required)</p>

<p>four quarter grades and then year grade</p>

<p>Honors English- 97 97 99 98 98
Alg2 Trig Honors 95 94 96 95 95
AP USH- 99 99 99 99 99
Chemistry Honors 99 99 98 99 98
Spanish 3 Honors 96 97 97 96 95
Religion- 99 99 99 99 99</p>

<p>Senior year: AP Eng, Honors Physics, Ap Art History, Ap US History, Honors Precalc</p>

<p>My school only offers ap classes in English, Art History, US History, and Calc BC, so I'm taking all I am qualified for. I tried starting a US Gov AP and Euro Hist AP but the head of the department turned me down.</p>

<p>Taken 2 courses at a local community college, intro to philosophy (freshmen year- A-), sociology (sophomore year A), looking into another one now.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Academic Team- Captain</p>

<p>Robotics Team-builder and participant when we won the 2005 and 2006 state championships for FIRST (possible hook? Idk..)</p>

<p>New Jersey Regional Science Fair-participant</p>

<p>Spanish Honor Society- helped fundraise and tutored students</p>

<p>Model United Nations</p>

<p>NJ American Legion Boys State representative</p>

<p>Intermural Basketball League assistant coach/player</p>

<p>Chess team</p>

<p>Intermural Ultimate Frisbee League- Co-Founder, captain of a team, and player</p>

<p>American Cancer Society Relay for Life-helped organize and set up event, three years</p>

<p>Worked at Afterhours Formalwear</p>

<p>Awards:</p>

<p>· The Elmira College Key Award, 2006
· Excellence in Spanish 2 CP, 2004-2005
· Excellence in English 2 CP, 2004-2005
· Honorable Mention in Eastern Civilization CP, 2004-2005
· Excellence in English 3 Honors, 2005-2006
· Excellence in United History 1 Advanced Placement, 2005-2006
· Honorable Mention in Spanish 3 Honors, 2005-2006
· New Jersey Regional Science Fair Rutgers Student Award, 2005
· National Spanish Examination Certificate of Achievement and Merit¸ 2004-2005 and 2005-2006</p>

<p>Thanks for any help guys I really appreciate this, college planning is driving me crazy since I have to do everything on my own.</p>

2

<p>First of all, at ND it doesn't matter what major you are going into. That being said, I still think ND is a bit of a reach as you sit now both because of the rank and the SAT score. I think the upward trend is very helpful and if you finish out strong ND won't look all that much at your freshman year (it happens, lol). However, you need your SAT to be a bit stronger. ND doesn't really look at the writing as of yet so right now you have a score that is about 70 points below the average. </p>

<p>I think if you get the SAT up and you continue with good graes you have a good shot, but there is definitely work to be done as of now. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the reply, I don't know if it was clear I meant top 10 in class, not top 10 %</p>

4

<p>I thought you meant top 10%, how big is your class? That could change some things!!!</p>

5

<p>I'm around 10/11 after junior year, but after first quarter senior I should be around 8/9 and just increasing after that. There's roughly 245ish kids in my grade.</p>

<p>I've yet to have the same or lower gpa a quarter. Meaning i had like a 3.4 freshmen then ever since then each quarter was like 3.6, 3.8, 3.9, 4.0, 4.1 etc....but because of freshmen that's why uw gpa averages down to a 3.8.</p>

6

<p>The rank looks okay then :). Anyways, just keep working hard and do retake the SAT but that rank looks pretty good to me. Good luck!</p>

7

<p>I honestly wouldn't worry about your SAT scores. I got into ND with worse scores than that, and graduated this year with a BS in chemical engineering. Then again, I transferred in after two years at a smaller school...if you don't get in the first time, you can always rock out at an easier school and transfer in. The standard high school crap (ranking/SAT/etc.) will hardly matter compared to what you did in college.</p>

<p>Don't even bother with SAT II (not required).</p>

8

<p>Bezel, the OP is talking about getting in as a freshman, so their scores would matter. I think with better test scores they should be able to get into Notre Dame, so hopefully transferring shouldn't have to be an option :)</p>

9

<p>Thanks for the encouragement. I just took a practice act test and got a composite of 29, if I score similar on an actual act test, meaning 28-30 would that be better for my chances than my current sat scores, or would it be comparable.</p>

10

<p>That is comparable to what you already have. Keep practicing though, it does make a difference. Try number2.com, they are a great resource!</p>

11

<p>
[quote]
Bezel, the OP is talking about getting in as a freshman, so their scores would matter. I think with better test scores they should be able to get into Notre Dame, so hopefully transferring shouldn't have to be an option

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Not to hijack the thread, but just to clarify I never bothered applying to ND when I was a freshman (I didn't even know it was in Indiana), so it wasn't like I had in mind that I was going to transfer. I was happy enough at my old school (Tri-State U if anyone cares), but I felt like going somewhere bigger and ND happened to pop into my radar. </p>

<p>I was only suggesting a way to get in if nothing else works. The OP's SAT scores seem to be around the average I saw published in the Observer this year.</p>

<p>OP, if you do get waitlisted and you still really want to go, keep calling and checking. Two of my best friends at school (and two of the smartest people I knew there) got in because they were persistent in checking up.</p>