<p>ACT: 32
Class rank: HS does not rank but top 5 - 8%
Grade point: 4.0 uw; 4.6 w
Competitive midwest Catholic high school
National Merit Commended (208)</p>
<p>Senior classes: AP Calc, AP Physics, AP Chem, AP English, AP Spanish, Theology and Government</p>
<p>Recomendations: Great
Essay: I think they are solid</p>
<p>EC's:
NHS
Junior and Senior Class VP
Student Council - Frosh and Soph
JETS and WYSE - Jr and Sr
Math team - Jr and Sr
SADD - all 4 yrs; President senior year
Int governement - all 4 yrs; Vice-president jr and sr year
Peer tutoring - Soph, Jr and Sr
Competitive champion dancer</p>
<p>Many hours of service working with sick children</p>
<p>Yoshukiu (and ndhopeful), sorry, but you can NEVER, EVER say that. </p>
<p>Ndhopeful, you have an excellent chance, but unfortunately, so do thousands of other students applying. From my point of view to you, I would say you've done absolutely everything you could to put yourself in a great position, but remember, there is always a significant degree of chance.</p>
<p>Have to agree with all of the above; however, work on that essay! (I always say that, and I truly believe that it carries a lot of weight) Your essay could distinguish you from the 1,000s of other applicants even with your stats. Good Luck to you!!</p>
<p>Just my opinion, I think you'll almost definitely get in, but applying early might not be the best idea. Your grades look great and everything, and your ACT is good enough for ND, but it is too low for early probably. Admissions counselors generally say 34 for early, but I'd say a worst case scenario for you is getting deferred, then getting in regular action.</p>
<p>ndhopeful I have to agree with JR526. My son has nearly identical stats to you although he has football and baseball EC's. My husband and son just attended a session with a ND admission director for our area and they asked this same question EA vs. RD. While they will never come right out and say yes or no to applying early, they were left with the impression that the best EA candidates have 1400+ SAT and 33+ ACT. It was stressed to them that EA is very competitve where most of the apps in the pool are very good all around. It should be your best effort. If you think that you can't improve upon anything you should go for it. My son, as much as he would love to go EA and have a shorter waiting time feels that a 32 may not be his best shot, so he has opted to sit again for both the ACT and SAT in hopes of achieving that 1-2 points or 20 points (sat). He has taken the ACT and SAT twice each and has stayed the same for one (ACT) and gone up by 110 points (SAT). Like you he is a legacy (dad, grandfather) but he has always known that this is not enough and they downplayed the legacy factor at this session my husband said. In my opinion (for what it is worth) I think that worse case scenario you will get dererred to RD but as everyone says, you never know. I wish you the best of luck and commend you for your hard work in high school. ND is very lucky to have such great candidates applying for admission.</p>
<p>I think your record is strong enough for EA. Legacies are admitted at close to a 50% rate, and your rank and test scores are certainly within the normal range of admitted students. EA legacies with 1350s are walking around campus as we speak. Applying EA also avoids the risk that you have any problems with your five AP schedule this semester -- once you are admitted it would take a lot to be recinded, but senior year grades might be looked at more closely in the regular admissions pool. Apply EA and the best case is you have great news by Christmas, worst case is you have to wait until April as I would be highly surprised at a rejection in the EA round in your case. But if you wait until regular decision you prolong the suspense, and run the risk that a problem class or two this semester could hurt your chances.</p>
<p>Thank you for your posts. So far so good with AP's. The first quarter is almost done and I have solid A's in all of my classes. I know everyone is ready to have a decision just like I am. I have worked hard to get to this point for the very reason that I wanted a decison before Christmas. But I also don't want to take a chance on a rejection now. I think I need to think about it some more. I am going to sleep on it and decide if I will send it early or not. Thank you again!</p>
<p>The best thing to do is to call or email your admissions counselor. They will advise you. I am worried about the number of candidates that are advised to go EA on this forum. It is very risky. I could give you names of students that have much better stats than those being advised to go EA and they were rejected early action. Is it worth the risk? Write the the email.</p>
<p>Other than having to wait a few more months for a decision, there is no downside to applying RD. The admissions counselors speak with one voice on this point -- EA is not an end-run around the regular admissions process for students who REALLY want to attend Notre Dame. It is intended to give the very strongest candidates the opportunity to get an early decision on their application. A candidate who would have been admitted EA will be admitted RD. The worst-case scenario isn't deferral but rejection, and it happens to plenty of EA candidates. Why take the risk if you're not absolutely sure of your chances?</p>