my chances

<p>well i visited notre dame a couple of weeks ago and i loved it. its definetly first on my list. i was wondering what you guys thought of my chances of getting in.</p>

<p>GPA - 97.8 unweighted - my school doesnt use 4.0, but my college counsler told me its a 4.0
Test Scores - this is the bad part - SAT 1840 (550 Math, 620 Reading, 670 Writing) ACT - 25 - im working real hard to increase those scores
Rank - 5 of 138 - this is one thing i wanted to comment on. at my school, in the class of 2006, our salutatorian is heading of to notre dame. my gpa was higher then his and our schedules are almost identical. my rank is less then his because my class is much more competetative. </p>

<p>I'm a minority (middle eastern)</p>

<p>I have a hard schedule - by the end of next year i would have taken 5 AP classes out of a possible 11, and 7 honors classes. my school is catholic college prep, one of the best in the area. AP scores so far are 4,4,3. </p>

<p>Activities
wrestling 9-12 - co-captain
diversity club 9-12
compact leadership team 9-12
explorer medical program 11 - its only a one year thing
focus 11 - its a program where we meet with students from other schools and learn about being leaders - only for juniors
newspaper 11-12
United Way Allocations Board Member - one term (june 2006-december 2006)
NHS - 11-12
nursing home volunteer 9-12 (by the end of this year, i would have done around 150-160 hours)</p>

<p>awards
colgate book award
Multicultural and Diversity Office Award
kodak young leaders award
student of the month
student of the year</p>

<p>here are my classes for this year</p>

<p>pre-calc - ive never taken honors math classes because its my worst subject. my parents, who are ironically very good at math, felt that if i take the regular courses i would get a better grasp of the material.
world religions
lifetime sports (have to take a pe all four years)
ap world history
honors physics
honors spanish 4
accounting
ap english lit </p>

<p>i know that i probably shouldnt apply ea. i know i probably wont get in ea, but im pretty sure that i wont get totatlly rejected from the school altogether. doest make a difference in the ra if they see you applyed ea?</p>

<p>On your question on if it makes a difference RA if you applied EA, the answer is probably not (but I need to email ND admissions and will try to remember). However, there was a poster in the past that said that getting deferred EA could hurt you, and I just am not sure. I am pretty sure that if you are deferred you go into the normal pile.</p>

<p>I like your rank, activities, and it is clear that you have been challenging yourself. I think you are right, the test scores are the problem right now. ND is definitely a reach right now (I think) because of those test scores but if you can study and move those up I think you could have a very good chance (especially if you got up to around a 1400 old SAT version, but I know that is a lot). </p>

<p>Do your best and see what happens but definitely focus on those test scores! Good luck!</p>

<p>I don't think I can really add much to Irish's assessment of your chances, but I would advise you not to apply EA- if you wait for the RD round, you will have more time to improve those SAT/ACT scores before you have to send them in. If you can get those scores up, you have a solid shot. Just my $0.02.</p>

<p>ND doesn't look at writing so you're sitting with an 1170. That's a couple of hundred points below the average of the admitted students, so clearly that's the area to work on. EA is intended for the most qualified students, not the students who most want to go there, so you'll need to add quite a few points to be competitive for EA.</p>

<p>Big balla dont apply EA, thats for kids with 1400+ on SAT's. Like Irish68178 (who still doesn't believe me that UCLA is better than ND at sports) work on those SAT's take those prep classes, not the princeton review one but one called :beat the sat" or something like that, just go to a weekend one ofr like 10 hours it will cover the basic tips that increased my score by 100 points. Get that score up then apply to ND. If u don't get it up that's okay, you sound dedicated m sure youll do great wherever u go (just not as great as John Wooden's 9 championships in a row, thats directed to irish68718). Seriously, scores up youll be good</p>

<p>Great job rarr. It really looks as though you got your ducks in a row. Be aware that Notre Dame takes the majority of their applicants from the EA pool. So it might be advantageous to give EA a go even though you are "border line". The worst that can happen is that you are deferred. I can empathize with the SAT situation. I scored in the exact range where you scored. But I was able to bring it up a few hundred points and I know it impressed the admissions folks. But a 1400 is strong regardless. So great job. But if there is one pice of advice I can give it is to make contact with your regional advisor and e-mail him/her on a relative basis about your progress. After all, this will be the person who will judge your improvements this coming year and your ultimate drive.</p>

<p>Irish45221, I am sorry to say this but I think your information is inaccurate.
A. "Notre Dame takes the majority of their applicants from the EA pool" is simply not true, most are accepted through RD, but EA's acceptance rate is higher because only the absolute best applicants are told to apply.</p>

<p>B. "it might be advantageous to give EA a go even though you are "border line"" ND admissions will tell you that if you are "border line" you should apply RD. It is different from how other schools treat EA</p>

<p>C. "The worst that can happen is that you are deferred" I myself was REJECTED EA and transferred to ND, so deferral isn't the worst that can happen</p>

<p>D. "But a 1400 is strong regardless" but the OP doesn't have a 1400!</p>

<p>Sorry Irish, it is nothing against you but I just had to point these things out</p>

<p>Bruin, we will see when ND plays UCLA this year...We will see. Number 3 Fighting Irish baby!</p>

<p>Thanks for the clarification but I know I am correct on the EA vs RD point. ND accepts more students EA. I believe the number is somewhere around 60% are accepted EA. The number is high and it was confirmed to me some years ago by my regional admissions advisor at ND. It is high because many legacy students opt for EA instead of RD. Your statistic might not take into account the number of legacy students who enter EA. Don't forget, new applicants are not only competing against their peers, but they are also competing against legacy students who ND gives a significant edge. And for the record, I was told to apply EA at ND even though I was "border line". And, I was accepted. Its a tough decision but one that should be made with the candidate and the admissions advisor. And when I met "the worst that can happen is that you are deferred" I met that applying EA cannot hurt a candidate. In other words, if you are to be rejected in EA you are also to be rejected RD. Applying EA can give competitive students an edge, however.</p>

<p>By numbers, you are referring to the percetange accepted out of the number of students applied while irish68178 is referring to the actual number of people accepted EA. You guys are both right, but you guys are also talking about different things.</p>

<p>If you are to be rejected EA, you may not be rejected RD. The item that ND emphasizes is the fact that unlike most other colleges, applicants who have better resumes should apply EA. So pitted against applicants who have better numbers or activities than you, you wouldn't do so well. However, if you were to apply RD, you might be participating in an applicant pool who might have similar transcript to yours, so yeah.</p>

<p>Point of Clarification: Thanks ksjung626 but I think irish68178 and I are referring to the same topic. My previous wording was a bit confusing so I will clarify. So, what I mean is that accepted students from the EA pool have the potential to make up a total of 70% of the incoming class. Here are some numbers. 1,383 students were admitted to ND from the early action pool for the class of 2009. If all 1,383 of these students were to enroll in a class of 1,985 (that's the current enrollment), then EA students would account for 70% of the incoming class. However this does not happen as many admitted EA students do not enroll. So the number falls and it generally hovers between 50% to 60%.</p>

<p>I do not mean to make a big fuss out of statistics but it shows the premium that ND places on the EA pool. Other schools are not nearly as aggressive but I believe the high numbers are a result of the nod that ND gives to legacy students.</p>

<p>I am pretty sure you are confusing the number that applied EA with the number that were accepted EA. I will try to find it (hard night so it may be a while) but that sounds about like what I have heard on the number that apply EA</p>

<p>Here is something from chat time which may clarify a bit...</p>

<p>Is it more advantageous to apply Early Action or is it more difficult to be admitted early?
Andrew - Cheshire, Connecticut
(7:29 PM)
ND Admissions:</p>

<p>Andrew,</p>

<p>When applying to ND - it is most advantageous to present your application when it is most competitive. Our Early Action program is non-binding and used as a courtesey for students who want to know whether or not they have been admitted to the University before Christmas. Since we have not seen the rest of the application pool - we are very cautious in who we admit Early Action. We assume that every year the profile of the admitted student will improve - and based upon that assumption - we only admit students who we know would be admitted Regular Action. As a result - Early Action is much more competitive than our Regular Action process.</p>

<p>If you have questions regarding whether or not your profile would be competitive for Early Action - please contact our office and we can discuss that option with you.</p>

<p>Thank you so much for holding this chat session! I am very interested in attending ND and I heard that colleges like those who apply early action because they are so interested in the school. However, if I am not in the upper ranges of your middle 50% admit, would applying early action to ND actually end up hurting my chances of getting in?
Lauren - Calabasas, California
(8:19 PM)
ND Admissions:
You bring up an execellent question! Unlike many of our peer institutions, Notre Dame does NOT recommend that students apply Early Action simply because they consider us their first choice. You should base your decision on academic reasons. If your application would be helped by additional test scores, and/or first-semester senior grades, you should wait until Regular Action to apply.</p>

<p>No I don't think I am confusing the number who applied EA with the number who were accepted EA. According to College Board 2,719 applied EA and 1,383 were admitted. The size of the class of 2009 is 1,985 students. Like I said, those 1,383 have the potential to make up 70% of the class should they all accept. Looking at it from a numbers perspective, 70% does not seem as though ND is being "very cautious in who they admit EA". </p>

<p>But the chat makes some great points that candidates can learn from. Ultimately speaking, the decision to apply EA must be taken seriously and it must be made from an academic perspective.</p>

<p>Have a good weekend all!</p>

<p>I will grant you the fact that potentially that is the case but just from thinking of my friends (which I know doesn't prove anything but) most of them were RD. I do give you credit for getting your numbers, I can't argue you there. I learned something from them honestly.</p>

<p>Yeah, the numbers are rather unexpected and shocking. A lot of schools only admit 30% of their class from the EA pool. But a lot of those schools do not place a high premium on legacy status. I believe, and I would like to see the statistic, that many legacy students come in EA. They might account for the extra number of students who are hiking the statistic to such high levels. </p>

<p>This is a great discussion and I have learned a lot as well. I remember walking by O'Shaugnessy on a campus tour and the tour guide shot out the statistic and it went over a lot of peoples' heads. I don't think its a stat that the school likes to over-publicize. I wonder why?</p>

<p>Have a great weekend.</p>

<p>It has been a good discussion and I do appreciate it, though we did disagree (and you got the better of me, lol). Hopefully it will help people in the future.</p>

<p>Hey irish68178, I read a post that you transferred from Creighton. I always spoke with someone after my Calc III course Mon/Wed/Fri who transferred from Creighton and was from Colorado. I bet that you were the guy who shared your "enthusiasm" (hahaha) for your upcoming psychology course, and gave me a sampling of how the brain works. I was the kid from California who always seemed to exit the room with my professor. I hope it's you. If not, I'm terribly embarrassed. But hey, it's worth a shot!</p>

<p>Hey OakA'sFan. Unfortunately, I don't think it was me because I only made it through Calculus 1. However, if you were there for the 2003-2004 school year we probably crossed paths. I can't PM you because of how you set it up but feel free to get in touch with me if you want to try to figure out if we know each other (if not you may know my roommate, who transferred from Creighton a year after). My email is mnadorff(at)nd.edu. Just replace the (at) and it should work. I hope to hear from you soon and I hope we do know each other, but unfortunately it doesn't sound like I am the person you are thinking of. I am sorry!</p>