<p>20 yr old, white, male, Graduated from a private New England academy in 2004, GPA: 3.0/4.0 , SAT I: 1180 (M:610 V:570), Varsity Lacrosse (Captain, All-State), Varsity Football (All-State), Future Business Leaders of America, Youth Lacrosse Coach, Special Olympics Coach/Aide</p>
<p>I have been out of school for the past 2.5 years. Since graduating, I have been working full-time in sales. Along with work, I keep busy as a volunteer coach in the town youth lacrosse and football programs. I also am a seasonal volunteer in the local church soup kitchen. I have an internship coming up this Spring with the Democratic National Party in my state's capital and I am also going to Costa Rica for 2 weeks in the summer as a volunteer english teacher. </p>
<p>I am beginning college coursework this Spring for the first time and I would like to apply for transfer admission to Notre Dame upon completion of 60 semester credits. I am hoping to maintain a GPA of 3.6-3.8 during my two years. Do I seem to be a potential ND transfer? What advice do you have for me? Should I consider ND as a potential transfer school or is it far too much of a reach, even with a solid college transcript?</p>
<p>Are you at a two or four year college, as it makes a big difference in transferring to ND? Also, have you checked your courses against what ND is looking for? </p>
<p>I am sorry to just refer you to the website but there is just a lot I need to know to get you where you need to be and the website will help you understand how ND works with transfers. The answer to your question is I do think that ND is within reach with a solid transcript, but you just have to make sure you have the grades and the courses.</p>
<p>I checked out your prior posts and I saw that you are mainly focused on Berkeley and attend a CC. If you are really interested in ND specifically, then it would be worth doing the extra work to make ND an option. If it is just a backup, however, it probably isn't worth trying to arrange all of your classes. Also, coming from a CC, you would basically need a 4.0 for ND as ND shows a strong preference for students coming from a 4 year school.</p>
<p>I am definitely more than willing to help if you are strongly interested in ND, but just knowing the process, it may not be worth it to you if ND is just a backup.</p>
<p>Berkeley had always been my "dream school" throughout high school, however the more that I have done research on it and other universities over the past 6 months, the more I realize that it truly isn't the ideal academic setting for me.</p>
<p>I have been doing periodic research on different colleges and universities since graduating from HS in '04. I have taken this much time off soley to sort out all of my confusion and figure out which school would be best for me. I guess my personal situation is that I have to come to realize the calibur of school that I want to attain an education from, however I fear that I just won't be able to cut it in this world of ridiculously competitive applicant pools. I want to aim for the ND/BC range schools knowingly very well it is going to be a challange for me.</p>
<p>I have been looking at this as a nice school to attempt to transfer from since I will need to remain nearby to home (I do not plan on living on campus during these years). It is a 4 year so I hope that this will be to my advantage as well. I figure that I can begin with my first year courses as early as this Spring however if this is what I plan to do, I will need to take on a full load in the summer as well in order to remain at sophmore status by the time that I apply for 2010. This brings up another issue with my transfer process. I am 20 years old (21 in April '07). This means I will probably be 22 by the time that I would transfer in. Am I going to be that much older that much of the current student body? I truly don't know how comfortable I would be in an undergraduate atmosphere older than my peers. </p>
<p>What is a good, solid courseload to take during my first year before applying?</p>
<p>I have alot of other questions remaining which is making this extremely difficult to compose into one, clear paragraph. For this, I apologize.</p>
<p>I hope you can share some more helpful information/advice with me. Thanks</p>
<p>I am going to miss a lot of your questions but just remind me of them and we will go back through them. First of all, I apologize if my earlier posts seemed mean, I just didn't want you to waste your money. It sounds like you understand the situation and you are being proactive and I have no doubt that it will pay off for you in the long run. The main thing is figuring out what you want and going for it.</p>
<p>As a 21 year old at ND (granted a senior, but nonetheless) I don't think I would be uncomfortable in your shoes, but that is just me. Unless you tell people, no one will know how old you are and the maturity difference, while decent, isn't that huge between freshmen and seniors. There won't be many people your age, at least not at ND, but I don't think it will be a problem unless it bothers you.</p>
<p>As for what coursework you should do and where you want to go to school with the intention of transferring, that all depends on where you want to go. No matter what, if you go to a 4-year college go to one that you wouldn't mind graduating from. You may love it there! </p>
<p>Here is what I would do at this point if I were in your situation. Look at all the options, put everything on the table, and think about what you would like and what would be best for you. Don't take things off the table because you don't think they could happen or they aren't probable, still look at those and figure out if they would be good or not. Then, try to identify some schools or options, whatever it may be, that truly fit you where you are now. Once you know where you are going, it is much easier to plan how to get there, and things like course work and what not are all part of that.</p>
<p>No matter where you decide you want to go, please feel free to email me. My email is available through my profile (I would post it but I think that is against the board rules). I will do my best to help you through this process and help you feel out what the best options are for you. Please feel free to keep posting in this thread as well as it may help you get more feedback.</p>