<p>Curious about my Daughter's Chances at Notre Dame (legacy) Princeton (Legacy) Northwestern, Rice Vanderbilt Boston College Penn</p>
<p>Senior in a Competitive suburban Catholic HS
ACT 31 (Low math 26, 34 Reading 35 Language)
GPA 4.1 weighted abt 3.6 unweighted --Class Rank 45/400
AP Scholar: Soph AP Classes World History (5)
JR AP English (5) US History (4)
Sr AP Psychology and Euro History (A class she convinced the school to add)
Advanced a grade in primary school, only 16
Extracurriculars are very good: Student Council President Sr YR. Secretary Jr Year, Clas President as Fr-Soph. Her school gives a ton of responsibility to the president - She reads the announcements every day, presides over honors night and most school assemblies, we expect recommendations to be stellar.
Swim team captain - 4 varsity Letters
Water Polo Captain - Aide in school recruiting office.
Built houses in Appalachia last summer, deliver coats to homeless, Religious retreat group leader
Church lector and youth group leader</p>
<p>ND will probably be a somewhat substantial reach. An ACT score of 31 puts her below the middle 50% for ND’s most recently enrolled class. An unweighted GPA of 3.6 is low. EC’s, while good, are probably average in both depth and breadth for ND. Unfortunately, ND has become even more competitive in the last couple of years. My daughter is currently a freshman at ND, and based on what we saw last year, legacy applicants have to stack up well against the entire pool in order to derive benefit from the legacy status. My advice re: ND would be to work hard the rest of the semester, retake standardized tests, if possible, work really hard on the essays, paying particular attention to the ND supplement. Princeton is probably going to be even more difficult. The closest I think would be BC, unless she’s applying to the nursing school, in which case chances probably aren’t stellar.</p>
<p>GPA and ACT are low for ND, legacy or not. Average ACT is 33 and they like students, esp. non-hooked ones, to be in the top 3-5% of class. Of you list, S1 was also admitted to Vandy and BC. I think Vandy will also be a reach and BC is more likely. If BC likes service/commitment to community as well as ND, then I think the extra-curriculars may be helpful.</p>
<p>Legacy will only help if she applies ED. Best chance is going early decision with a legacy school and a very unique essay. The essay is critical.</p>