Notre Dame is my dream school
Biology major
Half Hispanic, Native American and white
GPA: 3.74 UW 4.35W
SAT I: 1340/1600 (680 CR, 660 M), retaking in December, expecting at 1420
AP: Calc AB (5), Bio (3), APUSH (3), AP World (3), currently taking AP Chem, English 101 (DE), Statistics 207 (DE)
Great essays and supplements, very specific to each college
Letters of Rec: haven’t seen them, probably good
EC’s:
Book club president for 2 years
SGA council member
Science national honor society
Church Worship Team
BK Cashier (20 hrs/ week) August 2015-August 2016
JCPENNEY (24 hrs/wk) August 2016-Present
3 years of Rec Basketball
Childrens church sound technician 2009-2016
soup kitchen volunteer
in a garage band and in the process of recording a full length album
Shadowed a neurologist for 4 months
JV football
I visit a nursing home monthly
Awards and recognitions:
Exemplary attendance 2014, 2015
Perfect Attendance 2016
Academic Excellence 2014-2016
Your chances are on the lower side considering your unweighted GPA and your SAT score.
Do you know your class rank?
If you have URM status then I think you’re probably fairly competitive. To be clear, you have a good HS record – it may not be the superstar record of most of the REA acceptances, but if you have the URM hook it changes everything. Good luck.
I think you have a decent shot…
I got in with the following:
-Early Action
-1420 SAT
-800 Math II subject test
-31 ACT
-AP: 4 Lang, 4 Computer Science, 5 Stats
-Personal statement had bad ending in my opinion but I told the story of my growth through church services
-Brazilian-born
-Did soccer, track, swimming, newspaper, college prep summer program, robotics, and was a youth leader and bassist at my church
-Was super honest in the short essays
-1 rec from bio teacher + 1 rec from church clergy (he’s like 21)
-Taking AP calc ab, euro, physics c, and lit
-Scheduled physics sat for December
Honestly, I was ready to get rejected. But I think it’s what I read somewhere, that if you’re a combination of minority, athlete, or legacy you have higher chances, and I happen to be a minority athlete.
Also I mentioned in my essays things that showed that I knew a little more about the college than ‘it’s a good school’ like I watch college football and how I looked for good school spirit, as well as current professors there and unique things about it.
Anyways, it’s a decent shot if you have my SAT scores + fall into some of the three categories I just listed. Good luck!
What was your GPA? I am scared I will be reject because of my GPA (3.8 weighted) but I had a 1530 SAT and am an athlete (unfortunately not a minority, and my only legacy is a cousin)
Dude try it man. I slacked off my sophomore year and have a 3.7 unweighted, 4.0 weighted
Standardized test scores are most important in my opinion
@JViper According to Notre Dame’s common data set, the most important part of an application is class rigor. (It is the only thing labeled “very important.”) I think adcoms would rather see you challenge yourself with difficult classes than coast through easy ones to get a high GPA.
This is more than 2 months late, but I should remind you that athlete status does not matter to colleges unless you’re being recruited.
No. If you are recruited by the school, you’re in. If you are URM and legacy status, then yes, you have drastically higher chances.
No extra points are given to “athletes” as they are to people participating in academic extracurriculars (unless you’re recruited, of course). You’d actually probably get more attention from the AdComms if you won a state-wide math competition versus if you won a state championship for track and field or the like.
My niece was top 5%, had a decent ACT/SAT ACT:29. She is Mexican American, both her mom and dad went to ND and she did not get in. So, it might be tougher even for minority + legacy. ND has turned into a “show me the numbers” type school in my opinion. I graduated from ND also, and it seems to be turning more towards regimented GPA + ACT/SAT. Good luck.
ACT 29 too low a score for ND, legacy won’t help that.