4.25 W/3.6 UW. 35 ACT (36 M 36 E 34 S 33 R). GPA is not great but all A’s last year in all honors classes. All APs this year. Several APs prior all 5s except one 4. Go to an extremely challenging school, ranked in the top 5 in Ohio. Fantastic common app essays. Applying to mendoza with economics as second option. Extracurriculars strong, 2 sport athlete. I know it’s difficult to accurately give me a chance estimate given that I didn’t give much information. I guess im just asking how much will my subpar GPA hinder my application, and how much will the straight A honors/AP junior year and 35 ACT make up for that? Thanks!
What is your class rank?
School does not rank, but I am top 10%
3.6 is top 10 percent? Unusual
Curriculum is very difficult, my 4.25 W isn’t great, but certainly one of the best in my school. Any chance prediction you can give me?
There’s just no saying how you’ll do with any kind of accuracy. That said, you have a great ACT and you clearly go to a very challenging school, which is likely to be in your favor. FWIW, 4/4 kids from my kids school got into ND last year. 3 went. The other one went to CalTech. All were from the second quartile in terms of class rank. ND knows about these kind of schools.
Thanks for the response! Notre dame is definitely my number 1 choice and I have better stats than most of the kids from my school that have been accepted. Unfortunately, my GPA isn’t fantastic, mostly due to a poor freshman year. 2nd semester of sophomore year and all of junior year I got all A’s/A-'s in all honors/AP. Just hope Notre dame values that progression.
@hahsndh Difficult to chance you given your particular situation. Your GPA is definitely a concern. However, it sounds like you have taken an academically rigorous schedule and you have stated that there has been strong progression in your grades. We don’t really know anything about your EC’s except you believe they are strong. It could come down to your essays.
If you are truly in the top 10% with your stated GPA, it could be an indicator that your high school is a bit more stingy with their grades. Hopefully your high school has a history of sending kids to Notre Dame, giving the Admissions Rep a greater comfort with kids applying from your high school.
If you only had a 33 ACT or below, then I think your low GPA would probably be to much to overcome. Given your score of 35, you have a significantly better chance. I just don’t know how great of a chance that might be.
What does your string of AP test scores look like? Any SAT subject tests? What’s your W/UW GPA for the last 3 or 4 semesters? I think those could help to explain the GPA in the context of your school.
At worst, I think your GPA by itself might get you deferred to RD. In which case your senior fall semester grades (hopefully) would turn out to be one more available data point for the proposition that your really are currently a straight A student on a rigorous course load. Heavy load straight As plus 35 ACT should be plenty for the RD round, assuming the ECs, recs, essays, etc. are good too.
Good luck!
Thanks for the responses! My GPA for the entire Junior year was a 4.75/3.95. I’ve only taken 3 AP tests, but I will take 5 more this year. Unfortunately, my school offers few AP classes before senior year. 5 on AP Macroeconomics and US Government. 4 on US History. Never took SAT, only took ACT once. First quarter of senior year I received 4.5/3.7 in all APs. I’ve heard that deferral to regular admission is an option. I guess it would not be the worst thing in the world. For reference, 3/7 kids from my school that applied last year were accepted. All of them had about 4.5/3.75 GPA and 32/33 ACT, so that makes me optimistic about my chances.
Bump ^ can anyone else chance me?
I think your chances are very strong. I think schools in general like an upward trend, and freshman grades being where the weakness is, I don’t think will hurt you.
For reference, I have a freshman at ND, was accepted EA last year with a 34 ACT with a preadmit to Mendoza, I forget GPA at the time of application, but had one B in an AP language junior year (otherwise all As), varsity athlete that played her sport year round at a high level, strong extracurriculars with a super cool internship. She also applied Mendoza with Econ as a second (actually tied for first) option. She was ranked first in class at the time of application. However, her school ranks a group of students first in the fall. She had a lower ACT score than you.
How do you think your recommendations are? How were your essays? Did you demonstrate interest?
I also have wondered if a high school has sent students who are successful at ND in the past if that helps students in the future. I have no data on that of course. And I don’t think that is an official policy either. But it could be something that crosses the minds of Admissions.
Thanks for the insight! I never got to read my recommendations as I waived my right to do so, but I believe that they are pretty strong. The teacher can talk about my progression between freshman and junior year and the counselor knows me pretty well personally. As far as my essays, I believe that they are fantastic - Probably the best part of my application. The 3 short Notre Dame responses tell an essays worth of a story in 200 words and are very well written. I demonstrated interest in those essays without sounding like I was just trying to “kiss up” to the admissions team. Another question: Does Notre Dame only take a select number of kids from each high school? I know of 5 other kids that applied, and my GPA probably places 3rd or 4th out of the 6 that applied. I have a better ACT score than all of them however.
@hahsndh: I think everyone signs a waiver about the recommendations, but most students have an idea about what the teacher might say about them. So if you think those are good, then that’s a help.
Demonstrated interest is a term used in the college application process to describe contacts with the school prior to the application. Visits to the school, attending a talk from an admissions officer in your town or at your school count, as would any other contacts you have. Many schools look at demonstrated interest. Notre Dame considers it. You can see what Notre Dame considers and what weight each factor is given here: https://www3.nd.edu/~instres/CDS/2015-2016/CDS_2015-2016.pdf
Look at page 7. The entire document has a lot of information you might want to look through.
Notice that rigor of school record has the most weight.
If you think your essays are good, then that is something that will help your application.
As far as your question about limits on a number of kids from a high school, I am not aware of limits.
I took an official campus visit once and attended one of the Admissions Office Conferences in my area. I’m assuming that they have records of these visits, but I also briefly mention a visit to campus in one of my short essays.
@hahsndh: Sounds as though you’ve got it covered. Good Luck! This wait is so nerve racking.
So true. I thought the 10 day wait for my ACT scores was bad. I still have to wait another month for my admissions decision. Going to be tough.
Bump… Can anyone chance me?
@hahsndh Just curious about your REA result. Normally wouldn’t ask, but your GPA and class rank was not a typical combination and I was curious how ND handled it. Please don’t feel like you need to reply if you would prefer not to.
@gracedad I want to thank Gracedad for his posts. Always positive and truthful. I was actually beginning to think you were on admissions staff until you asked this question. Thx for your help