Just one datapoint but my daughter’s good friend is a freshman at ND. High GPA, high school but not college athlete, no hooks, Catholic, test optional.
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Yes, I know of a girl who had a good GPA, no hook, Catholic, some ECs but not an athlete, went test-optional (she had a 1200 SAT), and is a freshman this year as well.
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Their admissions presentation hints at submitting test scores but they are test optional. My guess is that >90% of the 37% admitted without test scores are from parochial (catholic) high schools that have strong ties with ND and whose principals, staff, teachers have gone to bat “big time” a student who did not submit test scores. ND is huge on strong academics and they will not admit a student who they think is not academically strong (except for maybe football recruits)
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Our local ND Recruiter for our son who is also an “ADMITTANCE DECISION MAKER” for ou region told us to “SUBMIT SCORES” if over 1300 “wink, wink”. You know what I mean.
As a parent of 2 ND kiddos (one from a “feeder” catholic HS school and one from our public high school), I agree with some of your post. I don’t agree that catholic HS kids get any kind of pass on test scores or grades. Mine had a 35 ACT which he submitted and also attended ND’s Leadership Seminar. The competition for admission to ND from catholic high schools is pretty intense.
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yes, definitely agree. There is no pass at all and I can only imagine the intense competition for ND and a few others like BC, Georgetown etc. I personally think it is easier from a public school kid to stand out amongst the ND applicant pool
My S24 with a 1370 chose NOT to submit his score as an REA applicant, based on being below the mid-50 range (1450-1530) for the most recent admitted class. Perhaps this was a mistake.
My S22 was denied REA with a 1370, 4.0 UW and he is a 5 family member legacy including his Dad. So with my daughter '24 who ironically got the same SAT, she applied TO since the score is not close to the stats.