Notre Dame for Lutheran? (+NW, Wash U, etc...)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Notre Dame, Northwestern, and Wash U in St. Louis are my primary options, but feedback on William and Mary, Cornell, and Penn is also appreciated (I'm not really sure of my Ivy League chances). My intended major is business, preferably finance.</p>

<p>Legacy - Notre Dame:
My dad, his two brothers, their dad and two brothers, two of my cousins, my aunt, and other relatives are all alumni.</p>

<p>ACT: 35 ........ English - 34, Reading - 36, Math - 33, Science - 35</p>

<p>GPA: 3.641 (unweighted), 4.456 (weighted). I'm not ecstatic about my unweighted.</p>

<p>School rigor: Ranked #5 in my state, just outside top 100 nationally (it's public).</p>

<p>Course load:
Honors - 6 classes (fresh/soph)
AP - 8 classes..............Calc BC (4), Lang/Comp (5), Physics B (4). Sophomore-Senior year.</p>

<p>One particular honors course was a 3 semester Critical Thinking class. I had to qualify by taking the Watson-Glaser, and I did multiple extended-length projects. The two most notable were the Toshiba Exploravision competition (Alzheimer's and the blood-brain barrier+nanotechnology). The second, I think, could be a big sell for me. It was a semester-long personal project, and mine was analyzing whether media piracy was beneficial or detrimental to different types of business entities, and based on my conclusions, determine a guideline for future legislation. My mentor for this was Professor Michael D. Smith of Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business - he provided research and data, and guided my area of focus.</p>

<p>I'm hoping that my courses help with admission because of the number of major-related classes I've taken. Business Explorations, Consumers' Ed (1 semester), Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, and Econ/Govt.</p>

<p>EC's:
I'm heavily involved with my church. I'm not sure if my Lutheran faith will be a hurdle for getting accepted. I'm on the student ministry's leadership team, which plans the curriculum for the high school students, and leads the night occasionally. I present announcement each night (5-10 minutes). I was nominated by team members to join. Last year, we founded a separate group to coordinate serving opportunities for the ministry and increase the overall level of volunteering.</p>

<p>I've also been on two 10 day mission trips, and done various serving camps and vacation bible school work. </p>

<p>Freshman advisory program: I'm a co-mentor to about ~20 freshman for academics, social issues, and acclimation to HS. </p>

<p>HS and Club soccer: Injured this year, now the captain of JV2 team. Won the state cup at my team's level this year for club.</p>

<p>Guitar: started as a junior, practice ~1.5 hrs a day </p>

<p>National Honor Society - senior year</p>

<p>Questions and criticisms are welcome! Thanks.</p>

2

<p>I’ll also add that I’ve been awarded the Presidential Volunteer Service Award - Gold (250+ hours in a year). </p>

3

<p>No class rank, by the way. I’m new, but I’ll see if I can chance people back!</p>

4

<p>bump</p>

5

<p>No, your religious affiliation would not be a problem. However Notre Dame is rather Catholic (compared to, say, Georgetown) so it’s up to you to decide whether it matters or not. I assume the school is affordable and that you ran the Net Price Calculator. (If not, do so and ask your parents).
What are your matches and safeties?
Matches for kids with your stats are the hardest since they need to have 30%+ admission rates while still being interesting and financially affordable (based on the NPCs).</p>

6

<p>I’m pretty much all set for tuition. My more conservative options are Virginia, Miami of Ohio, Indiana, and Dayton. I’ll probably apply to 2 or 3 of those. I’m just not sure whether it’s worth applying on the other side of the spectrum. The rigor of my classes and high school is apparent, but the gpa may still make me not even a consideration for Ivy League schools. </p>

<p>Once I apply for Wash U, I’ll have visited campus form out of state twice, and done an interview, which should help my chances.</p>

7

<p>Don’t forget to apply to two safeties and, preferably, 2 matches that you like better than the safeties. </p>

<p>Do come back in the Spring to let us know how it all turned out.</p>

8

<p>

No, actually it might help. It would increase diversity at ND. Don’t worry about fitting in either. Almost nobody is going to argue religion with you. Catholics argue more amongst themselves than they do with Protestants (not joking, this is true). Just make sure to love ND football!</p>

<p>I vote for Miami of Ohio for a safety. You would get almost all tuition paid there.
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