Notre Dame Leadership Seminar 2023

I personally did not have any ”church related activities”. I’m not a Christian but did have activities related to my religion and just grouped them under the “church related activities”

Does anyone know someone who has attended Leadership Seminar in the past? If so, what was the experience like?

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For future applicants I think I’d caution submitting test scores that are in the range that ND gives for qualified leadership seminar applicants, but outside of the range of the previous class for regular admission because leadership seminar students traditionally also end up getting accepted to ND it seems like those scores that don’t overlap with the regular admissions middle 50 have to be an auto reject. In hindsight today, I wish I had realized that for my D24, who was also a top 5% of class, 4.7WGPA (4.2UW), highly rigorous course load, varsity athlete, chair of major annual fundraiser applicant and rejected. She submitted a first time SAT because she had it and it was in the top half of the leadership seminar range. But we didn’t even think to check where it fell within the incoming freshman middle 50, and it was just below that so wish we had thought to just not submit scores at all. Also now left wondering if she chooses not to test again as planned and just apply test optional to the university if it will still be in her file from this. Big regrets that we didn’t think of all this before!

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rejected: top of class (school with ap average of 4.7/4.8) , 1580, acceptable essays (was previously admitted to prestigious writing camp. but for ND: I talked about NEA identity), internationally ranked for two activities (competitive humanities + math related), leading two of the largest clubs, editor-in-chief, consistent teaching at local schools, few fundraisers.
Further thoughts: No significant community contribution (I did spend pretty much all my free time teaching and coaching but it’s nothing compared to the large NGOs…). Stereotypical asian identity is autoreject despite honesty being a big part of leadership!

I know that coming from a privileged background has made things much easier but many initiatives are not accessible in the place I’m from. It’s not really a choice of opting in or out of the system/culture and I don’t remember the last time I slept more than 5 hours… At least ND bought me enough grief to sleep in. I’m at a point where I want to feel proud for accepting the stereotypical asian identity and really showing the psychological struggles that are overlooked in comparison to the institutionalized challenges and physical burdens that admissions appeal to. Yet I don’t want to give up all of what I’ve committed already. I’m forever grateful to have parents willing to invest in me, and maybe it’s just me, but 4 hours of sleep, endless goals to get to, and being forced to be someone else for the sake of getting recognition from colleges took a larger toll than the numerous summers I spent in the countryside. This is in no way intended to undermine the success of accepted applicants, but I want to tell my side of the story that elite US institutions think is a privileged narrative.

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Not necessarily true. I submitted a 1430 PSAT and got in

You do realize that a 1430 PSAT translates to a 1500 SAT right? That’s definitely in ND’s SAT range of 1410-1550. It’s also a 99th percentile PSAT score.

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Appreciate your clarification to pp, but also wanted to note that ND’s middle 50 SAT is now 1460-1540 (https://admissions.nd.edu/apply/) as that is a function of being test optional (only the highest scores are being submitted so it shifts that range).

Ah, got it. Didn’t realize the US News page for ND was out of date. Thanks!

I know Leadership Seminar helps one get into ND, but is it a prestigious enough program to list as an extracurricular activity when applying to other colleges? Obviously many variables factor into selective admissions, but does Leadership Seminar add much to one’s file?

Also want to know this

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From what I understand, (and I could be wrong about this), it’s a prestigious program but it matters more to Notre Dame then other schools. I think if you do any of the Ivy leagues programs or very very prestigious schools programs that looks good on your file to every college. For NDLS, I think I that Notre Dame is the only school that would like to see it on your file. Basically I think it would add something to your extracurriculars but not a lot, especially if you already have good extracurriculars, and a lot of other colleges wouldn’t care that you had done this.

Again this is just the sense I got from reading up on NDLS and I’m not 100% sure if this is right or not.

Does anyone know how many people are accepted off the waitlist usually and how many are on the waitlist this year?

Has anyone on the wait list heard back either way?

No, I haven’t heard anything yet

just wondering…has anybody received any e-mail from NDLS about the waitlist results yet? or no email means rejected

Was wondering the same thing. Haven’t received an email. Got the impression they would let you know either way but honestly not sure

Was wondering the same thing. Haven’t heard anything yet.

sure! gpa 103/100, sat 1550 :slight_smile: