My senior daughter is applying to Notre Dame and is trying to decide whether to apply Restricted Early Action (11/1 deadline with mid-December acceptance) or regular decision. I believe she is a strong candidate, with an unweighted 4.0 at a small suburban Catholic school where she took as many AP classes as was offered, was a starter on the state-championship soccer team her junior year and was in student government all four years, including this year as an office of the National Honor Society.
She also runs cross-country in the fall and was all-state honorable mention in both soccer and cross-country last year. Other ECs include singing in the choir and mountain climbing (she climbed to the summit of the Grand Teton this summer) and she volunteered 50+ hours at the local hospital last year She found out a couple of weeks ago that she qualified as a National Merit semi-finalist and received a 35 on the ACT the first time she took it her junior year. Because Notre Dame super scores and because she wanted to get her math score up (31 the first time around) she retook the ACT last month and received a 36, increasing her math score to a 35 and receiving 36’s on the other sections.
She would really like to know sooner rather than later if she is accepted but we are wondering if there are any downsides to applying early. She’s got her common app ready to go and has rough drafts of her ND essays written. We have heard that the acceptance rate for REA is much lower than for early decision, but are wondering if anyone knows if that is true. Also, although I know that a very, very small percentage of accepted students earn any merit scholarships, I’m wondering if applying REA might provide a leg-up in getting recognized and perhaps invited to apply for some of the limited merit scholarships ND invites students to apply for.
I think she’s a pretty great well-rounded kid, but she is still a bit unsure about what she wants to study – which is one of the reasons she wants to go to a liberal arts school like Notre Dame. I’m wondering if not knowing exactly what she wants to do will hurt her application in any way and if anyone has any insight on the REA v. Regular decision process.
If you are confident there is nothing else she can do to strengthen her application then it’s ok to apply early…my son got in early back in 2013…there was nothing he could do to strengthen his app. My younger son decided to wait for regular decision and added to his application. I know several who were waitlisted early decision who continued to contact their admissions officer through regular decision timeframe who then got in during regular decision even though they applied early.
@sm0918 If the following advice from Notre Dame Undergraduate Admisisons acurately describes the college application status of your daughter by the end of October, my suggestion would be for your daughter - given her stats - to apply ND REA, presuming she is not also planning on applying ED somewhere else and/or the SEA early application program of another university she is considering will not prevent her to apply early to another private university, in this case Notre Dame (check the “small print”!):
"In deciding whether or not to apply Early, ask yourself: can I submit my best application in October of my senior year? If so, then Restrictive Early Action is probably the correct route for you. However, if you believe that an extra semester could be beneficial for whatever reason (to raise your grades a little, to take an extra SAT or ACT, to add on to your resume) then you should consider applying during Regular Decision. "
Apply to ND REA unless (i) the app for some reason would look stronger in January than November or (ii) the kid wants to apply somewhere else ED or SCEA.
So long as i and ii are OK, there’s no downside to applying ND REA. If your kid is on the margin, she’ll get deferred and have the same ultimate chance/outcome as if they had applied RD. And if she gets admitted or denied (unlikely with a 36 ACT imho) REA, then you’ll know and can move the process along. ND REA (unlike ED at many schools) really doesn’t increase the odds of admission. It just provides feedback sooner, which is very helpful.
FYI, if you do apply ND REA carefully consider HPSCA’s advice above about other early applications. The rules are a little tricky so make sure you understand them.
If you apply ND REA, you can’t apply somewhere else binding ED (Penn, Brown, Duke, NW, Vandy, etc.). ND’s rules would let you apply someplace else SCEA (since SCEA is non-binding), but the other school’s SCEA rules (HYPS) would not allow that.
So ND REA is compatible with an early application to other REA schools (Gtown and BC being very common cross-apps) or to other unrestricted EA schools (UVA for example). And then depending on how it goes, you could also consider ED2 apps and RD apps around the January 1 deadline.
Looking at her profile - she’s not going to improve a 4.0 GPA, and very unlikely to improve an almost perfect ACT. Her EC’s are great, and not going to get better in the next semester. Anybody who knows anything about National Merit know that she’ll almost certainly be a Finalist.
So if ND is her top choice, she should definitely apply REA.
Your daughter is an incredibly compelling candidate. As noted above, not much for her to improve upon between REA and RD rounds. Statistically, the admit rate is much higher during REA - despite the narrative that the applicant pool is higher quality, legacy applicants, scholarship athletes etc. I think applying REA demonstates something very important - that ND is your daughter’s top choice - or high enough for her to defer applying to ED schools. If ND is her first choice, or there is no ED school that she prefers, ABSOLUTELY APPLY REA! My son went through this same decision tree and decided that he would apply broadly to REA and EA schools rather than pursue a single ED or SCEA (and there was no obvious school for him in this regard). He was accepted REA and is attending Notre Dame.
Honestly, I am not sure I buy the whole argument that REA is only for the “very best” applicants. The admit rates tell me that, for a candidate who is quaified to attend Notre Dame, REA may be a much better option than RD. And solid candidates will get deferred to RD so nothing lost (except for passing on the other school ED option). I think the narrative is mostly to combat what looks like a very high admit rate vs. RD. Just like schools with ED put out. Given the incredible yield that ND gets from REA (close to 70%), it functions very much like an ED round.