REA vs. Regular chance/advice please!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Notre Dame
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<p>I already have a generic chance thread, but this one has a specific purpose.Would REA or regular admission give me a better chance to be accepted?</p>

<p>First off, I should say I contacted the admissions officer for my area about my GPA's competitiveness and fit for REA (with other stats taken into account), and the response was:</p>

<p>"I think that you are eligible to apply REA, but also suggest a report on your current semester performance be included with your application materials."</p>

<p>That's encouraging, but absolutely not definitive.</p>

<p>That said, here's my resume.</p>

<hr>

<p>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) Junior Year.
Psych, Lit/Comp, Physics C, and Stats.
Calc A sophomore 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>Essays: Supplements are fantastic (9/10), and common app is great too (7.5-8). No word on recs yet. </p>

<p>EC's:
I'm heavily involved with my church (Lutheran). 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 service-dedicated team to coordinate/plan 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. Other service like repairing computers for a Haitian computer school and acolyting. About 250-300 hours.</p>

<p>Freshman advisory program: I'm a co-mentor to about ~20 freshman for academics, social issues, and acclimation to HS. We meet half an hour daily.</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. I've played club since 1st grade.</p>

<p>Guitar: started as a junior, practice ~1.5 hrs a day, about 700 hours of practice/study so far.</p>

<p>National Honor Society - senior year Could end up on a couple boards/teams.</p>

<p>Thanks for visiting the thread!</p>

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<p>On the margin, I would probably advise you to apply REA. Your ACT is stellar and your strong alumni connections will definitely help. Your ECs also appear relatively strong. My guess, and this is only a guess, is that at worst you would be deferred into the RD pool so the committee can get a look at your first semester grades. I would ask your counselor to include your grades to this point with the counselor’s rec. And a deferral, while not great, isn’t the end of the road. Two cycles ago, my daughter was deferred and accepted RD. She is currently a very happy sophomore at ND. Best of luck!</p>

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<p>I’ll also be sending in the report by mail, since it’s not something that needs to be on the Common App :)</p>

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<p>Does the fact that they have my quarter grades with my application affect the likelihood of deferral? Essentially, are those grades “concrete” enough on their own merit to lessen the weight of a mid-year report and total re-evaluation?(I’m taking 4 AP’s, and have 4 A’s and 2 B’s). My counselor also explained that my AP Physics C (B grade) teacher uses content from MIT! Thanks.</p>

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<p>Are both B’s in AP classes?</p>

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<p>Quick question for you. Are you rating your own essays? I notice everyone does that on here; I just want some clarification. BTW, your application is extremely strong. Other than your unweighted GPA (which isn’t terrible considering the quality of your school/class rigor), I can’t see why any good “holistic” admissions board would reject you. </p>

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<p>@ejcclc Yes, Physics C and Stats.</p>

<p>@SoliDeoGloria1 Yes. I don’t mean to be arrogant, but for a 10 page research paper I did last year, my teacher said it was the best she’d ever read from a student, and chose me for an unrelated writing competition. <em>Anecdotal evidence, yadda yadda</em></p>

<p>Final versions:
Why ND: 9.5
Intellectual Field Trip: 10
Incompleteness: 7.5
Common App: 9.5</p>

<p>I seem to think the same thing, but I do have a lot of doubt. Math overall killed me, with a downward trend. B+ to B to B- to 2 C’s, and back up to B. Nothing is certain in admissions, I just hope to have a good chance.</p>

<p>Thank you both for your responses.</p>