<p>A definite reach for my son, but he was curious so thought he has earned the chance to take a look!</p>
<p>Surprises:
32-34 is MID-50% ACT!!!!! Yikes! Does it get much higher than that!!!?
Actual visiting of buildings pretty limited - we visited no dorms and they said they never show dorms - isn't that kind of important to see?
All tour guides (8 or so of them for the group visiting yesterday) were all girls. In skirts or dresses. Huh. No guys around?</p>
<p>Highlights for my son:
The stadium, and all other sports facilities which we sought out on our own.
The grotto - beautiful.</p>
<p>Glad we visited. Was so cute, in the car he said, "now I can tell my kids I "considered" Notre Dame" (haha - the big question is, do they consider "you"??!!!)</p>
<p>ND has become very, very competitive in the last several years. My son, a legacy, who’s Dad, grandfather, and 5 uncles attended, was waitlisted and eventually rejected this past July. He was very competitive. 4.2gpa, 2080 Sat, Nat’l Merit Commended, 3 year varsity baseball, and lots of extra curr and service awards. He had tremendous rec’s etc but it still wasn’t good enough. And we were paying the full freight. I will point out that he is a white male from the Northeast and other than the Midwest the NE supplys a large percentage of applicants. It is a great place and a wonderful college experience. He had wanted to attend since he was 7 or 8 years old! But, he had a wonderful 2nd choice and he is excited to start next week. Tell your son to work hard his senior year, take the most challenging courses offered to him and apply with a strong SAT or ACT.<br>
As for the ND tour and the fact that you didn’t see a dorm. One of the reasons I am sure is because ND has many, many resident halls, all with a different style. Some are old (and I mean old) filled with great tradition and some are very new. Some are like prison cells (Stamford and Keenan) and others have big windows, thick moldings. To show you one does not really represent what your child may get when they are given their housing assignment so I am sure that is why they don’t do it.</p>
<p>In the student center they had a large map on the wall with straight pins with heads (different colors = different numbers i.e. - yellow pin head = 5 students from that city) - the northeast and southern Calif. had HUGE representation!</p>
<p>ND has very high academic standards for admission. S applied last year EA and was accepted, but we never did take a trip out there to see it. A ND alum friend warned me not to take S to see it unless it was a possibility, because he would simply have to go there once he saw it. Well, the finaid wasn’t enough to attend, so we never made the trip out there to see it. I’ve heard it’s beautiful, though!</p>
<p>ND probably provided the biggest surprise while doing college research. Not only are the SAT scores suprisingly high, but I was also surprised by the low minority numbers.</p>
<p>My best friend’s DD was rejected this year from ND which surprised all of us. Her DD had great stats and was a legacy (mom, dad, 3 uncles, 2 great uncles etc.) DD had a 4.3 GPA, 4 yr varsity Athlete, great SAT, peer counselor, etc. and she has a vision disability and they still rejected her. At our local public school, one brother got into ND and the following year (just last year) another brother with the same stats, activities etc. got waitlisted.</p>
<p>ND is a very tough school to get into. You are right about minority enrollement. My 1/2 hispanic DS has very good grades, scores, activities, NHRP scholar status etc. and is getting recruited with free flyins and other offers from great schools all over the us and Notre Dame hasn’t sent one thing and my DS has gone to Catholic school his whole life. Since DS wants a bit bigger city than South Bend for college it isn’t a problem for us. </p>
<p>Although you son should’t give up hope about ND, just make sure he has some safeties on his list. Good luck.</p>
<p>Our D (now a rising junior), applied to Notre Dame, was accepted and named a Notre Dame Scholar. We visited twice, once before applying and once after she was accepted. She very maturely looked at all her criteria and decided on another school. Inside, I was really disappointed. I grew up Catholic and knew how proud my father (deceased) would have been to have a grandchild of his attend ND. All of my Catholic relatives nearly had the vapors when she turned the admission offer down. It is a wonderful school, fabulous facilities, etc. - I have always said that the place just has a soul. Truth be told, D select a school that was really more “her”. I still can’t help letting our a little sigh of regret when I see or hear anything about ND in the news.</p>
<p>ND is a school at which an Asian kid is a URM. There was a thread on CC about an Asian young lady from SoCal who got a VERY comprehensive scholarship from ND, but was hesitant to take it. I, too, was surprised to see how few minorities (especially Asians) were at the school.</p>
That is exactly how a local alum who called us said his son (now a senior there) described it. When the S looked at state colleges, he told his dad that those places just didn’t have a sense of soul.</p>
<p>I’m a current ND student, and I absolutely love it. The academics, spirituality, and athletics are top-notch. Admissions are very competitive, so he should definitely apply to a broad range of schools to ensure he is admitted somewhere he will be happy.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the gender ratio, it’s actually tilted slightly male. All the tour guides being girls would have been just a coincidence. As for the dresses, that was probably because it’s horribly cold most of the year and so there aren’t a lot of chances to wear those clothes!</p>
<p>Best of luck to your son. There’s a Notre Dame board here on CC; you can post there if you have more questions for Notre Dame students.</p>
<p>Our 14 hour roadtrip to South Bend to bring our freshman son is in 4 days. He hasn’t even seen the campus since 2005 when he accompanied us all for his sister’s college touring, but he absolutely loved it then. She was rejected with great stats but is a happy rising senior at Villanova; he had even higher stats and was waitlisted, then accepted in early May- no legacy.</p>
<p>The dorms, as another poster said, each have their own appeal, and are the core of student life. I wouldn’t worry about not touring one, we have been told the students bond to their dorm like families, and many remain in the same one all 4 years despite options to change.</p>
<p>I believe the admissions person said that they really don’t look at the writing scores/sections on either test. She also said when submitting your essay, not to submit a previous “paper” even if it was the best paper anyone in your school ever wrote - it was more important to write an essay that showed your personality and would paint a picture of what you would bring to the school.</p>
<p>I remember a few years ago I visited ND, and a girl in my tour group asked the admissions rep at the presentation, “Is it true that ND reserves 27% of its spots for legacies?” The admissions officer, obviously very uncomfortable, shrugged and said, “Yes, it’s around that percent, but we try not to advertise it.” </p>
<p>Ya think?! I was actually just shocked she admitted it! But that proves that the competition, already quite stiff, is even more severe for non-legacies (Though, of course, admission is by no means guaranteed for legacies). I’m glad your S enjoyed his visit- ND is a fantastic school, but there are many, many great, fun, enriching universities around the country- don’t let him get down if one doesn’t work out. </p>
Absolutely. So many places have traditions and special places on campus that comprise the “soul” of a place.</p>
<p>Ds will have the local Catholic church very close to his campus, and I’m sure he will become involved in the Catholic Campus Community. And, who knows? Maybe he will get to go somewhere like ND for law school! (They, along with UChicago, sent him a very nice letter wishing him a wonderful time at his chosen college, and UChicago said to keep them in mind for postgraduate education.)</p>