Same here. 
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DD was waitlisted
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Your son sounds very impressive. You should be very proud. Having been through this process twice now with my kids (both of whom had their share of joys and disappointments after grinding hard in their high school careers), Iâve learned that there is no rhyme or reason to any of this. There is no magic formula you can apply to all schools universally regarding their decision making process. Itâs anyoneâs guess what each school values in their candidates.
ND lost a great opportunity with our kids(my kid also got deferred from here REA then rejected yesterday). Their lossâŚ
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Yes, ND has worked out really well for her and she is enjoying her time there. The workload has gone up quite a bit in sophomore year but still doing well. Hard to believe weâre almost at the halfway mark now. Good luck to your child wherever they decide to attend.
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Waitlist here from Catholic school with 1500 SAT and great grades, etc. But not too disappointed in the WL. Congrats to those who were accepted, and good luck to everyone else!
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Gateway program for my son. His grades went on an upward trajectory throughout high school. He had very unique and high level extra curricular activities. Public school + no legacy. We are grateful. We know how easily he could have been rejected - so many incredible and deserving students. Congrats to everyone accepted and best of luck to those who did not get the result they had hoped for.
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Same for my S24. He was a finalist for the Jefferson scholarship at UVA. Unfortunately, he did not get the scholarship, but at least he was admitted to UVA. The process is mind-boggling. Hoping for good news from ND eventually.
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Just sort of curious on thoughts as Iâve seen several people post their child attended a Catholic school, which I presume many would have thought would have been beneficial, but then said kid was ultimately rejected. My thought is it seems like it might be more difficult to get in from a Catholic schoolâthe odds of one/many of your peers applying to ND as well are, I would guess, much higher than, say, at a public school (particularly one that is not in the midwest/so close in proximity to the university itself). I am guessing admissions wants to spread out the love and not offer admission to a bunch of kids from the same private schools, so youâd have to really stand out among your cohort. Iâm genuinely just curious. Our son was waitlisted but he went to a public/DODEA school overseas so I have no idea where that fits into any of these categories. Anyway, just thinking aloud.
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Does anyone have any personal experience with the gateway program?
Traditionally, at our Catholic high schools (and we have four good ones in our city), and others, at least one student is accepted to Notre Dame each year. It is very easy to pick who will be the ND student âvery smart, nice family, full pay, class leader. There is absolutely an ND type. However, starting with class of 2023 things seemed to change a bit and the guarantee of at least one seemed to not be a certainty.
This year ND early round came out on prom night of one of our girlsâ Catholic schools. Two girls who expected to get in did not, and they left prom in a trail of tears.
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Oh no, so heartbreaking for them:(. And I didnât mean by any means to diminish the attending a Catholic school comment. I think itâs just so hard to read the minds of the admissions officers, and it appears to just come down to institutional
priorities!
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I know of five boys admitted to ND and one waitlisted from our Jesuit high school this year. Itâs an extremely popular school amongst our students. Many ND legacy kids at our high school.
Hi Irishfan1 - my son has been accepted into the Gateway program. There are some threads on college confidential and reddit about the program and ND has a few pages on their website about it. There is an info session online this week (March 21) for those admitted and three visit days during April as well. I think through these there will be opportunities to connect to others who have had personal experience with it. There is an instagram account as well and my son was able to get into contact with someone in the program through that. Hope that helps.
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Thatâs very helpful thank you so much!
From what Iâve read ND is big on legacies so itâs prob more likely to admit more catholic school kids as ND grads more likely to send kids to Catholic schools? And itâs still a Catholic school so I can see why accepting from Catholic schools would be encouraged and maybe increases odds.
As a Catholic ND is a dream for many. We are Catholic but we donât have a Catholic HS here. So my son applied from a public hs but is Catholic and was waitlisted as well.
36 act/1550 sat(neither super scored)
Rank #2
4.0/4.6
National merit
Leadership EC including charitable ones
Sports
Not sure what else we could have done.
Congrats to all that got in.
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Iâm not sure if this is as true anymore. Legacy is counting for less and less and Catholic high schools arenât accepted from more than publics. I know plenty of legacies at Catholic high schools who were flat out rejected REA. Itâs just gotten so much harder and I think the process is so random now. Your son still has a chance! Good luck and congrats!
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Hi AppalachianMama - First of all, your son sounds amazing and I am rooting for him to get a spot off the waitlist.
From the ND website with regards to numbers of students from public/catholic schools -
"Am I at a disadvantage if I go to a public high school versus a Catholic high school?
When reading an application, we do not put any preference on the type of school a student attends. Rather, we look at the strength of the school. To get a feel for a schoolâs strength, we look at its graduation rates, the percentage of its graduates who go on to two-year and four-year colleges, the types of classes offered, and the average SAT and ACT scores of the graduating class, among other factors. For the entering first-year class in fall 2022, 45 percent of students attended a public high school, 36 percent attended a Catholic high school, and 19 percent attended a private or chartered high school."
Of note, my daughter is at a Catholic school and my son is at a public school. Her Catholic school shares a very similar ethos to ND, and therefore it is set up to have service opportunities and developing community embedded within the school. In my sonâs public school, he had a much bigger role in actively seeking out these opportunities. He was just accepted into the Gateway Program through ND.
Best of luck!
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@AppalachianMama Story today in the student newspaper that references the number of applicants on this yearâs waitlist. On the surface, it sure does seem like your son checks all the boxes, so a âletter of continuing interestâ sent to the admissions officer for his region might just pan out for him if ND remains an option he wishes to pursue. With his profile, your son probably has (or will have) many great college options to choose from.
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Thank you Notre Dame! Son has been accepted for Engineering.
Stats:
Academic Profile : ACT 36 in one try. GPA 4.0 -Unweighted/ 4.977 Weighted
AP: Nearly 12 APs including senior year of HS. All 5 so far. Course work : Math and Science : Multivariable Calc, Physics with Calc, BC Calc, AP Euro, AP Lit etc
Other: Published author of research topic : Chips and Semiconductor Industry. His mentor was a Caltech Ph D student
Several academic awards including NMSF
Non Academic: Captain the varsity sports team placed 3rd in State. Captain of the Chess Team, Tutor at Math Resource Center, Violinist, summer jobs and others.
Sports awards for leadership
Volunteering: Math Tutor at local school district during summer + other charitable organizations
Religion : Roman Catholic
School: Public school in Illinois. Citizenship : US
Did not apply for financial aid
Hope this info helps Catholic students with public school background. Wishing everyone the very best!
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I have an ND graduate and an ND Freshman (and am an ND alum). Both have had friends in (and formerly) the Gateway Program. We also have a close family friend (currently an ND Junior) who did Gateway. From my perspective, the program finds âND Kidsâ who want the school so badly that they donât mind the minor inconvenience of living at Holy Cross, biding their time, but also participating almost fully in all that is Notre Dame. Essentially almost everything is available - short of living in the dorms -including taking classes at ND, attending sporting events, eating in the dining halls, etcâŚ
As is human nature, there are/will be a few Notre Dame students that look down upon or see Gateway as a stigma (more since ND has been bringing in more Elite kids), but from what I can tell most students treat the Gateway kids well.
Perhaps the most underrated aspect is the community that develops amongst the 75ish (maybe more) Gateway kids as they share a love for ND and subconsciously an âus against the worldâ mentality. Once they matriculate into many different dorms, they are a tight-knight bunch and have friends all over campus.
If you child is offered Gateway AND they absolutely love Notre Dame, I would advise to accept it and never look back. Years later nobody is going to care where they started and they will feel part of the Notre Dame family. From my perspective, there is something special about a person who wants something so strongly (a Notre Dame experience) that they will take the more difficult path to get there., These are the people we need more of in our societyâŚ
Best of luck either way!
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