nkonopasek - my daughter was deferred elsewhere and she had her school counselor reach out to admissions on her behalf to see if she could find out any details surrounding the deferral and to reiterate her passion for the school. Also, I would definitely write a letter to your specific ND admissions officer briefly detailing your sincere interest to attend and letting them know that if accepted you will attend. You could even get an additional letter of rec potentially. Basically, let them know you are passionate.
Decision: Deferred
Computer Engineering
Black/Male
GPA: 3.82 UW
ACT: 34
VP of community service organization/Secretary of investment club/Research at local university/Club soccer/NHS tutor/JV tennis
Do you have a better chance to be accepted to Arts & Sciences, rather than Engineering or Mendoza?
@Golfgr8 Notre Dame has not published numbers allowing to quantify this aspect, yet presumably chances of acceptance are comparably higher for some College of Arts and Letters majors, yet not for others, as compared to MCOB, COE or COS applicants.
Something I have not seen discussed here is the relation of the major selected on the admissions application to high school coursework, and its affect on the admission decision. I know a very high stats applicant to Vanderbilt who was rejected last year. Her school has a strong history of acceptances to Vanderbilt. She and her teachers and guidance counselor were in shock. Her guidance counselor eventually was able to get a Vanderbilt AO on the phone and learned that her application raised flags because her high school coursework and ECs were heavy STEM, but she applied as an economics major. It didn’t fit. Gaming the system?
When are scholarship notifications sent? I heard January. Too late for me?
^ merit scholarships that is.
@PuppyM Wow…that seems like an over-reaction by the Vanderbilt AO. How many HIGH SCHOOL kids have a heavy ECONOMICS curriculum to demonstrate their interest? STEM is not inconsistent with economics at all, which can be pretty numbers intensive at some schools. But yeah…I know there is a strategy out there for some of competitive majors to apply to another major and then…change. Notre Dame does not seem to specifically admit by major (as students are not applying to major) but it may well be something that they consider in their decision.
Maybe best to be sincere and not overthink it.
I was told by several advisors that to set yourself apart, you want to have classes, activities and service projects that all feed into your degree plan. They can tell if you are just padding your resume so all classes and activities should be purposeful. I’m planning to major in Engineering so I am heavy in my STEM classes, participate in Cyber security competitions, robotics club and calculator application competitions while I mentor an elementary schools robotics team. I was accepted REA. Don’t know if that was the reason but I feel my application told a complete story and it wasn’t all over the place.
They sent out applications at the end of January. From what I understand is only 3% of accepted students will get a merit scholarship. We are supposed to get financial aid offers in late March
Thanks @Ez2020
did did you fill out your CSS profile? I read in my portal that award letters we’re going out at the end of February
hi I just wanted to say good luck RD applicants and if youre looking at this thread because youre super anxious try not to compare yourself too much to other applicants it really varies!!!
@PuppyM and @Golfgr8 - I agree with above posts that Vanderbilt seemed to be overreacting. I am still amazed that schools seem to expect an 18 year old to have been on a specific academic path for 4 years. I had no idea what ‘engineering’ was until I took my first engineering class at West Point. Even if you have a passion for something as a high school freshman, it appears you are not allowed to change your mind.
My DS is a sophomore in Mendoza. From what he has heard, if you are not admitted into Mendoza as a freshman, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to transfer in.
Someone asked the question at Accepted Students Weekend back in 2017 about transferring into Mendoza. They were forthright and said it was near 90% acceptance. Finance is a little harder than the other specialties. They do their best not to pigeon-hole kids early. Except architecture. They have their own path.
My son does have a friend who had applied to Mendoza but was accepted to Arts and Letters as a freshman. It’s more about the applicant than filling spots. He applied to Mendoza at the end of freshman year.