Class rank should be of no concern to you.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming the rejection. You have a strong extracurricular & leadership profile which is highly valued - taking initiative, showing maturity, & revealing authentic character.
I find absolute statements to be a disservice to students, especially when it comes to highly rejective schools like ND and Vanderbilt. My daughter’s valedictorian with perfect GPA, highest rigor, perfect ACT, 5s across the board on APS, NMF, and amazing ECs was waitlisted at Vandy. Only one student from my D’s year was admitted to ND and they had 30+ students with 98th% test scores and highest honors every quarter her year (and we were historically a feeder to ND).
OP - that isn’t to say that you won’t be accepted, but it’s a long shot. You need a well balanced list with a safety you actually like. (And I don’t think the schools listed are extremely likely other than Iowa State).
“Mostly 4s” is not the same as mostly 5s. The AP tables show that between 20-30% of students score a 4 depending on a test. A 32 ACT composite is the 97th percentile. IMO, that is more of a “stand out” than your AP scores.
OP - I would have a sit down with your school guidance counselor and talk to them. They know you in the context of your school, where other students are applying, etc… IMO they can help guide you better than we can.
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The number of AP classes & exams taken by HappyGolden also serves as a stand out. She will have taken up to 12 AP exams across four academic areas.
According to Number of AP Exams Per Student in 2025, just 0.4% of AP test-takers took 12 exams, and that’s out of almost 10 million exams total taken worldwide during four years of high school.
Plus, the 200 Colleges and Universities Receiving the Most AP Scores in 2024. ND, ranked #68, received 5,244 scores from 1,467 students. ND enrolls approx. 2,160 students. In contrast, Harvard, ranked #67, received 5,266 scores from 2,026 students. Harvard enrolls approx. 1,675 students.
I would choose an additional safety, given that you only identified 1 that you like (UMN).
I think Purdue should be moved to the target/reach category given what was stated above regarding OOS students.
Emory, ND, and Vanderbilt are reaches. Keep in mind that valedictorians with perfect or near perfect scores are often waitlisted at Vanderbilt.
Congrats on your achievements! You are clearly a strong student.
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I disagree that Purdue is a reach based on the major and the stats, which are well above average. But I’m not sure Purdue is really what the student wants - but that’s a different issue.
But @momofboiler1 what am I missing here. This is from the data digest. Out of state, it’s showing 9877 applied (which seems high just for the college), 7,085 accepted. See screenshot. Am I reading this incorrectly? Thanks
Maybe take a look at the University of Cincinnati? It is strong in the health sciences.
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That’s why I suggested Creighton. @momofboiler1 Loyola and Dayton work too.
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I would like to give more context in regards for submission or refraining my ACT. My school’s average ACT score is a 21.8, above Wisconsin’s 20.6 composite. I was leaning towards test optional until they announced last week that ND will require standardized testing back for the 2028 cycle. My cycle still is TO, but I took that as a sign that they value ACT scores quite a bit, and my section scores (33 math, 34 Science, 34 STEM) demonstrate that I have decent capability if I apply to their College of Science.
On the other hand, my composite is obviously below the middle 50%, maybe Notre Dame will overlook that weakness to preserve that middle 50? I don’t know.
My situation is very confusing because I think either choice has negatives.
Choose one and go with. Because it looks like 2/3 submitted last year and remove athletes, it’s likely higher - that’s why I lean in.
A 32 composite is right there and likely is there when they go back to test required.
You may not get in but I don’t think the test would be why.
Just one opinion. And yes, going from TO does hint that they want to see the test.
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This shouldn’t matter whether you had applied in the very first TO cycle or in your case applying in the final TO cycle. What I think is gnawing at you is the fact that you scored higher percentiles on ACT math/science (98/99) versus ACT English/reading (93/94), yet on AP exams, you scored “5” in non-STEM AP & no “5” scores in math or science. You’d be more comfortable applying test-optional with a couple of “5” STEM scores.
I did take a look at the Notre Dame AP Exam credit/placement policy page for some clues. For AP English, they accept scores of “4” & “5” equally but for AP European History, they only accept scores of “5”. The 2026 AP European History exam was taken by ~91,000 students, less than 1% of the U.S. high school population. Only 16%, about 14,500 scored a “5”. Only a tiny fraction of these test-takers are applying to Notre Dame. I don’t think revealing ACT English, reading, or composite scores will benefit you.
I would recommend reaching out to an admissions staff member at Notre Dame regarding ACT superscoring. Specifically, if you choose to submit an optional ACT science score, will they recalculate a superscore and accept it if ends up being a higher score than the original composite score. I don’t think ND has an online AI chatbot to ask & answer questions anonymously.
This is ultimately your college application, and you have a difficult choice to make. Only you own this process!
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I note since Minnesota has rolling admissions, you can apply very early there, possibly get a very early offer, and then you definitely do not need any more applications to colleges you would not prefer to Minnesota.
Of course having a Plan B in mind in case you don’t get that offer is also a good idea, but I don’t think you need to have taken it much farther than identifying a few colleges that might work.
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By the way, maybe it is the Upper Midwest kid in me showing, but I don’t have a hard time understanding a list with Minnesota and ND.
This was actually pretty common among ND kids in my HS growing up in the suburbs of Detroit. ND was special to them (and usually they were Catholic, and maybe had some relatives or family friends who went there, so that is part of why). But then after that, they would be looking at Big 10 (pre-expansion) options. Obviously there was a sports similarly, there was the Midwest thing, but also these are both good types of options for kids who want a generally good research university where you can study lots of different things as your interest develops.
Anyway, ultimately is up to you, but to me this sort of thinking is pretty familiar.
ETA: Oh, and what has really changed since then is basically no one I knew would have considered colleges like Emory or Vanderbilt. A few kids applied to Sun Belt party schools, some to California schools, and some to Ivy+. But that was mostly it for outside the Upper Midwest.
And not that this is a bad change, indeed I think in some sense privates like Emory and Vanderbilt stepped in to fill a gap when the college-bound population kept increasing, but the Ivy+ did not increase capacity to match. But to me it is a “new” thing (understanding something could have been trending for 20+ years and I would still consider it “new”) for a lot of kids to look at colleges like that across the country and not just in their region.
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If you still plan to apply to Vanderbilt, on the other hand, you may want to submit the ACT scores after I read this. This is contrary to my original suggestion.
“The Vanderbilt-calculated ACT superscore will include the Science score if 1) the student chooses to take the Science section and 2) if the Science score raises the student’s superscore.”
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I agree with you. The fact that you have a 32 on the ACT and your school’s average is a 21 leads me to think you should submit your scores to ND. Admissions officers look at standardized scores in the context of students’ high schools. In fact, Dartmouth Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin said on his podcast that this was a factor in why Dartmouth reinstated the scores. I don’t remember the exact episode, but he said that he was frustrated that students who scored well above their school average but weren’t in Dartmouth’s range, were choosing to apply test optional.
Now, having said that, I’m not sure what the REA outcome would be. From my observations at our school, ND tends to take a lot of legacies and athletes REA. They also say there is not an REA bump for students who apply November 1st vs RD.
I do agree with other posters that if you get deferred or rejected it’s likely not due to your ACT score.
Good luck and let us know what you decide!
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I don’t think Purdue is a reach but I also don’t think it’s a likely, which is how the OP classified the school in their first post.
Here’s an article from Purdue about this year’s incoming class:
Key metric from the article: “Purdue admitted 75% of all undergraduate applicants who live in Indiana — the highest percentage in five years — and less than 50% of all non-Indiana residents.”
Source: Purdue University
Based on current articles, social media posts and interviews with Mitch Daniels the acting president, the university is making a more concerted effort to go back to their land grant roots and giving a stronger preference for instate students. I would expect to see that trend continuing going forward. Frankly I would not be surprised that if some point, they commit to filing a set percentage of the class from in state like some other schools do.
For the OP, I’m surprised to see Purdue on the list since they aren’t enthusiastic about Madison. For the OP’s intended major, students in my neck of the woods in Chicagoland seem to prefer Madison over Purdue.
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I was wondering not Madison and I wonder if it’s the good ol - no matter what you state you live in, you don’t want to go in state.
When they mentioned UMN, they mentioned close to Mayo…hmmmmm no.
But given they like UND and Vandy, I put forth Creighton - although being close to a hospital doesn’t assure its use. WVU is another “mid west” school close to a hospital as is Pitt - which noted earlier.
Not sure why Iowa State made the list - but I think the important thing here is that OP did the easy part - they have UND and Vandy.
The more important part - and more difficult part is - who else? It might be OP threw out names - like Iowa State - that they know about - but really didn’t dig into, where do I want to be for four years??
If not, they should really do a deep dive into schools - perhaps mid size if that’s what they like - maybe a Missouri S&T is something they haven’t looked at or smaller branch campuses in Wis or MN. Or a school like Bradley or Drake. Or some of the Jesuits like the Creighton, Loyola, Dayton, etc.
That’s what I would ask OP - did they give serious thought to any beyond the top two? If not, you have time now to do so. And you should - including visits if possible.
Schools like Iowa are safeties that I’m reasonably familiar with, and I included them because, in a worst case scenario, they’re places I would genuinely consider attending.
Madison is a bit of an odd one for me. My high school is a large feeder school, I’ve been exposed to it so much that the novelty is gone. I could probably walk into a lecture and see my old high school class. I also like UMN quite a bit, and I’d be perfectly happy ending up there.
I agree that I should keep looking more closely at the rest of my list. At the same time, college is only four years of my life. I have preferences, but they aren’t absolute dealbreakers. If life throws a curveball at me and I end up going somewhere I wouldn’t have imagined, I’d still be pretty comfortable to move forward.
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Good attitude. But let’s be honest. Wisconsin is 37k kids. The likelihood of you walking into a lecture and seeing anyone you know is low. My kid went to Bama. Equally large as Wisc. Lots from his school went there. Barely saw anyone from hs including his hs bestie.
U like UMN. You’ll get in so that’s great worst case. And they have a great rep in the sciences.
Good luck and keep us updated, including whether you went TO or not. And how you did results wise.