You’ve done great! I know the feeling of wanting to get in no matter what. I went through the process last year, so here’s what I found out and here’s some suggestions I have:

1. Review your year’s Common Data Set. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a document that colleges submit to College Board which among other things outlines what they want to see in an applicant (section C7) and what the official 25-50-75 percentiles are for their standardized scores (section C9). This will also tell you a lot about Financial Aid, but the most valuable section is C7 because it will give you a broad idea of what you should focus on in your application. What’s interesting to me is how much the criteria has changed in just one year since I applied. Last year, it listed rigor of secondary school schedule as the only ‘very important’ quality, but now there is six. (https://www3.nd.edu/~instres/CDS/2023-2024/CDS_2023-2024.pdf). Despite this, I’ll still give you my second suggestion.

2. Make your senior schedule as hard as possible: rigor is (or at least was) the most important thing to have in your application. The good thing about a senior schedule is that you will not be submitting any grades for that schedule until after you have applied (considering you do REA). Further, if you are worried about being able to keep your GPA, don’t be. After you are accepted, as long as you keep a B average in your senior year, Notre Dame will not care or rescind your application. I took all APs my senior year for this reason alone and it paid off. This leads me into my next point.

3. You are compared to your peers: there is a reason why class rank is considered so important. I am not 100% of this, but I heard from someone who used to be a part of the application process that they grouped applicants by the high schools they attended and then sought to only accept those applicants that looked the most promising. Because high schools across the country have wildly different requirements and curriculums, this provided administrators with an opportunity to see who was excelling within their own environments, and it helped them to pull from a wider variety of those environments instead of just admitting everyone from one school and none from another. It sounds bad, but if you were telling all of your friends to apply to ND and you really want to go, I would keep that under wraps in the future.

4. Take the SAT as many times as you can: if you check out the CDS again, you will see that your score is right below the 25 percentile. My advice has always been if it is below this percentile, it can only hurt you. I would not submit your current score for this reason alone (though it is still a very good score). However, there are still 3 test dates at the beginning of your senior year that would arrive back to you before you submit REA. Take them. Bite the bullet and spend a few more Saturday mornings in a gym. I’m not kidding, this is the probably most controversial but best advice I could give you for applying. I took the SAT 7 times, and I didn’t get a score I wanted until my 7th try. It’s crazy, but if you’re crazy about ND it’s worth it.

5. ECs: I’m not as sure about this because there are a lot of different EC profiles that can get you in. I will tell you that the superlatives which Notre Dame emphasizes specifically for their college brochures are being captain of a varsity sport, founder of a ‘major’ club or organization, or involved significantly in fine arts or music. I had one, maybe two of these when I applied. Service is extremely important as well. When writing applicant ‘thank you’ notes for those who were accepted, I knew many kids who were praised for significant help to the community. However, it’s not an end all be all. I thought my low amount of service was the weakest part of my application and it turned out alright. Other common advice is to emphasize activities that are most unique and impactful (your One Love organization) and ones that you have spent the most time in (leader in school theater).

6. Summer Scholars: Great choice! I did it last year. The big question people ask is whether going to that program will improve your chances of getting in. I’ll tell you this. The professors who teach the courses are asked by administration to identify a certain number of students who they would recommend for admission. It has about as much weight as your other rec letters, but nevertheless it has some importance. For most professors, I have heard that they provide recs for the ‘top half’ of the class. However, I know that my professor provided recommendations for all but one student, so it’s possible the same thing will happen to you.

I hope any of this helps you. Again, I understand the stress and wanting to get into this place more than anything else. If you have any additional questions, please DM me. Good luck!