University of Notre Dame

Overview

The University of Notre Dame sits in Notre Dame, Indiana. It was founded in 1842 by Rev. Edward Sorin of the Congregation of Holy Cross and is a Catholic research university. It enrolls 8,923 undergraduates and 4,206 graduate and professional students, with an 8:1 student-to-faculty ratio. Ninety-nine percent of students return for their second year, and 95% graduate on time. In the enrolled Class of 2030, 81% of students are Catholic, 9% are international, and 15% come from the western states.

Two kinds of families tend to fit. In the first, the family is comfortable with the university’s Catholic mission and wants a fully residential four years centered on a residence hall community. In the second, the student is academically strong and has a sustained record of service and community involvement, because Notre Dame’s short-answer prompts and review criteria ask about exactly those qualities. For Irvine families, the questions to settle early are where the testing policy changes and how an early application fits alongside the University of California; the last section of this page lays that out by grade.

Admissions data

Notre Dame publishes the total number of applications and the admit rate for the Class of 2030, but not the number of admitted or enrolled students, so this page does not draw an applied-to-enrolled funnel. The Class of 2030 drew 36,104 applications, the admit rate was 9%, and the yield (the share of admitted students who enroll) was 65%. Applicants came from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, five US territories, and 183 countries.

• Arts, humanities, and social sciences26%
• Business24%
• Engineering22%
• Science22%
• Architecture3%
• Global affairs3%

• Midwest38%
• Northeast22%
• Southeast17%
• West15%
• Southwest8%

The five regions sum to 100%; Notre Dame does not say how international students are counted.

In the Restrictive Early Action round, Notre Dame reviewed 13,711 applications and admitted 1,617 (12%); another 2,608 (19%) were deferred to Regular Decision. Among enrolled students who submitted scores, the middle 50% range was 1460 to 1540 on the SAT and 33 to 35 on the ACT. Twenty-one percent of the enrolled class are first-generation college students or Pell Grant recipients, 55% receive need-based aid, and more than 70% receive some form of financial aid.

How to apply

Notre Dame accepts the Common Application, the Coalition Application on Scoir, and the QuestBridge application. The application fee is $85, and fee waivers are available based on financial need. Materials include the main application and personal essay; the Notre Dame Writing Supplement, which has one required essay of up to 150 words and two short answers of 50 to 100 words each, chosen from four prompts on faith, personal background, service to others, and “What would you fight for?”; the full high school transcript; and one letter of evaluation from a teacher in a core academic subject. Notre Dame highly recommends that the school counselor submit a second letter and asks for only one teacher letter. Students interested in art, music, or architecture may submit work through SlideRoom.

Testing policy comes in two stages. The 2026-27 cycle (fall 2027 entry) is test-optional, which means applicants may apply without SAT or ACT scores. Beginning with the 2027-28 cycle, first-year and transfer applicants seeking to enroll in fall 2028 must submit either the ACT or the SAT. Notre Dame has no preference between the tests, the ACT Science and Writing sections are optional, and scores from multiple sittings are superscored by section. Applicants may self-report scores; admitted students must send official scores that match before enrolling. International applicants must also submit proof of English proficiency.

Interviews are not part of Notre Dame’s evaluation, and there are no alumni interviews. Each region has an assigned admissions counselor whom applicants can contact directly. Admission is need-blind for all applicants, domestic and international, which means an aid application never affects the decision, and Notre Dame commits to meeting 100% of each family’s demonstrated need.

Cost and financial aid

2026-27$88,786tuition, fees, housing, and food

• Tuition$69,280
• Fees$514
• Housing and food$18,992

What aid covers, by family income

1. Up to $60,000 (most families)$0Tuition, fees, housing, and food covered
2. Up to $150,000Tuition $0Aid covers at least full tuition
3. Up to $200,000Aid covers at least half of tuition
4. Above $200,000Full demonstrated need is met

Notre Dame’s undergraduate aid program is called Pathways to Notre Dame and is built mainly on need-based aid; the university also awards merit scholarships, for which REA applicants receive priority consideration. Need-based offers consist only of grants and scholarships that do not have to be repaid, with no loans; a family may still choose to borrow on its own. To estimate what a family can contribute, Notre Dame looks at income, assets (excluding qualifying retirement accounts), and certain expenses such as private or parochial school tuition, local cost of living, family size, and the number of children in college. As long as a family’s finances stay substantially the same, aid stays consistent for four years. US applicants should submit the FAFSA, CSS Profile, and IDOC documents by the priority date; international applicants seeking need-based aid complete the CSS Profile.

Schools and fields of study

Notre Dame has eight colleges and schools. Six of them offer undergraduate programs: the College of Arts and Letters, the College of Science, the College of Engineering, the Mendoza College of Business, the School of Architecture, and the Keough School of Global Affairs; the other two are the Graduate School and the Law School. Arts and Letters is the oldest and largest college and offers much of the core curriculum. Notre Dame reports 75 undergraduate majors; the map below is organized from the 66 undergraduate programs listed in its program directory.

Every undergraduate completes the university Core Curriculum: six general liberal arts courses covering quantitative reasoning, science and technology, art and literature or advanced language and culture, history or social science, and an integration course; four courses in the explicitly Catholic dimensions of the liberal arts, namely two in theology and two in philosophy (the second may be a Catholicism and the Disciplines course); two writing courses, one of them the first-year University Seminar; and the two-semester Moreau First Year Experience. Each college adds its own requirements on top of the core, students complete only the requirements of the college that houses their primary major, and some majors have courses that must be taken in the first year.

Business admission works differently from the other colleges. Applicants indicate a non-binding intended college and major; those who choose business learn at admission whether they are pre-approved for Mendoza, and students without pre-approval may enroll in another college, though their chances of moving into business after the first year are extremely limited. There are alternatives outside Mendoza, including the Economics and International Economics majors in Arts and Letters, five-year bachelor’s and MBA programs for students in Science and Engineering, and minors that Mendoza opens to other students, such as accountancy, digital marketing, and innovation and entrepreneurship. In the Class of 2030, 24% of enrolled students listed business as their interest and 22% each listed engineering and science. Notre Dame also reports that 33% of undergraduates take part in research and 91% of classes have fewer than 50 students.

Campus life

Notre Dame is fully residential, with 33 undergraduate residential communities on campus. Each hall has its own history, traditions, rector, chapel, mascot, colors, and signature event. Halls are single-sex and mixed-class, and students typically stay in the same hall for their time on campus. Every first-year student receives an on-campus assignment with at least one randomly assigned roommate, cannot change roommates or halls during the first year, and cannot request a single room. Sophomores and juniors are also required to live on campus; they choose their roommates and rooms and may transfer halls, so the residency requirement covers the first three years. Seniors hold several hall leadership roles, including resident assistant positions.

A timeline for Irvine families

The five Irvine Unified high schools differ in when AP courses open, how weighting works, and how the math sequence accelerates, and Notre Dame sets specific math and science prerequisites for students headed toward science or engineering. School-by-school rules are in the IUSD high school guides.

1. Grade 9Set the path, cover prerequisites
   • Choose a math sequence that reaches precalculus or calculus by grade 12
   • Schedule chemistry and physics for science or engineering interests
   • Choose one or two service or activity commitments that can run four years
2. Grade 10First AP courses
   • Take the first AP courses the school allows
   • Continue one language into a third or fourth year
   • Take on a defined role in service or activities
3. Grade 11Test as if required
   • Fall 2028 entrants must submit the SAT or ACT: first sitting in spring, second before summer ends
   • Dates on the test calendar; prep on the SAT page
   • Choose the core-subject teacher who will write the recommendation
4. Fall of grade 12Decide on REA
   • REA: application by November 1, aid materials by November 15
   • File the UC application in the same window
   • Otherwise Regular Decision by January 4

Dates and registration deadlines are on the 2026-27 test calendar, and preparation options are on the SAT page.

How EDUBUS helps

EDUBUS college planning runs year by year from grade 9: a four-year course plan built around the rules of each Irvine high school, with Notre Dame’s math and science prerequisites covered for students headed toward science or engineering; an SAT or ACT schedule that reflects the testing requirement returning in the 2027-28 cycle; help turning service and activities into sustained commitments with a defined role; and in grade 12 a counselor review of the main essay, the Writing Supplement, and the short answers, along with preparation of the CSS Profile and FAFSA. To see where a student stands relative to schools like Notre Dame, start with a free assessment.