The University of Notre Dame is a leading research university in Notre Dame, Indiana. The university is rooted firmly in service, academic excellence, and faith — specifically the Catholic faith. It is one of the most well-respected Catholic universities in the world, and it’s high-caliber academically attracts students from a diversity of faith backgrounds and traditions. It’s also known for having one of the best on-campus collegiate experiences available. Ever heard of the fighting Irish? That’s Notre Dame. As a large research university, Notre Dame excels in nearly every subject and the students are evenly spread between the sciences, humanities, engineering, and business. The acceptance rate is 12%.
Notre Dame has a test-optional policy when it comes to the SAT and ACT, and they lay out really clearly what they are looking for regardless of whether you submit your scores. There is no minimum GPA, but they do expect certain high school courses including a minimum of 4 years of English, two years of foreign language, and three years of math. But remember, that’s a minimum. Accepted students will have gone above and beyond that minimum — especially in subjects they are expecting to focus on in college.
If you are looking for a collegiate experience that combines top-tier academics with an exceptional after-hours experience, send us an email. Notre Dame may be your perfect fit.
Notre Dame has five supplements, but each is quite short (as few as 50 words). Don’t confuse concision with quick, though. Writing short is often much harder than writing long, and we encourage students to leave plenty of time for brainstorming, editing, and adjusting these supplements to provide the best all-around picture of themselves as an applicant.
As you consider the supplement prompt options below (because you will get to pick), remember that the school has a strong emphasis on service. 87% of admitted students last year had participated in community service, and they want to know that you care about your community and will be a caring member of theirs, too. Notre Dame prioritizes long-term and deep relationships over flashy short-term experiences, and they seek intellectual students who strive to improve the world. They also want to see your passions more than they care about your particular extracurriculars. Go deep into the things you care about, focusing on what matters most. Finally, each supplement may be very short but that isn’t an excuse to sacrifice story. All supplements must do more than tell Notre Dame what matters to you — they must show it.
Please choose two questions from the options below. Your brief essay response to each question should be no more than 150 words.
Option 1: Notre Dame fosters an undergraduate experience dedicated to the intellectual, moral, and spiritual development of each individual, characterized by a collective sense of care for every person. How do you foster service to others in your community?
If you choose this prompt, they want to hear about community service or contributions, but it doesn’t need to be a formal engagement or program. What it does need to be, though, is long-term. Anything you write about here should be something that you’ve been regularly pursuing or engaging in for at least 6 months, if not more. After you pick something, you’ll need to tell the story of that experience through a moment that is emblematic of a larger point. For example, sorting donated veggies at the food pantry to go out in Thanksgiving boxes, greeting residents of a care home where you spend time socializing with the elderly, or a snippet of a conversation discussing opportunities for greater accessibility to community events with your student government.
Option 2: What is distinctive about your personal experiences and development (eg, family support, culture, disability, personal background, community, etc)? Why are these experiences important to you and how will you enrich the Notre Dame community?
This prompt will jump out at you if you feel it applies, but remember that “distinctive” doesn’t mean you’re the only person on earth with this particular experience. Rather, they are interested in what makes you, you. It’s a lost opportunity, though, if you say something along the lines of “I’m different because…and this is why it’s important.” Be better than that. Show them a way in which your life has been distinctive, and use that story to illustrate what matters to you. Then, include a sentence linking your experience to a single group, activity, or community you hope to be engaged with at Notre Dame.
Option 3: Describe a time when you advocated for something you believed in and influenced others through thoughtful discourse to promote a deeper understanding of a difficult situation.
We love this prompt because it gives you a chance to talk about something that you are passionate about, but — and at the same time — it’s important not to step up on a soap box and start belting for the nosebleeds. Listening to a 17-year-old go on a diatribe about something they probably don’t fully understand isn’t the most fun for many reasons, but especially because expertise takes time. Notre Dame wants students who are passionate and engaged, but who also understand that one of the most valuable things they can be doing right now is to gain experience and knowledge that will lead to expertise down the road.
So, instead of taking up this whole supplement to talk about what you see as a problem in the world, we want you to lean into the “promote a deeper understanding” side of this prompt. Writing about negotiating for a later curfew for a younger sibling so that they can study the stars is just as valid of a response to this prompt as, say, advocating at your school for a broadened history curriculum that better incorporates the histories of native peoples into the “American History” curriculum.
Please choose three questions from the options below. Your response to each short-answer question should be no more than 50 words.
Option 1: Everyone has different priorities when considering their higher education options and building their college or university list. Tell us about your “non-negotiable” factor(s) when searching for your future college home.
These prompts are fundamentally rapid-fire questions, so you’ll need to be really concise in your responses. For this one, we recommend picking 2-4 non-negotiables and sharing them as a list (with details) or a story where they are woven together. It’s okay to have one or two be light-hearted, but they should still be important to you. Don’t include anything that you mean as a joke, because you can’t guarantee the reader will read it that way…and “a zombie-free campus,” while funny to us, could be read as flippant or disregarding the importance of the supplements. This should go without saying, but you need to also verify that Notre Dame actually offers what you’re saying is non-negotiable. If you, for example, insist on “24/7 French fry accessibility,” it’s unlikely they’ll be able to deliver.
Option 2: What brings you joy?
We love this prompt because it gives you a chance to show a piece of yourself outside of school, outside of academics, and existing in your most joyful space. Let it be something small, human, and disconnected from any formal extracurricular or activity. It may be teaching your sibling a new song on the piano, fishing with a friend on summer Saturdays, trying out new pasta shapes, or walking your dog after school and before starting into homework. Let it be simple.
Option 3: What is worth fighting for?
This is such a good prompt and such a hard prompt at the same time. For most students, this prompt is best addressed with a big-picture idea, like “fairness” or “equity” or “community.” For some students, though, normally those who have been involved in social justice issues in their school or community, it makes sense to be more pointed here. If you fight for greater gun control, for example, this could be a place to highlight that — but still through a story of a moment or experience.
Option 4: What is something that genuinely interests you, and how does this tie to the academic area you hope to study at Notre Dame?
We don’t tend to encourage this prompt, as what academic interests you have should have probably (hopefully) already come up in your application many times, but this could be a good choice if it hasn’t. Tell a story that zooms in on a piece of what you want to study – a particular principal in business, a moment in history that shifted the trajectory of our (or any) species, or a scientific question that’s yet to be answered, and then link that to your prospective major. Bonus points if you can mention a specific program or professor at Notre Dame within the major that you’re drawn to.
Option 5: How does faith influence the decisions you make?
Yes, Notre Dame is a Catholic school, but this question isn’t just for Catholics. In fact, many of the best answers to this prompt are written by students who are from a different faith tradition. As always, focus on a particular story to use as an example of a broader idea, and be as detailed as possible Don’t preach, and admit fallibility if appropriate. We’re all human. Recognizing that is maturity, not weakness.
Notre Dame is a leading research university with a particular perspective informed by their commitment to community, service, and faith. We recommend it for students with a clear sense to duty towards humanity and a passion for the pursuit of the truth.
If Notre Dame may be your dream school, send us an email. We help the best students get into the best schools in the country.