At a Glance
Notre Dame admits 9.4% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
What families actually pay, by income level
After grants and scholarships. Before loans. Public school prices shown at in-state rates.
Source: College Scorecard / IPEDS, 2024-25
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Based on average need-based grant. Actual cost varies by family income — see chart above.
Debt at Graduation
47.4%
receive need-based grant aid
$27,861
average debt at graduation
Notre Dame graduates carry an average of $27,861 in debt.
Merit Aid
354
students received merit aid
$16,569
average merit award
Getting In
Notre Dame admits 9.4% of applicants.
SAT mid-50% not reported with a submission rate, so there is no band to chart. This school does not publish what share of its class submitted a score.
ACT mid-50% not reported with a submission rate, so there is no band to chart.
92% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
University of Notre Dame rates your personal essay as Very Important — equal weight to your GPA. Don't underestimate it. Demonstrated interest is Not Considered here — campus visits and emails to admissions won't affect your odds.
Student Life
60.2% of Notre Dame classes have fewer than 20 students.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
At Notre Dame, 60.2% of your classes will have fewer than 20 students.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section I-3 (class sizes)
8:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
From out of state (freshman class)
84.1%
Live on campus
81%
Men in fraternities
0%
Women in sororities
0%
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
Notre Dame's student body is 58.1% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
Notre Dame graduates 89.8% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
Notre Dame graduates 89.8% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
Notre Dame
89.8%
4-yr grad rate
Most finish on time
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2025–26, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
95.4%
Overall 6-yr rate
91.3%
Pell recipient rate
There's a 4.1 point gap between overall and Pell Grant graduation rates. Worth asking the school about support resources.
Freshman Retention
98.2%
98.2% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Notre Dame.
Notre Dame sits in exurban St. Joseph County, about five miles north of downtown South Bend, and the campus is built to feel self-contained — two lakes, wooded quads and its own skyline anchored by the Golden Dome rather than a surrounding city block. There is no transit line onto campus and no walkable downtown at the gate; the nearest major metro, Chicago, is a two-hour drive away. The trade-off is the reverse of an urban Catholic peer like Boston College or Loyola Chicago: Notre Dame is a world unto itself first, with the city something students drive to on a break rather than something woven into daily life.
Notable Alumni
Amy Coney Barrett
Earned her J.D. from Notre Dame Law School in 1997, graduating first in her class, then spent nearly two decades on the Law School faculty before being confirmed in 2020 as the first Notre Dame graduate to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Class of 1997
Joe Montana
Quarterbacked Notre Dame to the January 1979 Cotton Bowl comeback win over Houston his senior year and earned a business administration degree in marketing. Went on to win four Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers and is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Class of 1979
Regis Philbin
Graduated with a degree in sociology in 1953 and went on to host Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee/Kelly and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, at one point holding the Guinness World Record for most hours on American television. He was buried on Notre Dame's campus after his death in 2020.
Class of 1953
Tom Mendoza
Earned a sociology degree in 1973, then rose to president and later vice chairman of NetApp, helping build it into a Fortune 500 data-storage company. A $35 million gift in 2000 led Notre Dame to rename its business school the Mendoza College of Business in his honor.
Class of 1973
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
The City
College town
Notre Dame, IN
Best For
Traditions
Touchdown Jesus
The Word of Life mural on the south side of the Hesburgh Library — 132 feet tall, showing Christ with arms raised — faces directly into Notre Dame Stadium's north end zone, so it appears behind every kick and touchdown on the home broadcast. It has linked the library and the football team in campus shorthand since the 1960s.
The 33-hall residence system
Notre Dame recognizes no fraternities or sororities. Instead, first-years are randomly assigned to one of 33 single-sex residence halls and most stay there all four years, each with its own colors, mascot, interhall sports teams and signature events — the structure that fills the role Greek life plays elsewhere.
The Grotto
A scaled replica of the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, lit by rows of votive candles and open around the clock. Students visit to light a candle and pray, especially before exams and before home football games — a habit that shows up in campus life more than any single scheduled event does.
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Notre Dame
Chicago, Illinois
About 2 hoursThe closest major city, reachable by car via the Indiana Toll Road, and the single most common destination for both a weekend trip and a first job after graduation.
Indiana Dunes National Park
About 1 hourLake Michigan beaches and dune trails on Indiana's own shoreline, the closest real outdoor escape from campus.
Shipshewana, Indiana
About 1 hourThe heart of northern Indiana's Amish Country — markets, buggies and a well-known flea market — a short enough drive for an afternoon.
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
South Bend International Airport (SBN)
15 minutes from campus
For international flights: Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) — about 2 hours by car.
Pro sports nearby
- Chicago Bears NFLAbout 2 hours away
- Chicago Cubs MLBAbout 2 hours away
- Chicago Bulls NBAAbout 2 hours away
- Chicago Blackhawks NHLAbout 2 hours away
Career Proximity
Notre Dame's own career-outcomes reporting puts about 67% of the Class of 2024 employed and roughly a quarter headed to graduate school within six months of commencement, with Chicago and New York the two most common destinations. The Mendoza College of Business feeds a recruiting pipeline into those cities' consulting and financial-services firms despite Notre Dame's own campus being a two-hour drive from either.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Deloitte
- JPMorgan Chase
- Goldman Sachs
- PwC
- Epic
Chicago — about 2 hours by car, and the single most common first destination for graduates
Who Thrives Here
Notre Dame admits 9.4% of applicants, and there's no early decision plan to improve those odds — the only early option is a non-binding, single-choice early action (apply by Nov. 1, hear back Dec. 16), so the low admit rate applies whenever you apply. Completion numbers are among the strongest in this catalog: 98.2% of first-years return for sophomore year, 89.8% finish in four years and 95.4% within six. Class sizes back that up — 8 students per faculty member and 60.2% of classes under 20. Business and marketing is the largest major at 20.7% of degrees conferred, followed by social sciences (15.7%) and engineering (11.8%). The culture is unusual for a school this selective: Notre Dame recognizes zero fraternities or sororities, and 81% of undergraduates live on campus inside a 33-hall, single-sex residence system that assigns students to one hall for all four years and runs the social calendar in its place. The trade-off is location. Notre Dame sits in exurban St. Joseph County, two hours by car from Chicago — the nearest major metro — and the local airport has no international nonstop service. On cost, the sticker price is real: tuition and fees run $69,794, and while Notre Dame meets 100% of demonstrated need, only 47.4% of undergraduates receive any need-based aid, so most families are paying close to full price. Those who do borrow graduate with $27,861 in average debt.