I think admissions percentage is a stupid thing to judge a school by.
ND is - by its own account and by clearly shown on this thread - not a school for everyone. It is was it is. A great smallish sized Catholic school in the middle of nowhere, with fantastic academics and a focus on undergraduate education that is missing at a lot of T25 schools. For some kids, including my daughter, that's the perfect fit. For some kids, including plenty of her awesome friends, it would have been a disastrous fit.

Because it makes no attempt to hide what it is, or to recruit kids who wouldn't thrive there to apply, the applicant pool is largely self selecting.

It also has a really high yield rate for those same reason - those kids who apply truly want to attend. It's seldom someone's fall-back option.

As for the general anti-Catholic bigotry and ignorance - I've come to accept that from DCUM.

As for the anti-Indiana rhetoric... yeah... that's fair. But the ND kids have as much to do with Indiana politics as the Georgetown kids have to do with the latest DCPS drama. It's just not part of their lives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.businessinsider.com/the-50-smartest-colleges-in-america-2016-10

Just around before TO, when everyone submitted Test Scores, 2018


Wash U > Notre Dame > Cornell > Georgetwon > Emory

The last year of test optional was 2020 why use 2016?

It's just an easily available source with ranking.
It's from 2018 with update. Close enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dame has an 18% acceptance rate this year with a 22 % RD rate. That significantly higher than all the other schools in the top 25.

Where are you getting 18% from? It’s definitely lower. The acceptance rates from last year at top schools show Notre Dame is on par with many of the best colleges.

Schools significantly more selective than Notre Dame:

Harvard (3%)
Stanford (4%)
Caltech (4%)
Columbia (4%)
MIT (4%)
Duke (5%)
Yale (5%)
Brown (5%)
Princeton (6%)
UPenn (6%)
Dartmouth (6%)
Vanderbilt (6%)
Northwestern (7%)
Cornell (7%)
John’s Hopkins (7%)

Notre Dame’s Peer Group Acceptance Rates:

Rice (9%)
UCLA (9%)
Tufts (10%)
WashU (11%)
Carnegie Mellon (11%)
Berkeley (11%)
Georgetown (12%)
Notre Dame (13%)
Emory (16%)
UNC (17%)
Georgia Tech (17%)
UMich (18%)

No horse in this race but I think this basically reaffirms my existing impression. Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Duke, etc. are still in a different league than Notre Dame, and instead their peer set is more like WashU, Georgetown, and Emory. Those are great schools too but not quite the level of the first grouping.

You could easily put Cornell, Vandy, Northwestern in the second grouping.

Cornell, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Georgetown and Notre Dame are all a tier above WUSTL and Emory.

And realistically Cornell and Northwestern are a "tier" above even these other schools.

I'll give you Northwesten, but Cornell? Nah.

Anonymous wrote:It's location is horrid OP.

It is kind of out there in Indiana, but it is a great, compact campus, easily walkable from one end to the other, and less than two hours from Chicago. My son went there and it was perfect. Now in medical school. Was rejected to Ivies, ND accepted as early action, his profile was as top-25 type school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Notre Dame is more selective than any school outside of the top Ivies and Stanford. Its test scores are through the roof. It has a smaller applicant pool than many of the other top schools because it’s Catholic and many top applicants write it off for that reason alone. The applicant pool that it does attract is supremely qualified and the students that it admits enroll at a very high rate.

Notre Dame
1410-1550
Emory
1430-1530
Georgetown
1380-1530
WashU
1490-1570
Cornell
1450-1560
I could keep going,there all sky high.

50% of Notre Dame is test optional. Washu is also 50% and Cornell is 70 % test optional. Emory is only 30% and Georgetown is 10%.

Not quite. This cannot be determined from CDS. From 21-22 CDS (most recent year available) 48% of students enrolling in fall 21 submitted SAT, and 52% submitted ACT. Because there might be some students who submitted both, it is unclear how many submitted neither. ACT has long been more popular in the Midwest than SAT.
ND ACT 25-75 = 32-35
Emory 37% SAT, 27% ACT, 32-34
Georgeton SAT 64%, ACT 38% 32-35
WUSTL SAT 25%, ACT 41% 33-35
Cornell SAT 43%, ACT 17% 33-34
Harvard SAT 54%, ACT 31% 33-36

As PPP said, these are all very high and there is extensive overlap. By test scores, these are very similar populations of students.

Anonymous wrote:Conservative evangelicals are ruining the schools. Georgetown seems to have found the sweet spot.

?? Mine looked at Georgetown and Notre Dame, far preferred Notre Dame and is thriving there.

Lady year of test required
Emory
1400-1510
Georgetown
1380-1530
Notre Dame
1400-1550
Cornell
1410-1530
WashU
1480-1560
So Cornell and Emory rose 30 points since test Optional. WashU and ND went up 10, and Georgetown stayed the same.

I mean the last year before test optional because the norm

Anonymous wrote:https://www.businessinsider.com/the-50-smartest-colleges-in-america-2016-10

Just around before TO, when everyone submitted Test Scores, 2018


Wash U > Notre Dame > Cornell > Georgetwon > Emory

The last year of test optional was 2020 why use 2016?

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-50-smartest-colleges-in-america-2016-10

Just around before TO, when everyone submitted Test Scores, 2018


Wash U > Notre Dame > Cornell > Georgetwon > Emory

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Notre Dame is more selective than any school outside of the top Ivies and Stanford. Its test scores are through the roof. It has a smaller applicant pool than many of the other top schools because it’s Catholic and many top applicants write it off for that reason alone. The applicant pool that it does attract is supremely qualified and the students that it admits enroll at a very high rate.

Notre Dame
1410-1550
Emory
1430-1530
Georgetown
1380-1530
WashU
1490-1570
Cornell
1450-1560
I could keep going,there all sky high.

50% of Notre Dame is test optional. Washu is also 50% and Cornell is 70 % test optional. Emory is only 30% and Georgetown is 10%.

Notre Dame was always very high...even before test optional.

From historical Common Data Set:
2020-21: 1400-1550
2919-20: 1400-1550
2018-19: 1400-1550

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Notre Dame is more selective than any school outside of the top Ivies and Stanford. Its test scores are through the roof. It has a smaller applicant pool than many of the other top schools because it’s Catholic and many top applicants write it off for that reason alone. The applicant pool that it does attract is supremely qualified and the students that it admits enroll at a very high rate.

Notre Dame
1410-1550
Emory
1430-1530
Georgetown
1380-1530
WashU
1490-1570
Cornell
1450-1560
I could keep going,there all sky high.

50% of Notre Dame is test optional. Washu is also 50% and Cornell is 70 % test optional. Emory is only 30% and Georgetown is 10%.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Indiana is a red state that hates women.
ND breeds handmaidens.

As someone who spent time there and almost attended (accepted), it is very disappointing to see how things have played out for ND in recent years.

The state where the campus is has nothing to do with anything. Stop grasping for straws. Handmaidens...lol. How about ND breeds supreme court justices. Yes, that's more like it.

Too bad you didn't attend. You missed out on a great education.

The state absolutely matters for anyone with a uterus or cares about people with a uterus.

I don’t travel to red states and certainly wouldn’t choose to LIVE there for four years.

I got a better education elsewhere — that produces SCOTUS justices who aren’t lying, religious extremists.

Got it. We love our trips through Ohio and Indiana to visit our child. People there are polite and not angry like you. You probably tailgate and have road rage issues too. Yup...you're definitely that type.

Right. They are just so nice that you don’t mind that they’re taking away your basic human rights.

Usually 2/3 of legacies that apply are rejected- not enough spots for everyone. Legacies usually 20% of the class.

Anonymous wrote:They took 3 kids from our CA school this year. 2 are at the top of the class. Totally made sense. One doesn't have any APs and isn't an athlete or urm. Just a random legacy. Shocking and a gut punch to all the rest of the top 10% kids who applied. Does this answer your question.

There are lots of legacies that don't get admitted. Could be the family are big donors.