Admissions staff, students reflect on Notre Dame tradition of legacy student admissions

"(Notre Dame Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Enrollment) Don Bishop said 23.6% of the makeup of class of 2022 is legacy students, as compared to 11.6% across the eight Ivy League schools — Brown University, Harvard University, Colombia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Princeton University, Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania.

“In addition, legacy students commit to attend Notre Dame at a much higher rate than non-legacies”, Bishop said. “The fact that 78% enroll compared to about 53% of all other admits — [they] wanted to be here, [they] saw the value of Notre Dame,” Bishop said. “So I think there is a higher degree of interest by alumni children of Notre Dame then even the other top schools, but I think statistically we have about the same number of outcomes, our alumni just have more children that apply.”

"According to a 2014 article published in Notre Dame Magazine, the University committed to sustaining a steady legacy presence — about 20% to 25% of all students.
“There are about 1,000 kids walking this campus today who are alumni kids who, if we did not have this commitment to the alumni, would not be here — about 250 per class,” Bishop said in the article.

https://ndsmcobserver.com/2019/04/admins-students-discuss-legacies/

Thanks to @hpcsa for posting this link! Well, I’ll say this: Don Bishop’s numbers absolutely hold true when you run the math based on the statistics he provides for the Class of 2022 This article is the single most definitive story I’ve ever seen on ND admissions in the 3 years I’ve followed the data closely.

There are several key stats that Don Bishop provides that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen laid out so explicitly by Notre Dame (or by any other selective school for that matter)…

(1) Notre Dame’s Class of 2022 – the class that enrolled last August with 2070 total students – included 489 “legacy” students who had at least one parent earn a degree (undergrad or grad) from ND, and 1581 non-legacy students.

(2) In the Class of 2022 applicant pool – 20371 applications were received – a total of 8.54% of the applicants were legacies. So, 1740 legacy applicants and 18631 non-legacy. This is very similar to data Don Bishop shared about the classes that were admitted in 2014 and 2016 that suggested that legacy applicants usually amount to between 8-9% of the total applicant pool.

(3) Of the 1740 legacy applicants last year, a total of 626 were admitted (36%). Of those 626 legacy admits, a total of 489 enrolled (78% yield rate). As @northwesty has long observed, ND uses its huge legacy program to achieve the same yield protection outcome that many other Top-20’s achieve through their binding ED1 programs.

(4) Of the 18631 non-legacy applicants last year, a total of 2982 were admitted (16%). Of those 2982 non-legacy admits, a total of 1581 enrolled (53% yield rate). This is actually a pretty remarkable stat, representing a yield rate on non-legacies that is significantly higher than most other peers in the Top-20 that are not Ivies. I suspect ND’s uniqueness as the only strongly faith-focused school in the Top-20 probably leads to a high degree of “self-selection” in terms of those who apply and those who choose to enroll, which explains the robust yield.

This is my final post on ND admissions. Now that the May 1 confirmation date is almost here, I need to start posting on my own college’s forum now, and quit obsessing over ND! Thanks to all the great folks on the ND CC boards through the years, and best of luck to you (or your students) at Notre Dame. Go Irish!!!

@GeronimoAlpaca Thank you for all your excellent contributions in the Notre Dame forum over the years - very much appreciated. All the best for your college start in August! College is all about what you make out of it.

On GA’s point #4 in post #1 above.

That 53% non-legacy yield rate, imho, also reflects the effect of ND’s REA policy. Which, as a practical matter, functions like a quasi-ED.

ND REA is not as restrictive as SCEA (HYPS) or ED1 (most other top 20s). But if you apply to ND REA, that means you are NOT applying to another top 20 SCEA or ED. And these days, SCEA or ED is the main entry point to those schools.

So ND REA kids will be applying to a limited number of other top schools EA where allowed (UVA, BC, Gtown) and then playing the Lotto odds of RD at the other top schools. So no surprise that a lot of those REA offers get accepted – those REA kids like ND enough to target ND at the expense of other early opportunities at other schools, kids may apply and not get into other places playing RD/Lotto, and kids may not even bother to apply anywhere RD after getting the ND REA offer.

But none of these early yield protecting techniques work unless the school has a strong enough brand to make kids want to target it above all others. Nd has that in spades.

P.S. GA – Bonam Fortunam!!

The last statement in the OP suggests that none of the legacies (24% of the class) would not have been accepted without being a legacy. That can’t be correct.

@CheddarcheeseMN In round numbers, Notre Dame enrolls approximately 500 legacy students/class (around 25% of ND First-Year students), approximating 2,000 legacy students over 4 years.

“There are about 1,000 kids walking this campus today who are alumni kids who, if we did not have this commitment to the alumni, would not be here — about 250 per class,” Bishop said in the article, suggesting that around 50% of legacy students would have been admitted anyway.