Holy Cross Indiana for transferring

My dream school is the university of notre Dame but I was not accepted. I was accepted into holy cross college and I am considering going there to transfer in after freshman year. Are my chances improved if I go there to get in to notre Dame as a transfer student? What is the acceptance rate? Please let me know. Thank you!

If you were admitted to the Gateway program, which creates a structure for students to transfer after freshman year to Notre Dame, then you have a reasonable chance.

If someone is not part of the Gateway program, then I would say the chances of transferring to ND are very low.

Talk to admissions and see how many attempt a transfer and how many are successful (non-Gateway kids). They probably don’t want to hear a prosepctive student contemplating a transfer immediately, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be a shock.

my son contemplated this approach briefly last year and asked his ND admissions counselor what he thought; he told my son to go to the best possible college he can and get the best possible grades he can, have the best possible experience he can, and love his college life the best he possibly can! my son is now a sophomore at Notre Dame…

Sorry for the delayed response! I was wondering where your son went and he did end up getting accepted as a transfer student?

he went to Oklahoma State’s Honors college, kicked ass, took the ACT again, worked with his ND admissions counselor a ton, went to visit every chance he had, and made absolutely sure that ND knew that ND was the end all be all and that he would make them proud if they let him in. they did! and I am one obnoxiously proud father…

Wow that’s awesome! Which school at Notre Dame did he apply for? Do you recommend discussing the best things to do for transferring with the admissions counselors at Notre Dame? Also what did your son do when he would go to visit the school?

@RangerJerry ^^

Recently heard about the Gateway Program from this thread and a few others. I followed it up with some basic research of the program’s page of ND and HCC websites. I still have a few questions though. What are the average stats of those admitted into this program because if it’s a little below or towards the bottom percentiles of test scores provided by those admitted into the University of Notre Dame, I could see myself having a chance at it.

@GoCubsGo719 https://admissions.nd.edu/gateway-program/profile/
The Gateway program is relatively small (maybe 75 students) and is by invitation only. You can’t apply to Gateway.

@happy1 I understand that’s how people get into the program. My concern was more what type of student gets selected into the program they are very vague in the description.

@GoCubsGo719 I think the information in the link from the ND website is all you will get. I’m guessing they are purposefully vague.

@GoCubsGo719 As @happy1 mentioned, you won’t be able to focus your application or effectively prepare for this otherwise attractive ND admission program through Holy Cross. The way to go is to put your best foot forward in your Notre Dame application and, based on this, hope to be directly admitted (REA, RD or from Waitlist) or otherwise to be invited to the Gateway program through Holy Cross. It would be wrong to perceive the latter as a type of ‘backdoor admission program’ into ND, this simply is not the case:

"Gateway Class Profile

  • The overall academic profile of the enrolling Gateway students rank similar to the medians for universities/colleges rated among the top 25 to 35 in the nation
  • Median High School Performance: Top 4% of high school
  • Median National Test Score: Top 5%
  • Admissions Committee Rating on Leadership and Service: Rating relates to students most often identified as in the very top of leadership and service in their high school
  • 25 different academic majors indicated
  • Class represents 23 states and countries".

Best of luck!

@hpcsa I agree. I am not applying to transfer but rather was trying to answer the question. The link I have in my post #9 contains the stats you so kindly wrote out.

Yes, I recognized that: “As @happy1 mentioned…” Best!