I’m a junior and wondering: how hard is it to get into Notre Dame with pre-admit into Mendoza? I’m trying to make a college list and was curious of what other schools were similar caliber to Notre Dame with pre admit to Mendoza. Only about 7-10 people from my schools Naviance history has applied to Notre Dame (probably bc were from the west coast) and I heard that getting pre admitted to Mendoza has less than a 16% acceptance rate.
Very high SAT/ACT, high GPA and EC’s showing leadership will help.
Well, that’s what I assumed too, but I was asking for other schools that were of similar caliber to Mendoza since I’m thinking of a college list (even though it may seem too early).
A quick google of “Notre Dame class profile” gives this… no specific Mendoza pre-admit info.
http://admissions.nd.edu/apply/admission-statistics/
@happy1 I heard it somewhere while googling sometime, and I’ll do some simple math to verify it. So 1610 people were admitted REA this year (so let’s say that about 3220 students will be admitted for the entire class of 2020) and Notre Dame has capped the amount of students to Mendoza at 550 (based on Class of 2019). Divide 550 by 2 and you get 275 students pre admitted to Mendoza for each pool, REA and RD (now, we can’t assume that both pools will pre admit the same number of kids and we also know that not all 550 kids are pre admitted, so the estimated “acceptance rate” for being pre admitted to Mendoza will be higher than what it actually is). Now, 275/1610 is roughly 17%. Since we know that this 17% is higher than the actual acceptance rate for being pre admitted into Mendoza, we know for a fact that it’s less than 17%.
I got the stats from googling as well.
@wowrhino I don’t really get your reply. I was only trying to give you some admission stats for ND since you said that your Naviance info. was limited. This is the first year for this system so there are no published stats for Mendoza pre-admit acceptance rates as far as I can tell. I’m not saying your numbers are wrong…with no statistical analysis I can see that ND’s admit rate is about 20% and it is likely that the acceptance rate of applicants with Mendoza pre-admits will be a bit lower. Still, information is missing like: the percent of total applicants who apply for Mendoza per-admit, is yield on Mendoza students different from rest of ND, how many Mendoza spots (if any) are being left for students who are not pre-admits to apply for? I think things will have to shake out this year before any definitive stats can be had.
I do not understand why students are so concerned about how hard a school is to get into. It is impossible to judge that because we do not know the exact demographic and details of all the students who got into Mendoza pre-admit. Acceptance rates just show a rough estimate of acceptance. Hence, we do not know who is exactly applying. The same people who apply to MIT and contribute to its 6% acceptance rate does not directly translate to percentages of other schools like ND and other competitive schools. Instead of trying to find the your exact percentage of acceptance, work on your resume and make sure you show your best foot forward. Also research about the school and if you like it then put it in your list. Whether you know your chances or not, it will not affect your acceptance so work on what you have control over.
As already stated, it’s hard to know the vacancy they are trying to fill, but we can surmise a few things. ND accepts great kids – with academics, service, passion, interests and leadership. Your essays and reco’s will need to be exceptional. Niche places Notre Dame in its most difficult category, “Very Hard.” At 22% acceptance rate, it rubs elbows with private colleges like USC, and OOS admittance to flagship “Public Ivies” like Virginia and Michigan. It’s seemingly not as selective as Duke or Vanderbilt, and a far shot from Stanford.
I can speak with a modicum of authority, as S has been accepted to ND (with Mendoza pre-admit), Virginia and U-M, but is still waiting on RD for those last three listed above.
I don’t know if this is a relevant comparison, but my S was admitted to Mendoza regular last year and was accepted also at Vanderbilt and Rice (as well as a few less competitive schools). IIRC, those schools had acceptance rates in the 15% - 17% range. That would be guess for last year’s rate for Mendoza. I did read that REA apps were up considerably so it is likely more competitive this year.
@Lagunatic That’s encouraging news, sort of, as it bodes well that my S may have more options before it’s over. On the downside, it could mostly come down to money – or lack thereof – as we are one of those families whom colleges think are too rich to merit FA, yet are not inclined to write a quarter million dollar check for undergrad.
Out of curiosity, what was the main determinant that had your son choose ND over Vandy and Rice? Did Vanderbilt’s lack of business school bear on the decision? My son is grappling with in which program his interests actually lie – that of data analytics and data science. It seems to reside in schools from engineering to business to math to A&S depending on where he applies.
For my S it came down to the overnight visits. He felt a better connection with the ND students he met.
Back to what XAtlas said, it’s almost impossible to determine whether or not you’re going to get into a particular college. Sometimes, there are more than enough qualified candidates, and at that point it can become something like a crapshoot. I’ve had college admissions officers at Ivy’s tell me that sometimes it just comes down to the fact that in that particular year, they needed someone in that major, so they got in over someone else.
As long as you do the best you can maintaining your grades (minimal if no B’s is a good start), and going after the extracurricular activities that you really care about, you should be fine. Some friends spent all of high school literally tailoring their high school experience to match what admissions officers from their dream colleges urged, and they were still rejected.
(Also people at ND say that the hype over Mendoza is a little overkill, but I don’t know anything about that personally)
Do your best, and I wish you the best of luck.
@XAtlas I agree that this pre-occupation with selectivity is odd since the percentage of applicants admitted does not necessarily equate to being the more academically demanding. You can drive your applications up massively (as Chicago has done) but that doesn’t mean that the number of highly qualified applicants has also increased. And holistic admissions makes the entire process very complicated.
In the case of ND, they are also famed for their legacy preference. Legacies get admitted at a much higher rate than elsewhere, and the university is proud of this.
OP, my daughter applied EA to Notre Dame (Mendoza) last year. She was deferred, then denied. She also applied to Boston College and the University of Richmond (and a couple others) because she wanted to go to a school with pre-admit or open admit into the business school, which I suspect is what you’re also looking for. These may be options to put on your list.