I just received mine in the mail! 
The post office notified us we received a âlarge packageâ that would not fit in our box, but when I went to pick it up - they canât locate it!!! ?
To all Class of 2023. Keep in mind that Financial Aid can be adjusted. My experience last year, as a parent, was refreshing. The initial FA letter was generous, but still exceeded my EFC. I requested an appointment during the admitted students weekend. The FA advisor was very nice. She said they would review my sonâs packet again. She asked âwhat are you looking for?â I simply said if they could get to the EFC, that would work for me. About 2 weeks later we received our revised FA letter. They increased aid to slightly better than my EFC. This may not work for everyone, but it never hurst to ask.
I did see on the FA page yesterday that grants are awarded to families with income up to the $250k range.
âThe University of Notre Dame leads top U.S. schools in admitting the most children of alumni â 22 percent by latest count.â
âHarvard University says 14 percent in its Class of 2022 are children of alumni. By another count â any family ties â 29.3 percent of Crimson students qualify.â
"How much does it help studentsâ chances for admission to be a legacy? The Cavalier Daily reported that ânearly 47 percent of legacy applicantsâ to the University of Virginia received an offer of admission for the class of 2022, compared with 25 percent of non-legacy students.
Harvardâs admission rate for legacy applicants was found to be âover five times that of non-legacy students,â according to a report from the Harvard Crimson, which cited an admissions lawsuit filed against the university."
I believe this article appeared in another form about a year ago. While Notre Dame is clearly at or near the top of legacy admits, I would not be surprised if Notre Dame also has a disproportionately large percentage of its applicants (compared to other schools) as legacy applicants - likely exceeding the 22% of admitted applicants. And while the legacy admit rate at most schools that I have familiarity with is typically about twice the normal admit rate, it still means that at top schools, including Notre Dame, the overwhelming majority of legacy applications are denied. When factoring in the likelihood that legacy applicants are likely to be highly qualified applicants, it is not at all clear that they enjoy a significant admission preference over similarly qualified non-legacy applicants.
Data is, of course, hard to come by. But I came across an article that cited Naviance research and commentary based on a review of 64 schools with over 100 legacy applicants from 2014 - 2017 which provides support for the argument that legacy applicants are, indeed, highly qualified - which may account for their high admit rate. I quote two comments from that article below:
âNaviance has various measures to see if applicants are academically âmatchedâ or not. Comparing ACT or SAT scores to the middle 50th percentile of test scores for each of the colleges, the data show that 48 percent of legacy applications are in that range. Further, 34 percent are above that range.â
âBy and large, the data appears to be indicating that admission of legacy applicants based on qualifications is in line with nonlegacy applicants. If anything, weâre seeing overrepresentation of overqualified applicants â meaning legacy applicants are more likely to be academically overqualified for the same institution their parent(s) attended than the general population.â
Clearly, if one were to look only at the top 20 colleges, the actual data points might be a little different (reflecting higher student stat thresholds), but I think the point would remain valid.
Is there a facebook group for admitted students?
@tdampadu there is an unofficial facebook group for admitted students. It is under the name Notre Dame Class of 2023
Has anyone gotten Financial Aid info yet . We got an email about it. Thatâs it.
We live in South Bend and our Dâs packet arrived yesterday @vickyvic1
We have only received an email thus far. The numbers that are shown in the email will most likely be the same as whatâs shown in the packet. Is that correct? @TheatreMomKatie
We just received our letter and the numbers match the email. It looks like there are a couple of forms to complete. Son has the packet so I havenât seen the forms yetâŠ
âWhen factoring in the likelihood that legacy applicants are likely to be highly qualified applicants, it is not at all clear that they enjoy a significant admission preference over similarly qualified non-legacy applicants.â
The legacy tip is very real at ND and other schools too. Good for ND (unlike many top schools) that it is very transparent about how they do things. ND itself says legacy makes a big difference.
In the past, Don Bishop has said that about half of NDâs legacy admits would have gotten in anyway. And the other half would not have been admitted without the legacy tip. So 10-13% of the kids walking around NDâs campus are âtippedâ legacies.
The âtippedâ legacy kids are still very well qualified. Which you can tell from NDâs very selective admission stats every year. They are typically going to be 33 or 34 ACT legacy kids that ND takes over 34 or 35 ACT non-legacy kids. The 30 ACT legacy kids will end up being among the 60% of the legacy applicants who get rejected.
You could say the legacy tip is âjustâ a tie breaker, but that understates its value. Admissions into a school like ND (20% admit rate or less) is a game that produces thousands of ties each cycle. Tons of applying kids have those 33/34 ACT scores. So if you are playing a game that produces many ties, having a tie-breaker is oh-so-important. For 10-13% of NDâs students, the tie-breaker was outcome determinative.
Having a lot of legacies makes a lot of sense at ND. It is a great way for them to enroll (not just admit) strong applicants that are pretty likely to be full payors. It also doubles down on the strong culture and community of the school.
âFrom a development perspective, we try to be very careful,â Nanni said. âIf someone is from a family of means, and theyâve got a kid who is a senior and would like to make a gift to the University, and we know the kid will be applying ⊠we just ask them to hold off on giving. Itâs not like you want to assume that personâs motive is bad, but at the same time we donât want there to be any kind of connection.â
Nanni also said legacy students have also been receiving attention following the admissions scandal.
âWe get criticized a lot for legacy acceptances as well, yet our traditional underrepresented minorities are significantly higher now than the legacies,â Nanni said. âSo you have to look at it all in tandem.â
We are still trying to wrap our heads around it. My child applied regular admission and was flat out rejected from ND even though a child with lower stats and fewer ECs was put on the weight list from their school. As a legacy, it was the only school they wanted to go to and worked 4 years to get in. (They got into USC, UC-Berkley, Brown and offered full rides for our public state universities to give you an idea on the stats). I have yet to find a single legacy from my alumni class that was admitted in Regular Decision (all the legacies we knew got in Early Decision or where offered Gateway in Early Decision), and the ones I do know who applied were all flat out rejected (no weight list). I would only recommend that if anyone is thinking of applying as legacy they should do it REA.
Just thought I would share my experience at a recent ND admitted students event.
I had the pleasure of meeting Don Bishop at our local ND admitted students reception. He is a likable and funny guyâŠgreat sense of humor. During his talk, he had some very inspiring things to say about ND and how they went about selecting those who were admitted. His talk really hit home the fact that their admissions are holistic. They turned away quite a few very high stats kids mainly because they couldnât see the character of the student in the essays and recommendations. He spoke about one student in particular that had a perfect SAT, very high GPA, and many leadership positions, but lacked any depth in the essays and teachers recs. He even said he had the sense that the teachers did not really like this student. They waitlisted the student to see what kind of response they would get. It was an angry response where the student basically said, âHow dare youâŠâ Apparently he was accepted at other top universities and he let them know that!
On the other hand, there was another applicant who had decent stats (probably a 33-34 ACT, etc), but the thing that stood out about him was in a teacherâs rec where the teacher commented that although the student was a very popular kid, he always embraced any kids who were bullied and befriended them.
Don wrapped up this message by saying that you can be sure that you are joining a class of students with extremely strong character. It was really reassuring for me to hear this and know that my son will be among a classmates with such high morals/ethics.
Hopefully this message helps anyone on the fence!
@winelover - Don Bishop does a great talk. Not sure exactly how much he recycles and how much is new. That said, I wholeheartedly believe his message. I have seen this in practice with my DS who is a first year. ND is a great school and for the right student, an outstanding starting point.
My sense is that ND is one of those schools that employs a strong âno jerksâ overlay on its admission process. Character issues are never forgiven for the sake of other talents, and high morals/ethics and an orientation to service are important components in NDâs evaluation of prospective students.
While Don Bishop does a great job in his anecdotal discussions of the admissions process at ND (and other schools), he also is willing to share actual data/statistics to back up a lot of what he says. I have great faith in his work as the leader of ND admissions, and confident that he puts together a great class. My son (Class of 2022) would certainly attest to that!
@CCSavant - Agreed