Should I mention my Catholic faith in my Notre Dame essays?

One of the essays that I chose asks, “what’s broken, and how would you fix it?” I wrote about God and how He brought me peace and reconciliation, but I’m not sure if that’s the road I should be taking.

That’s exactly what I wanted to write about… I’m sure a lot of people are writing the same thing…

If you do, make it unique. I didn’t write solely about faith in my ND essays (though I mentioned it in why ND, because the faith attracts me and I could contribute to the faith scene), but on my common app essay, I wrote about my disease and how I gained faith through it. Simply, don’t say “I’m Catholic and ND is Catholic.” Make it personal

second that. On a similar note, when I was in high school our advisors had a writing class, and they mentioned that when they started it in 2001, most students wanted to talk about the twin towers. They advised against this, because so many people were affected by it. Those who lost someone close to them would have more to write about, and the rest would be compared on their writing ability instead of their story. If you’re applying to notre dame, there is probably someone who can write better about their catholic faith than you can. During men’s group in my dorm, we were talking about career aspirations and one student was talking about how he’s considering being a priest. During the ensuing hour long debate, he alluded to the bible multiple times, quoting scripture verbatim with passage number. I would caution against writing about your faith unless you would be confident in your essay if it were picked up after they read someone like that student’s profile. You want your essays to be very personal, and it will be difficult to differentiate yourself through your catholic faith at a school like Notre Dame that is so focused on its faith identity.

I was accepted REA this year, and I discussed Catholicism in my whats broken essay… it actually was the main focus of the essay.Whatever you do, make it unique.

You can, if it relevant and important to you. But as 98% of ND students are Catholic, this won’t make you stand out.

@Brexit99 I don’t think it is that high. I think it is 81%.

http://admissions.nd.edu/apply/admission-statistics/
according to this, @Fiona1997 is right about 81% being Catholic. While I’m the amount of Christians is definitely higher, I’d be surprised if it reached 98%.