I value Notre Dame’s mission and faith-based approach, although I am far from a Catholic religiously. Is this something that might be offputting to the admissions team at Notre Dame?
No…and if it were then why would you want to go there ?
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So Notre Dame marks religious affiliation/commitment as “Considered” on the CDS. This is in contrast to, say, Georgetown, which marks it as Not Considered (it is also Not Considered at secular universities, of course).
My understanding is the undergraduate population is typically a bit over 80% Catholic, and most of the remainder are some other Christian denomination. My understanding is also that the graduate population is somewhat more diverse.
I’m not sure any of that implies Notre Dame would actually do something like use your faith as a mark against you. Indeed, I believe there are small handfuls of non-Christians at Notre Dame, although off hand I am not sure how many are undergraduates.
But I would wonder the degree to which being Catholic, or at least being a committed member of some Christian faith, would be associated with things valued by Notre Dame that you might simply lack.
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By the way, you might find this interesting (I just googled it up):
Notre Dame chose to put this on its admission page, so I think that is useful context.
One thing I would take note of is this line:
To be fully transparent, I do believe I have it easier than some other non-Catholics on campus, so I feel some hesitancy in writing this. I identify as a non-denominational Christian, and I had a fairly spiritual high school church experience.
This is sort of what I meant in my other post. This person was not Catholic, but did have a notably Christian high school experience. And they felt like they could fit in, but are suggesting others without such a background might not find that as easy.
I actually think it would be responsible and appropriate for Notre Dame admissions to be aware of this sort of thing. Again, not that they should be automatically rejecting non-Christians, but nor should they simply be admitting non-Christians unless they are confident those individuals are a good fit with Notre Dame. And they have reserved the right to “consider” religious affiliation/commitment when making such determinations.
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Write the essay you want and apply where you want. Nobody here works for ND admissions. That said, I can’t imagine your Hindu faith would negatively impact your application to ND.
Before applying to ND I would: 1) take a look at NDs required theology and philosophy coursework (should be online) and be sure you are comfortable with the classes; and 2) be sure you are comfortable seeing Catholic symbols (ex. Crucifixes) throughout the campus.
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It’s a little bit more than that at ND. Many of the dorms have priests living in them and offering daily Mass and encourage a religious community. It’s not required and it’s not required you be catholic to participate, but you’ll find many students do.
Look at the clubs and activities outside religious ones. Do they interest you? Can you see yourself fitting in, or starting a group that interests you?
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Why are you interested in notre Dame v., say, Georgetown or Holy Cross?
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I don’t think discussing your Hindu faith will be seen as a negative.
I agree with the others that you have to do the research and decide if ND would be a good fit for you from a religious perspective.
Here’s some more info, 43 priests in residence, as noted above, 100 religious services each week, and 57 chapels on campus.
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Fair enough, frankly.
Georgetown is my number one.
Notre Dame has far better financial aid though and is a Questbridge partner if I am able to go that route.
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They both meet full need - although you’ve obviously run the NPCs to determine UND is better.
If you’re a QB qualifier, I wish you all the luck.
Frankly, any of those schools are a home run.
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Georgetown’s full need package includes loans for my income bracket, Notre Dame’s does not.
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Great. I wish you luck with questbridge. Frankly any and every school on the list is a home run if you get everything covered. Use all the possibilities.
Let us know how it ends up.
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Thank you! I will.
I am definitely not betting on acceptances to most places.
Actually, I think it could make you a more interesting applicant and may help in that regard.
I agree with others that you should consider, in light of your concerns, that you think about you would be comfortable there.
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I think an essay that both (a) describes the importance of your Hindu faith in your own life, and (b) ties some aspects of that faith, and how you live it, in to the service to others and education for the purpose of bettering the broader world focus that Notre Dame very publicly broadcasts, would not be seen negatively at all. Could make you stand out among the pile of applications without a check in the “Catholic” box, in fact.
If that ends up either feeling really natural or like you’re really stretching the bounds of sincerity, then maybe it’s a good way to determine, as others have suggested, whether or not ND’s actually the correct fit for you in the first place.
Best of luck this year, either way!
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Probably need to spell out QuestBridge as “QB qualifier” may be misinterpreted resulting in the athletic dept. reviewing his qualifications.
I had not even thought of that, thank you for giving me a laugh and a reminder of the travails of communication!
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