As a private Roman Catholic university, Notre Dame ranks #19 in the US News and World Report’s list of top schools. This makes the school highly competitive. Getting accepted would require a strong GPA and fantastic supplemental essays that can blow the rest of the competition out of the water.

This is especially true for students who want to get accepted into some of its most popular programs including but not limited to Econometrics, Political Science, Computer Science, and Finance.

Before we cover how to answer the Notre Dame essay prompts, let’s take a look at some stats. The University of Notre Dame boasts a highly competitive Freshman Academic profile.

If you want to have a solid shot at getting accepted into Notre Dame, consider making a plan for writing stellar essays that help you stand out from the rest of the competition.

In this guide, we’ll cover how to do exactly that.

Table of Contents

1. How to Answer the University of Notre Dame Essay Prompts
   • Introduction
   • Tips for the “Why Notre Dame” Essay
   • Tips for the “Notre Dame Short Answer Questions”
2. Crucial Advice Before You Begin Writing Your Notre Dame Essays

How to Answer the University of Notre Dame Essay Prompts

Introduction

We’ve pasted the Notre Dame essay prompts below. You can also access these in the common app application. Simply add “University of Notre Dame” to your college list. Then, go to the left sidebar to open the menu. Click the “Questions” tab. Then, click the “Writing” tab at the very bottom.

The University of Notre Dame Writing Section consists of one (1) essay response to a required question and one (1) essay response to a question you select from the options provided. In total, you will write two (2) essay responses. The word count is a maximum of 200 words per essay. 

Please provide a response to the following question:

Notre Dame is a Catholic university, founded by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, with a mission to educate the hearts and minds of students. What excites you about attending Notre Dame?*

Please provide a response to ONE (1) of the following questions:

1. People in the Notre Dame community come from many different places, backgrounds, and walks of life. How is where you’re from a part of who you are? (200 Words Max)

2. Tell us about a time when you advocated for something you believe in. (200 Words Max)

3. If you were given unlimited resources to help solve one problem in your community, what would it be and how would you accomplish it? (200 Words Max)

4. What is the greatest compliment you have ever been given? Why was it meaningful to you? (200 Words Max)

Notre Dame Supplemental Essay Prompts

Tips for the “Why Notre Dame” Essay

One of the best ways to write the “Why Notre Dame” essay is to consider three elements:

• Your future career path.
• The moral, ethical, spiritual, or personal reasons for pursuing it.
• How Notre Dame plays a role in it.

This principle applies to all college essay questions asking about why you want to apply to their school. Most students who apply to college do so because it’s a place of both personal development as well as financial benefit. Students can learn to forge themselves into someone who is more sociable and develop great friends along the way. They can also learn to become more easily capable of networking with others compared to when they were teenagers in high school. The financial aspect comes from learning skills and valuable trades that would help them develop a proper career.

Of course, every school has its own emphasis on particular traits. That’s why some schools are more attractive than others. If you enjoy a city lifestyle, NYU may be great for you. If not, consider Dartmouth.

For the “why Notre Dame” question, ask yourself this: in whatever career path I take, how will my work serve to better my community or the world? Does Notre Dame help me achieve this career, and therefore this personal journey well? If so, Notre Dame and your personal ethical code are intertwined with one another.

Let’s say Notre Dame’s philosophy of business with the emphasis on bettering the world is something that runs deep in your soul. As someone who lives in the Bay Area and struggles with meeting others who aren’t just money hungry, you see the potential of business and entrepreneurship and wish to contribute to creating something great that will drive people forward. If that were the case, maybe certain courses and professors working at Notre Dame have experiences that you can learn from to better articulate your future plans.

Tips for the “Notre Dame Short Answer Questions”

In this section, we’re going to deconstruct each question one at a time.

1. People in the Notre Dame community come from many different places, backgrounds, and walks of life. How is where you’re from a part of who you are? (200 Words Max)
   • This is a hard question to answer because it’s quite common for people to claim that their background and where they came from do not define them. And, for the most part, that’s true. Where you are from does not define who you are. However, where you’re from can constitute at least to some degree who you are. It may be a small part. But, that small part of who you are may be very valuable to your character and personality. You don’t have to say that where you came from even makes up a large part of who you are. Be honest! If it’s only a small part of your character, then talk more about that character trait!
   • Don’t forget that this essay should be less about where you came from and more about who you are as a person. Remember: the admissions officers are using this essay as a way to measure your characteristics and your fit for the school This goes for all the other essays as well.
   • Let’s say for instance you came from an area code in the greater Los Angeles area that is in the middle of gentrification. On one hand, the unsafe area you live in is riddled with crime. Therefore, you are more on guard and careful in personality. However, the gentrified side of the city makes you untrusting of the facade of “kindness” that most gentrified areas typically have. This may normally make people think that you’re cold and aloof to others. However, what you find important is that it makes you someone who values the truth. You are someone who is aligned with the truth, and the untruths of both the poor and wealthy aspects of your community shape your very being into someone who is dedicated to being trustworthy and loyal. At Notre Dame, this philosophy would live on in your action; you will instantiate this moral compass at the campus.
2. Tell us about a time when you advocated for something you believe in. (200 Words Max)
   • The same principle applies. This is less about something that you believe in and more about what your advocating says about you. What is your character trait that admissions officers can infer from advocating for something you believe in?
   • Most people value advocating for the right thing. But, people seldom advocate for something even when no one is supporting them. It is hard and nearly impossible for people to advocate for something without others behind them to support them. However, this courage in the face of adversity is something that is very much valued in the admissions process. It doesn’t always have to be from lack of support either!
   • Think about the sacrifice you have to make as someone who is advocating for something. What did you have to give up or go through? Were there any obstacles getting in your way? Did you sacrifice your vacation days? Did you protest in the blazing heat? Did you say something knowing that your job was on the line? Do you suffer from anxiety and therefore fear the consequences of even disagreeing with others? What is it like to go against the grain and how does the adversity make you into a strong individual who is fit for the Notre Dame community?
3. If you were given unlimited resources to help solve one problem in your community, what would it be and how would you accomplish it? (200 Words Max)
   • This is an interesting question because, in some ways, it’s a bit of a trap.
   • Unlimited resources are not always a good thing. In fact, limitations are more often than not the birthplace of innovation. Think of chess. Chess is a very limited game. However, you can make very creative moves that would normally be impossible with unlimited utility. Thus, the utility comes from limitations.
   • One way you can think of this prompt is in the lens of someone who is innovative. That is, how would having unlimited resources actually hinder your progress? Will unlimited funding lead to bureaucracy when you start your non-profit to save the planet? Will unlimited marketing thereby reduce the quality of your ads and therefore make potential venture capitalists investing in your ethical journey afraid to invest in you?
   • This doesn’t always have to be in the context of unlimited resources being good for you. Unlimited resources can be both a blessing and a curse. Therefore, you may think of what goals you would want to accomplish and some of the unexpected hurdles you’ll need to go through to accomplish it as someone with limitless resources. This will help you make an essay that demonstrates you can think outside the box and see problems from all sides. It’s also a good prompt to show you are different from the other students.
4. What is the greatest compliment you have ever been given? Why was it meaningful to you? (200 Words Max)
   • This is a great essay prompt to answer because it demonstrates your values to the admissions officers. Who you get your compliment from and what kind of compliment it is can show what kind of person you are. More importantly, why it was meaningful to you can show a lot about your character.
   • When thinking about what to write about, think less about the compliment itself. Instead, start with the way something someone said made you feel. By doing this, you can figure out things that people say that you may not have considered to be a compliment.
   • Think of what you consider as a compliment. Does it have to come with good intentions? Or, does it just have to invigorate and make you stronger? How you define a compliment can shift the entire path of the essay and help you make something unique compared to the rest.
   • Here’s an example. Let’s say that you’re writing about how your family members want you to be more feminine as a woman. But, you want to be more in touch with your assertive masculine side because it calls to you from your unconscious mind. It requires you to stand up for yourself, speak aggressively, and be hard in temperament after having been looked down upon as a woman in STEM. So, when your parents bemoan how much more “masculine” you’ve become, it’s actually a compliment to you even though their expectations are not met.

Crucial Advice Before You Begin Writing Your Notre Dame Essays

One of the things you should know before you begin answering the Notre Dame essay prompts is the difficulty of getting accepted. Of course, just from the chart we’ve provided above, we can infer just how hard it is to get accepted into Notre Dame. In fact, most schools that fall under the T1-30 range of the US News and World Report should be taken quite seriously.

In addition, we believe students should consider doing two things when they’re applying to Notre Dame.

1. Shotgunning college applications.
2. Maximizing content quality in your college essays.

These two elements are crucial to coming out strong in the college admissions process. Students who have the qualifications to apply to Notre Dame still don’t exactly have strong chances. It’s crucial that they maximize their acceptance rate through your college essays. After all, most elite institutions like Notre Dame implement holistic admissions policies that weigh qualitative factors such as the essays as much as they do other factors.

In the same way, you answer the Notre Dame essay prompts with a careful hand, you need to do the same for other schools. This sounds like obvious advice. But, it’s common for applicants to answer essay prompts for one school very carefully. Then, they’ll blunder the rest of the application essays because they didn’t portion out their time.

Okay. Now, here’s why you need to shotgun your college applications. To shotgun your college applications means to apply to multiple schools at once. More often than not, this applies to students who want to get into elite institutions. If you’re applying to Notre Dame, you’re most probably falling under the category of highly competitive student. Thus, you’ll likely want to apply to highly competitive schools other than Notre Dame as well.

Because the admissions chances are very slim for elite schools, even for those applying with fantastic marks and extracurriculars, it’s crucial that you have multiple options to apply. Most students applying for elite schools who want to land at least some would apply to 10-15 schools. For students looking to have more options to choose from, they would apply to 20-30. Of course, for some, this is not feasible. It’s up to you to know what number of schools you want to apply to.

In addition, applying to such a wide number of schools whilst managing to maintain your academic standing in school can be quite challenging. That’s why our college admissions advisors and consultants at PenningPapers have the expertise to ensure you streamline the process by handling most of the editing and revisions for you.

If you have any other questions about the college admissions process or would like help with handling your essays for elite institutions like Notre Dame, feel free to send us a request for college admissions help. Schedule a free 30-minute phone consultation, and we will give you a free college admissions essay advising session. We’ll also give you tips and recommendations based on major and background to help you stand out amongst the rest of the application pool.