By any measure, the University of Notre Dame is an elite and highly-selective institution. Incredibly, last year, 87 of every 100 freshman applicants were turned away. In more cheerful news for Fighting Irish hopefuls, the transfer acceptance is often two to three times higher than the first-year clip. Continuing with good news, they generally accept 200-300 individuals each year via transfer. This blog will share the Notre Dame transfer acceptance rate as well as other essential pieces of information like the Notre Dame transfer deadline, the requirements/checklist for applicants, the Notre Dame transfer decision date, and much more.

Notre Dame Transfer Acceptance Rate

Below we present the most current available Notre Dame transfer acceptance rate as well as historical data.

In the fall of 2021, Notre Dame received 1,076 applications and accepted 277 individuals. This means that the Notre Dame transfer acceptance rate is 25.7%. If we break this down by gender, the acceptance rates are as follows:

  • Male transfer applicants: 20.5%%
  • Female transfer applicants: 33.4%

When trying to get the complete picture of how difficult it is to transfer into a given school, it is important to also look at historical data. Many schools have wild fluctuations in transfer acceptance rate from year to year. Notre Dame is one such school, which has been as low as 22% and as high as 43% in recent cycles.

Historical transfer rates are as follows:

Year Acceptance Rate
2020 43.4%
2019 30.1%
2018 22.8%
2017 22.6%

 Notre Dame Transfer Deadline

The university offers both a fall and spring transfer option. The Notre Dame transfer deadline for fall applicants is March 15. Spring applicants have an October 1 deadline.

Notre Dame Transfer Requirements

The transfer requirements are as follows:

  • Notre Dame uses their own application for transfers
  • Final high school transcripts
  • Official college transcripts
  • Course syllabi for all courses listed on your transcript
  • Mid-Term Report
  • College Student Record Form
  • List of all current and future courses.
  • SAT/ACT (optional in 2023 & 2024)
  • Letter of recommendation (optional but encouraged)

Students who have the best chance to gain admission have done the following:

  • Earned at least 27 transferrable credits.
  • Completed the required courses for their area of study.
  • Earned mostly A’s in their first year at a community college or 4-year university.
  • Possess a strong high school record as well.
  • Have strong SAT/ACT and AP/IB results (even though they are test-optional)

Transfer GPA

In recent years, the school reported that the average GPA among enrolling transfers was 3.75.

 Writing Supplement

As part of the transfer application, you will need to write “A well-crafted personal statement explaining your interest in Notre Dame, your academic and professional goals, and how transferring to Notre Dame can help you achieve them.”

Transfer Decision Date

Transfer decisions are made within a 4-5-week span. Fall decisions are made between June 1 and July 1. Spring decisions are released as early as December 1 and as late as January 5.

Final Thoughts – Notre Dame Transfer Acceptance Rate

As the acceptance rate indicates, getting in as a transfer is far from a one-in-a-million shot. If you earn spectacular college grades you will be given serious consideration to join this prestigious university.

The College of Arts and Letters accepts a limited number of incoming juniors each year. However, the other schools within the larger university do not accept transfer students after the first semester of their sophomore year.

One of the nice things about this university is that their enrollment goals for transfer students are independent of their first-year enrollment goals. This means that they try to keep 200+ slots open for prospective transfers no matter what the overall number of students is in a given class.

If you are looking for information on how to apply to Notre Dame as a first-year student, you may find the following blogs to be of interest:

Those searching for application info on other institutions may wish to visit our Dataverse pages/blogs:

 

Dave has over a decade of professional experience that includes work as a teacher, high school administrator, college professor, and independent educational consultant. He is a co-author of the books The Enlightened College Applicant (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) and Colleges Worth Your Money (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).