One of the things I found most interesting in the story linked by @hpcsa is that admissions expects that the Class of 2025 will be about 19% legacy. (“Legacy,” per the Notre Dame definition of the term, is an applicant with at least 1 parent who graduated from ND.)
Shown below is the 5-year trend on ND legacy admissions:
Class of 2021 (entered Fall '17) = 23.5% of the enrolled class are legacy admits
Class of 2022 (entered Fall '18) = 23.0%
Class of 2023 (entered Fall '19) = 21.3%
Class of 2024 (entered Fall '20) = 21% (Observer story says “likely 21%” – exact % not provided)
Class of 2025 (entering Fall '21) = 19% (linked story says “About 19%” – exact % not provided)
It might not seem like much, but the numbers show that there were 482 legacy admits in the Class of 2021 (ie., 23.5% of 2,051 enrollees) vs. 393 legacy admits in the Class of 2025 (ie., 19% of 2,070 expected enrollees). That’s almost 20% fewer legacy admits per class… perhaps a sign that ND Admissions has become increasingly sensitive to the negative press surrounding legacy.