is Notre Dame holistic?

prezbucky
Sun, 05 Mar 2017 23:27:46 +0000

Given Notre Dame’s acceptance rate and GPA/test score ranges among admits, the incontrovertible answer is: yes, Notre Dame is holistic.

What you may mean to ask is, “Relative to other selective schools, how holistic is Notre Dame?”

I think we can all agree that the top 20 or so private universities and top 10-15 LACs receive enough applications from top applicants to all report average admit GPAs of 3.9+ and 1500+/34+ – yet not all do.

I think the following statements are plausible:

If test score and GPA averages are relatively high given the admit percentage -- relatively high stats, relatively high admit % -- I think you can say that a school is relatively less holistic. Examples may include WUSTL and Caltech.

If test score and GPA averages are relatively low given the admit percentage -- lower stats and low admit % -- I think you can say a school is relatively more holistic. Examples may include Stanford and Columbia.