<p>I’m from Michigan and my first college choice is Umich, but my second is Notre Dame. I assume that if i get don’t get accepted to Umich i won’t get accepted to ND, and if i get accepted to both i will go to UofM. Which is harder to get into? I already applied to Umich, should i even apply to ND?</p>
<p>Umich is probably a bit easier to get into or at least more predictable. The middle 50% of ACT scores for enrolled students at Notre Dame is 31-34, while at Michigan it’s 28-32. But then again, I’ve heard of people being rejected from Umich and accepted to Notre Dame. So you never know.</p>
<p>Notre Dame’s mid 50% ACT is suspicious (as high as Harvard’s and MIT’s). Notre Dame does not release a common data set, so I do not trust their admissions claims. That said, Notre Dame is is one third the size of Michigan and is one of the most popular universities in the country. As such, I would say that Notre Dame is indeed a little tougher to get into, particularly if you are a resident of Michigan. However, as rm points out, there are cases where students apply to two schools and get into the more selective of the two while getting rejected by the less selective of the two.</p>
<p>ND is slightly harder to get into due to its size.</p>
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UM’s is actually 27-31.</p>
<p>But yes, ND is harder to get into, especially if you’re not Catholic and you’re in-state for U of M.</p>
<p>Not quite. The ACT percentile range for the 2013 admitted class jumped to 28-32.</p>
<p>Notre Dame is harder to get into, but not worth paying the $51K/yr versus $21K/yr for UM. ND’s ACT scores are high because this is a counterweight to ND’s low peer ranking in the USNWR ranking (I believe it dropped from 25th to 30th this year). For engineering and the business schools, UM is much better. For pre-med or pre-law, ND is better, that is because they have a better system for counseling (or at least tell a kid to get out of pre-med if they don’t have a certain GPA jr year).</p>
<p>The problem with ND is the continuing drop in USNWR rankings, and that they are having a difficult time getting any surge in applicants, even with going to the common application last year ( 13,998 applicants in 2008 versus 14,252 applicants in 2009, they were expecting a 20% increase).</p>
<p>I believe ND is in a difficult position like Duke, Cornell, NW, etc…that their high prices (even with aid) for middle class and upper middle class families is going to force them to reconsider how hard they want to keep trying (and spending $$$) to keep up with the HYPMS crowd.</p>
<p>Hmm… I’m looking at the 2009-2010 brochure that I got last week and it says 27 to 31. So did the PowerPoint they showed last week at an admissions seminar I attended. :/</p>
<p>As someone who looked at and did overnight visits to both schools when I applied, I am honestly just surprised that one is your first choice and the other is your second choice. The two schools are extremely different; Michigan is a big state school, emphasis on graduate programs, in a city, very liberal, and very diverse. ND is a private school, emphasis on its undergraduate programs, heavily an on-campus school, conservative (for a university), and 80% Catholic. About the only thing the schools have in common would be strong academics and football. I suppose someone could be satisfied at either one, but it’s just two completely different experiences…
So ya, apply to both, it can’t hurt; acceptances are crazy sometimes.</p>