<p>Actually, if the OP is looking for a Notre Dame substitute, Holy Cross is not going to meet that need–the school is much smaller, is a LAC and does not offer professional track majors like engineering, and of course the football and tradition of family loyalty is going to be different.</p>
<p>The thing that makes ND distinctive is the tradition of educating immigrants and the children of immigrants and launching them into the middle class. It shares that tradition with Boston College. </p>
<p>I guess it depends on what you mean by a “school like ND.” If it is history and a successful football team, then you’d get a different result than if you mean “a tradition of successfully assimilating minorities into the upwardly mobile middle class.”</p>