How should I compare the admissions difficulty of Notre Dame and WashU?

Neither Notre Dame nor Washington University in St. Louis is meaningfully easier to enter overall; for most applicants, both belong in the highly selective reach category. Their changing acceptance rates can look different because the schools attract and enroll students through different application patterns. The more useful question is which school’s priorities match your record and reasons for applying.

Notre Dame’s pool is shaped by its Catholic character, strong undergraduate community, and distinctive emphasis on service, leadership, and contribution to campus life. Applicants do not need to be Catholic, but an application should show a credible connection to the values and community that make Notre Dame distinctive. A student whose academics are excellent but whose essays treat Notre Dame as interchangeable with other selective universities may be less compelling there.

WashU’s admissions difficulty is affected by its binding Early Decision options, which can make the early applicant group different from the regular-decision pool. Applying Early Decision is a serious enrollment commitment, not simply an admissions tactic, but it can matter for a student who has genuinely made WashU their first choice.

For an individual applicant, compare your academic preparation against each school’s most demanding coursework expectations, then assess fit in the nonacademic parts of the application. Notre Dame may reward a clearly articulated sense of mission and community contribution; WashU may be particularly attractive when your academic interests, intellectual direction, and reasons for choosing its environment are specific.