How can I compare the admission difficulty of UVA and Notre Dame?

Notre Dame is typically harder to gain admission to than UVA when comparing the universities’ applicant pools as a whole. Both are highly selective, but Notre Dame attracts an especially self-selecting national pool. UVA remains exceptionally difficult, particularly for applicants seeking admission from outside Virginia.

The most meaningful comparison depends on residency. Virginia residents receive a meaningful advantage at UVA because the university has a public mission to enroll in-state students. For an in-state Virginia applicant, UVA may be more attainable than Notre Dame; for an out-of-state applicant, UVA’s admission process is closer to Notre Dame’s level of difficulty and can feel just as unpredictable.

For a personal comparison, use each school’s most recently published class profile and separate UVA’s in-state and out-of-state results before drawing conclusions. Also compare your transcript strength, course rigor, testing if submitted, and extracurricular depth against enrolled students rather than relying only on an overall admission rate. Neither school is a true safety for a strong applicant, but Notre Dame should ordinarily be treated as the more selective reach, with UVA’s category depending heavily on Virginia residency.