Is Villanova or Notre Dame harder to get into?

Notre Dame is harder to get into overall. It is widely viewed as the more selective of the two, with a deeper national and international applicant pool and a very high concentration of top academic applicants. Villanova is also quite competitive, but in a head-to-head comparison, Notre Dame is the tougher admit.

For a student building a college list, Notre Dame should usually be treated as the more ambitious option. It attracts many applicants with extremely strong grades, rigorous coursework, and high-end extracurricular profiles, so even very qualified students can face long odds. Its admissions process is also especially difficult because so many applicants are both academically strong and highly interested in the school’s mission and community.

Villanova fits the student who wants a selective Catholic university experience but is looking at a school that is somewhat more accessible than Notre Dame. That does not make it easy. Villanova still turns away many qualified applicants, and strong academics matter a lot. But across the board, it is not usually considered as difficult to enter as Notre Dame.

So if your goal is a simple selectivity comparison, the clearest answer is Notre Dame first, Villanova second. For list planning, most students would place Notre Dame in a more reach-like category and Villanova a step below that, depending on their grades, course rigor, and overall profile.