How do Notre Dame and Michigan compare for merit aid for undergraduates?

Michigan is usually the more realistic place to expect some undergraduate merit aid, while Notre Dame offers very little merit money to first-year students. Notre Dame’s aid is overwhelmingly need-based, and its merit scholarships are limited, highly competitive, and awarded to a very small share of admitted students. Michigan, by contrast, has multiple merit programs for incoming students, although they are still selective and not something most applicants should count on.

In practical terms, most students applying to Notre Dame should assume they will be evaluated primarily for need-based aid, not merit.

One important nuance is residency. For out-of-state students, Michigan’s merit scholarships often do not erase the large cost difference enough to make it cheap, so the award may help without transforming the price. Notre Dame can sometimes end up more affordable for students with demonstrated financial need because its need-based aid can be strong even though merit is scarce.

For planning a realistic college list, I would treat Notre Dame as a school where merit is a long-shot bonus rather than part of the expected package, while Michigan is a place where merit is more plausible but still far from guaranteed.