Which is harder to get into, the University of Washington or Notre Dame?

Notre Dame is harder to get into overall. It is a much more selective private university with a national applicant pool, while the University of Washington admits on a broader public-university model and also has a major in-state mission. Even though UW is a strong and well-known school, especially in Seattle, Notre Dame is typically the tougher admit in the head-to-head comparison.

One big differentiator is applicant volume and selectivity style. Notre Dame draws a large number of highly credentialed applicants from across the country who are specifically targeting very selective private universities. UW also attracts many strong students, but as a public flagship it enrolls a wider range of applicants and has responsibilities to Washington residents that make its overall admissions landscape less restrictive than Notre Dame’s.

Another difference is how hard it is to get the exact academic path you want after admission. At UW, overall university admission is more accessible than Notre Dame, but some programs and majors can be extremely competitive once you are in the system. Computer science, engineering-related pathways, and other capacity-constrained areas at UW can feel tougher than the school’s overall admit picture suggests. Notre Dame, by contrast, is simply more selective at the front door across the university.

The applicant profile each school attracts also matters. Notre Dame tends to see a concentrated pool of students with very strong academics, substantial extracurricular depth, and polished applications, so standing out there is difficult. UW is absolutely selective, especially for out-of-state applicants and popular majors, but on the whole it is not in the same tier of overall admissions difficulty as Notre Dame.