Were you deferred in the Early Action round to Notre Dame’s Class of 2030? If so, all hope should not be lost. After all, Notre Dame is the alma mater of Rudy Ruettiger — you’ve got to march on to victory (though we hope you didn’t write about him or Notre Dame football at all in your Notre Dame essays)! So, what does a Notre Dame deferral mean in context, and what can you do to give yourself the best shot of earning admission to the university in the Regular Decision round? And for those who have been rejected, how can you turn these lemons you’ve been dealt into lemonade and not, well, sour grapes? Let’s dive in!

Notre Dame University Early Action Admission Statistics

Below are the Restrictive Early Action admissions statistics for Notre Dame over the last eight years. The trend? REA applications are rising and the corresponding admission rate is dropping. For the Notre Dame Class of 2029, a record number of students applied REA to Notre Dame and the institution admitted a historically low percentage. Around 70% of admits are expected to enroll.

Notre Dame Class Year	Number of Early Action Applications	Number of Early Action Acceptances	Early Action Acceptance Rate
Class of 2030	13,711	1,617	11.79%
Class of 2029	12,917	1,669	12.92%
Class of 2028	11,498	1,724	14.99%
Class of 2027	11,163	1,701	15.24%
Class of 2026	9,683	1,675	17%
Class of 2025	7,744	1,673	21.6%
Class of 2024	7,295	1,540	21%
Class of 2023	7,334	1,534	20.92%

Notre Dame Deferral Rate

Notre Dame doesn’t typically release the percentage of students deferred during an Early cycle. However, the school did release the number of deferred Early Action candidates to its Classes of 2026 and 2030. Those figures, along with the deferral and denial rates for those years, are below (isn’t it incredible all the data points one can glean when a school publishes a handful of numbers?):

Notre Dame Class Year	Number of Early Action Applications	Number of Early Action Acceptances	Early Action Acceptance Rate	Number of Early Action Deferrals	Number of Early Action Denials	Deferral Rate	Denial Rate
Class of 2030	13,711	1,617	11.79%	2,608	9,486	19.02%	69.19%
Class of 2029	12,917	1,669	12.92%	Not Reported	Not Reported	Not Reported	Not Reported
Class of 2028	11,498	1,724	14.99%	Not Reported	Not Reported	Not Reported	Not Reported
Class of 2027	11,163	1,701	15.24%	Not Reported	Not Reported	Not Reported	Not Reported
Class of 2026	9,683	1,675	17%	1,599	6,409	16.51%	66.19%

5 Steps to Take After Being Deferred by The University of Notre Dame

1. Do some breathing exercises. Before you fixate on what you can do to improve your odds of admission to Notre Dame in Regular Decision, you need to take a breath and clear your head.
2. Sign up for a complimentary consultation with Ivy Coach to understand our go-forward services for deferred candidates.
3. Endure a PostMortem application review with Ivy Coach. It’s not fun to hear what went wrong, but it’s important you understand what we will focus on and what we won’t focus on in your Letter of Continued Interest. Additionally, you can still fix mistakes on your yet-to-be-submitted Regular Decision applications.
4. Send in a compelling Letter of Continued Interest to Notre Dame. In a word, Ivy Coach’s love letters are weird. It’s a big reason why they’re so often effective for deferred candidates to Notre Dame.
5. Ask your school counselor to make an advocacy call on your behalf in the New Year. Some school counselors will refuse to make such calls, but good school counselors will pick up the phone and call Notre Dame to fight for you. And you’ll want to share your Letter of Continued Interest with your counselor so they present you as you presented yourself after your deferral.

What to Do After Notre Dame Rejection

You’ve faced rejection — what’s next? First, you’ll need to recenter yourself and enter into a productive headspace. We get it — easier said than done. If your faith inspired your application to Notre Dame, keep it close at hand as you proceed.

As discussed in this post, for the Class of 2030, more than 2 out of every 3 applicants were denied Early Action admission to Notre Dame. In other words, most of the Early Action applicants have been dealt the same hand as you have. Just as these students will still have bright futures ahead, so will you!

Now that the worst has come to pass, it’s time for an honest assessment of your application. Addressing your shortcomings is a difficult task no matter the circumstances, but Ivy Coach’s team of former elite college admissions officers is here to help. Our PostMortem application review will identify weaknesses and assist you in crafting a compelling new narrative centered around a singular hook (which will come quite in handy as you pivot to Regular Decision applications!). You don’t know what the future holds, but it doesn’t hurt to enter into it with the utmost preparation! At Ivy Coach, we’ve helped countless students make the most out of a Notre Dame rejection and wind up with an acceptance letter from an elite university, and if you act quickly, we can help you too!

Notre Dame Early Action Rejection Rate

First, let’s unpack where you stand as a rejected Notre Dame applicant. Typically, Notre Dame defers the majority of applicants. For the Class of 2030, 19.02% of students received deferrals (a whopping 69.19% were rejected).

Now, since we have a well-known reputation for not sugarcoating at Ivy Coach, we’re not going to start sugarcoating now. The high rejection rate should make you feel less badly about your admissions outcome. 2 out of 3 students who applied Early Action for the Class of 2030 were in the same position as you, after all. 

With this data point in mind, given that the Early Action acceptance rate was only 12%, it may be the case that an Early Action application wasn’t the best choice for you depending on your candidate profile. 

Had you come to Ivy Coach before facing rejection, we likely would have told you how to reposition your case for admission and/or rethink your Early strategy entirely.

Admissions Cycle	Notre Dame Class Year	Notre Dame’s Early Action Rejection Rate	Notre Dame’s Early Action Deferral Rate
2025-2026	Class of 2030	19.02%	69.19%
2024-2025	Class of 2029	Not Reported	Not Reported
2023-2024	Class of 2028	Not Reported	Not Reported
2022-2023	Class of 2027	Not Reported	Not Reported
2021-2022	Class of 2026	66.19%	16.51%

What Should Applicants Do After Being Rejected by Notre Dame?

PostMortem Application Review

After receiving word of a rejection from Notre Dame, we don’t recommend delaying before contacting Ivy Coach for a PostMortem application review. First, take a deep breath to re-center yourself during this stressful time, and remind yourself that countless others have faced the same situation. Second, as soon as you’ve breathed in that last calming breath, understand that now (not tomorrow), it’s about how fast you can pivot and move forward.

During Ivy Coach’s PostMortem, we will:

• Assist with reevaluating your current applications. We go through every section of each application step by step, including both the essays and non-essay portions. Then we’ll readjust which schools you’re prioritizing now that you’ve been rejected from your first choice school. You may think these applications are done or near-done, but, after a Notre Dame rejection, why double down on the same mistakes? That’s not going to help you in the long run of the elite college admissions game. This process is a marathon, not a sprint, so don’t just will-nilly send in bad applications because you’re eager to get them over with.
• Work together to present you as a uniquely talented individual rather than as a well-rounded one. This is a pretty classic mistake that we see students continue to make year after year, and now you’ve fallen victim to it as well. Presenting yourself as a jack of all trades makes you a master of none, and admissions officers are really looking for a master of one. We’ll correct this error and help you shift to a strategy that actually works: the singular hook.
• Correct the seemingly insignificant mistakes and missteps that may have contributed to your rejection. Sometimes, rejection comes down to something as simple as a thought or idea that was miscommunicated and did not gel with the admissions officer’s vision for the campus they’re trying to cultivate. For example, students who brag put themselves at a competitive disadvantage in the Notre Dame admissions process. No one likes a braggart (and, yes, writing about how you raised $25,000 for a charity or were selected out of a pool of thousands for a seemingly prestigious but actually totally unimpressive summer enrichment program at a highly selective university is indeed bragging!). Other times, for single-digit acceptance rate schools like Notre Dame, assuming you have met the academic standards of admitted applicants (which you always should double-check before applying anywhere!), admissions officers may not have been convinced you’ll make the most out of your time on campus. It’s your job to prove that you will. 
• Take stock of your admissions options and consider taking advantage of the Early Decision II round for a school that hits the sweet spot between prestige and admissions feasibility, not necessarily a school that’s as much of a reach as Notre Dame. Not all students are right for ED II, and not all schools provide an ED II round. We encourage you to do some investigative work and pick an admissions pathway that works best.

Application Assistance

Following your PostMortem with Ivy Coach, a necessary first step for us to understand what went wrong and how you need to reposition your narrative, we will:

• Revamp your applications. You have a game plan and know the ropes of the touchy elite college admissions landscape, so now it’s time to put all the puzzle pieces together of everything you’ve learned from your PostMortem. While we can’t fix every mistake you’ve made throughout your high school years, there’s a whole lot we can still correct at this late date in terms of how you position your narrative and how you hope to sway admissions officers to root for you.

What Not to Do After Being Rejected by Notre Dame

Below are five surefire ways to wreck your chances of Regular Decision admission to elite universities after receiving the sad news of a rejection from Notre Dame:

1. Do not submit your remaining applications as is. A rejection should tell you that something isn’t working in your applications. Don’t ignore those signs and proceed as planned! This is your only chance to pivot to a more effective strategy. There is no second opportunity after Regular Decision deadlines, so don’t waste this golden opportunity you’ve been given (even though you, understandably, may not see it that way right now).
2. Do not, under any circumstances, reach out to the Notre Dame admissions office with questions about why you were rejected. Guess what: they won’t give you a straightforward answer, and your enthusiasm will only boost their confidence that they made the correct decision. Like many elite schools, Notre Dame does not conduct appeals. Don’t waste your time (or theirs). Notre Dame is finito.
3. Do not be incredibly picky with your choice of Regular Decision schools and/or omit safety schools from your Regular Decision list. Now is not the time to turn up your nose. And if you’re unsure what constitutes a safety school, that’s where ourteam of former elite college admissions officers comes in. Thinking of omitting Boston College because you’d prefer not to go to school in Boston? Wrong answer. After a Notre Dame rejection, you’d be so very lucky to earn admission to a school like BC. We do not tolerate such close-mindedness at this time of year from rejected applicants. In fact, so often, they’ll end up attending a school that Ivy Coach adds to their list at this time of year. When we say we don’t tolerate pickiness, we really do mean it. It won’t serve you on your journey to success in the college admissions process.
4. Do not blame your school counselor for an admissions decision that is ultimately your responsibility. High school counselors are not always perfect at their jobs (for example, since they’re often not experts on the admissions process, they sometimes refuse to make advocacy calls on behalf of their students), but they are your #1 ally right now. Alienating them is literally the worst thing you can do. Well that, and submitting your application as-is after getting a clear message that something isn’t right.

University of Notre Dame Deferral and Rejection FAQ

Is a deferral from Notre Dame meaningful?

Yes, Notre Dame historically denies most applicants. As evidenced by the Early Action round of the Notre Dame Class of 2030, 69.19% of candidates were denied admission, while only 19.02% were deferred. As such, a deferral at Notre Dame carries real weight, unlike at some other top universities.

As Notre Dame’s admissions committee writes of a deferral, “Being deferred is not the end of the admissions process. With a highly competitive applicant pool, we are very serious about which students we choose to defer, and we only do so if we feel that they will be competitive later in the process.”

Does Notre Dame accept, defer, or reject most Early Action candidates?

Notre Dame denies most Early Action candidates. The school tends to accept about the same percentage of Early Action candidates as it defers in a given Early cycle.

Does Notre Dame explicitly ask for a letter after a deferral?

Yes, as the school writes on its website, “You may also write a letter of desire explaining why you believe Notre Dame is the best school for you. You may upload the letter to your applicant status portal so we can be sure to add it to your admissions file. This letter of desire is a great opportunity to tell the admissions committee a little bit more about yourself and to explain why you would love to attend Notre Dame.”

Should my child have realistic expectations and focus their attention on the Regular Decision schools if they were deferred?

The answer is both yes and no. There’s no choice to be made here. Your child should focus on submitting the best applications possible to their Regular Decision schools. Still, they should also focus on submitting a compelling Letter of Continued Interest to Notre Dame. Why cut bait after your child applied to Notre Dame Early Action over all other private universities?

What lesson should I take from my child being rejected by Notre Dame?

Notre Dame rejects most Early Action applicants. This means that perhaps applying Early Action to Notre Dame simply wasn’t the right choice for your child, if their application didn’t make a strong enough impression to be one of the lucky number of students who were accepted or even deferred. Bearing in mind that the Early Action acceptance rate to the Class of 2030 was 12% and the deferral rate was 19.02% this year, it looks like your child likely just blended in with the rest of the crowd.

Ivy Coach’s Assistance with Your Notre Dame Deferral or Rejection

If you’re interested in optimizing your case for admission to Notre Dame post-deferral or to other elite universities that you’ll be applying to post-rejection from Notre Dame, fill out Ivy Coach’s complimentary consultation form, and we’ll be in touch to outline our services for deferred or rejected candidates.