Now that the applications have officially opened for the 2024-2025 application cycle, you may be eager to dive into working on your essays. Hopefully, you’ve been able to spend some time thinking about your personal statement, which will be shared with all of the colleges you apply to this year. Like many universities, Notre Dame also has its own supplemental writing section, which gives applicants an opportunity to share more about themselves and what they’re looking for in their college experience.
This Year
You will respond to one (1) required short essay question and three (3) short-answer responses from the five options listed below.
You will have up to 150 words to respond to the short essay question, and 50-100 words to respond to the short answer questions.
There is no magic combination of questions that you should respond to—pick the prompts that will best enable you to share more about yourself, your values, and what makes you unique! We value each student’s distinct lived experiences and can’t wait to learn more about you from your supplemental responses.
If you’re struggling with what to write about, here are some suggestions to get you started!
The Short Essay - Required
Prompt: Everyone has different priorities when considering their higher education options and building their college or university list. Tell us about your “non-negotiable” factor(s) when searching for your future college home.
This question is as much about you as it is about what you’re looking for from your college experience.
Think about what you’re looking for in your future university.
- Do you want to attend a faith-based Catholic university like Notre Dame?
- Are you drawn to a school that has a strong community and residential life experience?
- Does your future home need to be a place where serving others and working for the betterment of society are important values?
- Are you someone who wants to conduct undergraduate research?
- Do you want a spirited environment full of tradition and an engaged student body?
- Are you seeking a collaborative academic environment?
- What programs or activities or opportunities are you specifically hoping to participate in when you get to college?
- What values do you hold that you hope your future institution will also exemplify?
There’s no right answer to this prompt, but if you take some time to think about it, there are likely a few things that are driving you to apply to Notre Dame. Take this opportunity to reflect on them and share how you hope to engage with such “non-negotiable” factors during your time as an undergraduate student.
The Short Answer Questions - Choose 3
How does faith influence the decisions you make?
If faith is a guiding force in your life, this might be one of the questions you’re most excited to respond to this year. As a Catholic university, Notre Dame is guided by our Catholic faith, social teachings, mission, and the Congregation of Holy Cross.
Each student’s faith journey is unique and we invite you to share how faith influences the decisions you make. Whether you’re Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Protestant, another religion, or have your own distinctive version of faith and spirituality, we are excited to hear about how you are guided by your faith.
You may also want to reflect on how your faith has shaped your own sense of mission and values for your life, the role those have played in the decisions you have made, and the path you are hoping to take in the future.
What is distinctive about your personal experiences and development (e.g., family support, culture, disability, personal background, community)? Why are these experiences important to you and how will you enrich the Notre Dame community?
There is only one you in the world and we want to hear about who you are and what has shaped you.
There are infinite life experiences that have helped make you who you are, so think about which people, places, communities, and life events have influenced your personal development. This is an opportunity to share your lived experiences with us and to reflect on how you hope to share who you are with the Notre Dame community. Don’t forget to tell us why this/these experiences have been so important in your life.
Notre Dame’s undergraduate experience is characterized by a collective sense of care for every person. How do you foster service to others in your community?
For students applying to Notre Dame through QuestBridge, this is the second question you will respond to on the Notre Dame supplement.
This question is asking you to reflect on how you care for your community. This may be through service work, advocacy efforts, research with a social justice dimension, allyship actions, policy or curricular change, or even by dedicating your time to your community.
Consider community in a broad sense—it could be your family, your neighborhood, your town or city, your peers, your school, a religious organization, a local service organization, or something else entirely. If you are dedicating your heart and time to others, you are likely fostering service in your community.
What compliment are you most proud of receiving and why does it mean so much to you?
This is an opportunity to share something that someone else has recognized you for (it doesn’t need to be an accomplishment; it can be for an action you took or a trait that you possess).
Oftentimes, the compliments that are most meaningful and memorable are those that we receive for being ourselves. You may want to share who complimented you or what prompted the compliment. This is a moment to let others speak to something important about you and to tell us why that matters so much to you.
What would you fight for?
With the Fighting Irish as our mascot, the Notre Dame community is all about “fighting” for what matters. The University has shared over 100 stories about members of the Notre Dame family who are fighting to bring solutions to a world in need.
This is your opportunity to tell us what (or who) you would fight for at Notre Dame, in your career, in your community, through your research, or in whatever other space in which you hope to make an impact.
Final Tips
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Give yourself time to think and write. The best responses usually aren’t the ones written the night before the deadline. Take some time to think about which questions you want to respond to and what you want to share about yourself and then give yourself time to write (and edit)!
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It’s always easier to write too much than too little. We’re asking you to be brief in your responses, but it’s often easier to write a little too much and edit your responses down to focus on what’s most important. Make the most of the space you have to respond to these prompts.
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Don’t be afraid to pick a different question. You have to respond to the short essay prompt, but if you’re stuck on writing a response to one of the short answer questions, try writing something for one of the other questions. Sometimes, the questions you think you want to respond to may not be the questions you have the best responses to (it’s okay to try different prompts and pick the ones that best reflect who you are and what you value).
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Be your authentic self. We want to get to know the real you. The best questions for you to respond to are the ones that reveal your true self. We don’t have favorite questions, but you might just write one of our favorite responses!
Get started on the Notre Dame Writing Supplement.
Maria Finan is a senior assistant director of admissions and counselor for the Bay Area, California, Northern California, Hawaii, Alaska, Hong Kong, and South China. Learn more.