University of Notre Dame vs. University of Southern California

Call it a tie on the headline rate: Notre Dame admits about 9.4% of applicants and USC about 9.8%. They operate at very different scales, though, with USC drawing roughly 82,000 first-year applications against Notre Dame's 35,400. The admitted profiles run close too, with middle-50% SATs of 1460–1540 at Notre Dame and 1450–1550 at USC. USC reports an average admitted GPA near 3.80, while Notre Dame publishes class rank instead. Both go test-optional, so a strong application without scores works at either.

Notre Dame is a private Catholic university on a residential campus near South Bend, Indiana; USC is a private, secular research university in the heart of Los Angeles. The scale gap runs wide, with USC enrolling about 20,630 undergraduates to Notre Dame's 8,950, more than twice as many. Academically they split as well: both lead with business (23% of degrees at USC, 21% at Notre Dame), but USC's next tier covers engineering and computing, the visual and performing arts (12%), and communication, while Notre Dame fills out with the social sciences and engineering and grants no comparable arts block. About 92% of Notre Dame's students come from outside Indiana, against 38% at USC.

USC, clearly. The visual and performing arts rank as USC's third most-conferred area at about 12% of degrees, covering its film, music, and theatre programs and its proximity to the Los Angeles entertainment industry; Notre Dame conferss nothing of comparable scale in its degree mix. Notre Dame's weight sits instead in business, the social sciences, and engineering. For a film, media, or performing-arts path, USC is the far stronger structural fit.

Call it a tie for families with need, since both meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. Notre Dame stays need-blind for domestic and international applicants and, starting with the fall 2025 entering class, awards its packages with no loans; about 54% of first-years receive need-based aid, averaging roughly $67,264. USC reaches a smaller share, about 39% of first-years on need-based aid, but its average package runs a bit larger, near $71,169. Sticker tuition and fees track close, about $69,794 at Notre Dame and $68,237 at USC before housing and food, so a higher-need applicant lands well below the sticker at either.

Only USC. Notre Dame runs no fraternities or sororities, channeling student life through its residential-hall system instead, with essentially every undergraduate living on campus. Greek life exists at USC without dominating, drawing about 12% of women into sororities and 2% of men into fraternities, and about 97% of first-years live on campus. So both house nearly all students on campus; the social structure is what differs, not whether students live there.

USC dwarfs Notre Dame on size, about 20,630 undergraduates to 8,950, though both teach at an 8-to-1 student-faculty ratio. The settings diverge as much as the numbers: Notre Dame occupies a self-contained campus near South Bend, Indiana, drawing most of its students from out of state, while USC sits inside Los Angeles near the media, tech, and entertainment industries. Both keep and graduate students at a high clip, with Notre Dame posting a 98% first-year retention and 95% six-year graduation rate against USC's 96% and 92%.