Is Notre Dame Worth It? The ROI Data on Notre Dame (2026)

Notre Dame's ROI score is 97 out of 100 - the same as Princeton. No other non-Ivy private university in our dataset matches that figure. The engine behind it is simple: high earnings, low net price, and manageable debt.

Median earnings ten years after entry: $99,980. Average net price: $26,780. Median debt at graduation: $19,000. Payback period: 3.8 years.

The Notre Dame CampusROI page shows how Mendoza, Engineering, and the College of Arts and Letters score independently.

For students admitted to Notre Dame, the financial case is almost lopsided.

Notre Dame by the Numbers

The completion rate (95.2%) and 3-year repayment rate (94.5%) are both among the highest we record. Graduates finish, earn well, and pay down debt quickly.

The Cost Reality

Net price at Notre Dame by family income:

The striking number is the $110K-plus bracket at $45,321. That is roughly $12,000 less per year than Georgetown and $9,000 less than Duke at the same income level. Over four years, that is a $36,000 to $48,000 saving for upper-middle-income and full-pay families.

Notre Dame's financial aid model caps loans at $3,000 per year for families earning under $150,000 and does not package loans at all for families under $65,000. For middle-class families - roughly $75,000 to $175,000 household income - the net price is competitive with meet-full-need schools like Princeton and Harvard, despite Notre Dame's less selective admissions.

What Notre Dame Graduates Earn

Three earnings pipelines drive the $99,980 figure:

Finance and consulting. Mendoza College of Business is the largest undergraduate business program at a top-20 US university and has particularly strong placement into investment banking, asset management, and the Big Four consulting firms. Chicago-based employers recruit heavily. Starting salaries for Mendoza finance graduates run $85,000 to $110,000 plus signing bonus.

Engineering. Notre Dame's engineering school (mechanical, electrical, computer, chemical, aerospace) produces graduates who place into energy, defense, and industrial employers. Computer science specifically has strong placement into tech majors, with starting salaries $95,000 to $140,000.

Pre-professional pathways. Notre Dame has historically strong law school, medical school, and accounting placement. The university's accounting program sends a high share of graduates into Big Four audit and tax positions, a lower-starting-salary but stable career pipeline.

Arts and letters majors earn closer to the $55,000 to $70,000 national private-school average early career, with significant dispersion based on chosen field.

The Debt Picture

Median federal debt of $19,000 is slightly higher than Georgetown or Rice but still well below the national average for private nonprofits ($32,000). Monthly payment at 6.5% on a 10-year plan: about $201. Against the 10-year earnings figure, that is 2.4% of gross monthly income.

The 3-year repayment rate of 94.5% is the highest we record for any private university outside of the Ivy League plus Stanford and MIT. Graduates are paying down principal, not just deferring it.

Academic Quality

6-year completion rate: 95.2%. First-year retention: 98%. Student-to-faculty ratio: 9 to 1.

Signature undergraduate programs: - Mendoza College of Business - finance, accounting, management consulting, marketing. Top-5 undergraduate business school by most rankings. - Engineering - mechanical, electrical, computer, aerospace, chemical, civil - Arts and Letters - political science, economics, English, theology, philosophy - Science - biological sciences (pre-med pipeline), chemistry, physics, math - Architecture - five-year professional program with a classical/traditional focus

Notre Dame's Catholic identity shapes the undergraduate experience meaningfully. Required theology and philosophy coursework, significant campus religious life, and a generally observant student culture are all part of the setting. Students who value this will find Notre Dame distinctive; students for whom it is a non-factor or negative will find the academic quality strong but the cultural frame ever-present.

The campus is 1,250 acres in South Bend, Indiana - a small city of 100,000 about 90 miles east of Chicago. Undergraduate enrollment is 8,818. Football Saturdays are famously central to the culture.

Who Should Apply

Notre Dame is a strong ROI bet for:

- Business students targeting finance, consulting, accounting, or corporate management. The Mendoza placement record is hard to beat at the undergraduate level. - Middle-income families. The $75K to $175K income bracket gets one of the best net-price pictures in US elite higher education at Notre Dame. - Pre-professional students interested in law, medicine, or accounting. Grad school matriculation rates are very high. - Students who value community, tradition, and campus culture over urban access. Notre Dame has one of the most tightly-woven undergraduate cultures in the country. - Engineering students looking for a strong program embedded in a broader liberal arts university.

Notre Dame is a weaker fit for:

- Students for whom the Catholic identity is a negative or seriously distracting factor. It is a constant presence. - Students prioritizing urban access and internship density during the academic year. South Bend is rural-small-city Midwest, not a major employment center. - Students targeting West Coast tech specifically. Notre Dame places into tech, but density is thinner than at Stanford, Berkeley, or Carnegie Mellon.

Compared to Peers

Duke ($102,340 at 10 years, 3.3-year payback). Comparable earnings, slightly faster payback due to lower debt, stronger in consulting and finance recruiting density. Notre Dame wins on net price at every income bracket above $75K. Duke wins on pure earnings and placement breadth.

Georgetown ($103,494 at 10 years, 4.4-year payback). Higher earnings, much higher net price, stronger government and policy pipeline. Notre Dame wins decisively on cost efficiency. Georgetown wins on DC access.

Vanderbilt ($85,100 at 10 years, 3.7-year payback). Lower earnings but comparable payback, strong in Southeast recruiting and music (Blair School). Notre Dame wins on earnings and alumni network density.

Boston College ($85,000 at 10 years, 5.6-year payback). Similar Catholic-intellectual identity, lower earnings, higher net price. Notre Dame outperforms BC on nearly every financial measure.

The Verdict

Notre Dame is arguably the single best ROI bet among US private universities that are not Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, or MIT. The combination of $99,980 10-year earnings, $26,780 net price, and a 3.8-year payback period is not matched by any peer at Notre Dame's selectivity level.

For admitted students from middle-income families especially, the financial case is close to overwhelming. The cultural fit question - specifically, whether the Catholic identity and South Bend setting suit you - is the main thing to weigh. The math, on its own, is very hard to argue with.

Data sources: College Scorecard, IPEDS, BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, as of 2024.