Notre Dame’s Hard Work Pays Off in High Black Student Yield

A year ago John Jenkins, the new president of the University of Notre Dame, stated that one of his five primary goals at the beginning of his tenure was to increase diversity in both the student body and faculty.

The admissions office took the president’s goals to heart. They made a concerted effort to increase the number of black and other minority students on campus. Financial aid to low-income students was increased. A more determined outreach effort was made to black students who were admitted to the university in an attempt to convince them to enroll.

The number of blacks applying to Notre Dame in 2006 was up nearly 10 percent from a year ago and a slightly higher number of blacks were accepted for admission. But Notre Dame made huge strides by increasing black student yield from 40.2 percent to 53.4 percent. This black student yield is among the highest of the nation’s 30 top-ranked universities. Notre Dame attributes the higher yield to its visitation weekends where accepted students are invited to campus to see for themselves what Notre Dame is like.

There are 95 black first-year students at Notre Dame this fall, an increase of nearly 44 percent from a year ago.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.