Why Notre Dame’s New President Thinks Going Need-Blind Will Expand Its Global Reach

As a young seminarian, Robert A. Dowd sat on the rooftop of a house in Nairobi, Kenya, watching planes taking off nearby and wondering why he wasn’t on one, headed back to his home in the Midwest. But, by the end of more than a year there, he was already thinking about how he’d get back to a place he called “transformative.” Decades later, Dowd is poised to push the University of Notre Dame, where he just took over as president, to expand its global reach, including by drawing more students from places like Kenya to study in South Bend, Ind. At his presidential-inauguration ceremony Friday, Dowd announced Notre Dame will become the first faith-based, highly selective American college to be need-blind in admissions for both domestic and international students. Notre Dame says it is now one of only nine highly selective colleges and universities to have a need-blind admissions policy for all students.