Notre Dame’s Restrictive Early Action (REA) decisions historically come out in mid‑December , and recent classes have heard back specifically on December 16 or 17 in the early evening (around 6:42 p.m. Eastern).

Key decision timing

  • Notre Dame states that REA applicants will receive an admission decision “before Christmas,” which effectively means mid‑December.
  • For the Class of 2030, a national roundup lists Notre Dame’s REA notification date as December 16, 2025 at 6:42 p.m. ET ; for the prior year it was December 17, 2024 at 6:42 p.m.
  • Forum posters who track this each year also report decisions landing around December 14–16 , consistently in the evening at 6:42 p.m. , a nod to the university’s 1842 founding year.

What “Restrictive Early Action” means

  • Notre Dame’s REA is non‑binding , so admitted students still have until May 1 to decide whether to enroll.
  • Applying REA limits you from applying to other schools’ binding Early Decision plans, but you may still apply to other non‑binding Early Action programs.

What decision you can expect

REA applicants can receive three possible outcomes:

  1. Admission to the university
  2. Denial of admission
  3. Deferral to the Regular Decision pool

Students who are deferred are re‑reviewed with Regular Decision applicants later in the cycle.

TL;DR: For current cycles, expect the Notre Dame early action decision date to fall around December 16–17 at about 6:42 p.m. ET , with the official wording being that decisions are released before Christmas.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.