Notre Dame de Namur University

Private · CA

Photo: Sanfranman59 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationCA · West

SettingSuburban

Undergrads33

Student:faculty6:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate6.7%

6-yr grad rate6.7%

Drop-out rate93.3%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition—

Out-of-state tuition—

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity78.8%

Gender diversity75.8%

International3%

IdentityRoman Catholic

Overview

Notre Dame de Namur University, in Belmont on the San Francisco Peninsula, traces its roots to a Catholic women's college founded by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in the 1850s, making it one of California's oldest institutions of higher education. After years of enrollment decline, the university restructured sharply around 2020, suspending most of its traditional undergraduate offerings and narrowing its focus to a handful of graduate and adult-learner programs. It now operates as a much smaller school than its history suggests, occupying a wooded historic campus between San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

Academics

What remains of the curriculum concentrates on professional graduate fields, including psychology and counseling, education and teacher credentialing, and business, rather than the broad liberal-arts undergraduate catalog the university once offered. Class sizes are small by necessity given the university's reduced scale, and programs tend to serve working adults and career-changers as much as traditional-age students. The Catholic, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur heritage still informs the university's mission language, though the student body and course offerings are no longer built around a residential undergraduate experience.

Worth knowing

Students researching Notre Dame de Namur should confirm current accreditation status and which undergraduate majors, if any, are still admitting new students, since the university's program list has changed substantially and continues to evolve. It is a very different institution today than its long history as a full four-year Catholic college would suggest, closer in practice to a small graduate school occupying a legacy campus.

ndnu.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate—

Enrolled mid-50%—

Test policynot reported

Rec letters—

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying