University of Notre Dame

Academics

For many students entering their freshman year, this marks the first time they are required to question and articulate their feelings about their faith, social beliefs, and politics. No longer are students asked to simply regurgitate information as they did in high school; instead, as students learn world history, finance, and calculus, they begin to define themselves and what is important to them.

As a Catholic school, the university could easily expect that students believe only what the Catholic Church teaches, but often, the required theology and philosophy core classes force students to take a serious look at what they believe and why. The learning environment is a unique combination of faith and questioning.

The Colleges and Majors

The university is divided into five colleges: Arts and Letters (the largest), Business, Science, Engineering, and Architecture. Overall, the most popular majors are finance, psychology, and political science, with majors such as history and economics growing in popularity. They also have a strong pre-professional studies program, which combines medical school prerequisite courses with a liberal arts major or additional science classes. Each college also has its own academic organizations and honor societies, including the Arts and Letters Business Society and the Management Club.

First Year of Studies

Before selecting a college, all students are enrolled into the First Year of Studies (FYS), a program created to help freshmen adjust to college-level academics. The FYS assigns each student an advisor, who guides students with course selection, choosing a college and/or a major, and with concerns about classes. The FYS center also provides students with tutors and study groups if necessary. Students must fulfill the core requirements of the FYS before they can enter sophomore year. Usually, students do not have any difficulty completing the required classes since approximately half of each incoming freshman class receives class credit for AP classes and SAT Subject Test scores.

Although taking calculus for a future political science major might seem like sheer agony, the school adheres to the philosophy of a well-rounded education, and offers its core classes as a way to achieve this purpose. For example, while in the FYS program, all students must complete one semester of Freshman Seminar and Composition and Literature (Comp and Lit). Freshman Seminar is a literature class that addresses any topic the professor selects, from reading Plato