University of Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame is a Catholic research university located near South Bend, Indiana. The school maintains a Catholic character through its numerous faculty members who are also Holy Cross priests as well as a number of ministries that are funded by the school. There are five colleges and one professional school in the university. Notre Dame offers its undergraduate students over 70 different bachelor’s degree programs. The Notre Dame graduate schools offer approximately 52 master’s degrees and 30 doctoral degrees. The school is home to around 8,500 undergraduates and 3,800 graduates.

The colleges include the College of Arts and Letters, the College of Science, the School of Architecture, the College of Engineering, and the Mendoza College of Business. Incoming freshmen also have the opportunity to enroll in the First Year of Studies program, which guides incoming freshmen to various courses to help them determine which major may be best for them. The University of Notre Dame is also home to the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, dedicated to researching the causes of violent conflict and sustainable peace solutions.

The school has a long tradition of research in many areas, including the start of nuclear physics research in 1936 and the invention of chemicals such as neoprene. Today, the school is known for its genome mapping research, studies of fluid mechanics, as well as the examination of marketing trends on the internet.

Athletics

Teams at Notre Dame are known as the Fighting Irish. The University is a member of NCAA Division I and competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The school sponsors 14 sports for men and/or women, including swimming and diving, soccer, football, basketball, rowing, and cross-country. Both the basketball and football teams have won numerous accolades, as the basketball team has appeared in 36 NCAA tournaments and the football team has won 8 national championship titles and have earned 11 consensus national titles.

Rankings

In 2013, U.S. News and World Report ranked Notre Dame 17^th overall among national universities in the United States. BusinessWeek ranked the Mendoza College of Business undergraduate school 1^st overall in 2010. The Notre Dame Law School is consistently ranked as one of the top law schools in the nation according to U.S. News and World Report. In 2006, Newsweek named the school one of 25 “New Ivies”.

Financial Aid and Scholarships

The University of Notre Dame is committed to meeting the demonstrated needs of its applicants. Around 66% of all Notre Dame students received some form of aid and 63% of entering freshmen received grants or scholarship aid and 37% receive federal student loans. Notre Dame students have the opportunity to apply for many scholarships and grants. There are over 140 club scholarships, private scholarships, state-sponsored scholarships and grants, ROTC scholarships, and 20 merit-based scholarship programs that help about 3% of first-year students receive merit aid. These include the Notre Dame Scholar Award Program and the Hesburgh-Yusko Scholars Program that offer up to $25,000 in merit scholarships, often awarded annually until the student completes their studies.

Student Housing

As of 2018 the Notre Dame housing office requires that first-year, sophomore, and junior students live on campus for six semesters and include incentives for seniors who want to live on campus. Almost 80% of Notre Dame undergraduate students (85% of juniors, 98% of sophomores) live on-campus in one of the 30 residence halls, all of which are single sex. There are 16 male dorms and 14 female dorms. All of the residences offer 24-hour social spaces that are open to students of both genders. Many of the halls have at least one nun and/or priest as a resident and each has a chapel.