University of Notre Dame Top Questions

The academics at Notre Dame are very tough, especially in the engineering and science fields. Class sizes range from large lecture halls where class partisipation is difficult to small seminar style classes of 12 people. Each freshman is required to take a writing seminar and a university seminar which give 1st year students the ability to have small classes in the introductory level. I think the Notre Dame education will be very helpful once I graduate and search for jobs because employers respect the academic rigor or Notre Dame.

As an Arts and Letters major, I have pretty good interaction with my professors and am able to take advantage of many of the learning beyond the classroom opportunities my two fields of History and Film offer.

i have both large lectures and smaller classes. the majority of my professors know me by name. my favorite class was a lit seminar by father malloy, president emeratus of nd. it was an awesome class, and he was a fantastic professor. my least favorite class is calc, becuase i dont like math and my professor is dry and not the best. students study alot. sundays and during the week, especially before tests. students are not too competetive academically. we like seeing each other suceed as well. the most unique class was my community based first year comp, based in service learning. i dont spend alot of time with professors outside of class, except office hours during studying before tests and exams. nd's academic requirements are good, well rounded. except i dont think science majors should have a foreign language requirement

a lot of the profs do know my name. they're all really intelligent and friendly. students aren't very competitive. they want to help each other.

The academic experience at Notre Dame depends heavily on your choice of major. Generally, legitimate science majors (i.e. not Pre-professional majors), architectural majors, and engineering majors have the toughest courses of study in terms of sheer time commitment. As a science and art double major, I get to see both ends of the spectrum - if you can finish a project on time in an art class, you are guaranteed an A, which is nice because Biology takes up the brunt of my study time. On the other hand, I've never had an art class with more than 20 students whereas all of my non-laboratory science classes have been large lectures. This doesn't deter the professors from making a very sincere effort to get to know all of the students. Particularly in large lecture classes, going to visit a professor during office hours can lead to fascinating side discussions that make the visit well worth your time. Notre Dame likes to tout the fact that they are a liberal arts college, but I often feel that the credit requirements limit you to focusing on what you need in order to get a job later. The Career Center on campus is fantastic as far as helping you to prepare for interviews and job/graduate school applications.

All classes are taught by professors--it's really fantastic! Most of them have a desire to know their students, though some are better at remembering names than others. Most of them love teaching and will join their students for lunch at the dining hall or even invite students to their houses for dinner.

Classes at Notre Dame hold students to a high level of expectations, and students spend a good portion of their time studying, although many students find that they are also able to balance other activities well with the amount of classwork. The vast majority of Notre Dame's professors care deeply about their students and the learning process, even if it is a professor of a large lecture. The business school is currently ranked #3 of undergraduate business schools in the country, and prepares its student well for future careers.

Students are competitve but that's true everywhere. The classes are great and the professors really care about how you do in and out of the class. The requirements are all pretty good except the required theology and philosophy (both seem pretty useless with theology being worse than philo).

Challenging, especially as an engineer. I work my ass off. Not too competitive, at least not in any cutththroat sort of way.

In engineering, I only knew a couple of professors. In PLS, I know them all. My favorite class is Great Books Seminar. My major, PLS, is very participatory.