University of Notre Dame

In brief

The University of Notre Dame, in Notre Dame, Indiana, was founded in 1842 by Edward Sorin, a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, which still runs it. It received its college charter from the Indiana General Assembly in 1844 and awarded its first degree in 1849. By our measure of academic influence, it ranks #36 in the United States and #107 in the world. It admitted 11.3% of applicants for fall 2024; admitted students had a median SAT score of 1507 and a median ACT score of 34.

Under President Theodore Hesburgh, Notre Dame grew from a small Catholic college into a national research university. Its institutes include the Keough School of Global Affairs and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

Where Notre Dame’s influence is strongest

Notre Dame’s influence is led by religious studies, philosophy, and law, in keeping with its Catholic tradition. Its strongest broad fields, by US rank in our data, are:

• Religious studies: #6 in the US (#29 in the world)
• Philosophy: #15
• Law: #19
• History: #22
• Business: #25

Within those fields, Notre Dame is a national leader in several specialties:

• #1 in the US: virtue ethics and medieval studies
• #2 in the US: network science (only Harvard ranks higher), Aristotelianism (only the University of Chicago ranks higher), and scholasticism (only Harvard ranks higher)
• #3 in the US: philosophy of religion and medieval philosophy (in each, behind Yale and Harvard)

By comparison, Notre Dame sits further back in biology (#75), psychology (#78), and computer science (#83).

How we measure influence: these ranks come from the citations and recognition earned by a school’s faculty and alumni in each discipline, not from surveys or admissions statistics. See our methodology.

Notable people

Notre Dame’s faculty has included the philosophers Alasdair MacIntyre and Alvin Plantinga and the liberation theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez. Its alumni include the Nobel laureate biologist Eric Wieschaus, the sociologist Saskia Sassen, the novelist Nicholas Sparks, the television hosts Phil Donahue and Regis Philbin, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Our full lists of Notre Dame’s most influential alumni and faculty appear below.

Frequently asked questions

Is Notre Dame hard to get into? Yes. It admitted 11.3% of applicants for fall 2024; the middle half of admitted students scored 720–770 on the SAT reading section and 735–790 on math.

What does Notre Dame cost after financial aid? Tuition is $67,607 for 2025–26. The average net price for aided students with family incomes of $48,000–$75,000 was $13,838 in 2024–25; it ranged from about $7,088 for incomes of $30,000–$48,000 to $45,146 for incomes above $110,000.

How do Notre Dame graduates do? 95.4% of students who started in 2019 graduated within six years, and 99% of first-year students return for a second year. Ten years after starting college, former students had median earnings of $113,124.

What is Notre Dame best known for academically? By our influence data: religious studies, philosophy, and law, plus virtue ethics and medieval studies, where it ranks first in the country.