About Notre Dame
Students
- Notre Dame's graduation rate of 95 percent is exceeded by only Harvard and Princeton.
- Notre Dame's 95 percent retention rate between the freshman and sophomore years is among the highest in the country, thanks in large part to the University's unique First Year of Studies Program.
- Notre Dame graduates are accepted into medical schools at a rate of about 80 percent, almost twice the national average.
- Notre Dame has one of the highest undergraduate residential concentrations of any national university, with 80 percent of its students living in 29 residence halls. Thirty-eight Holy Cross religious and 14 men and women of other religious communities continue to live and provide a pastoral presence in the halls.
- Scholastic, the University's student magazine, is the oldest college publication in the country.
- Fighting Irish athletics programs have produced the second most Academic All-Americans among Division I-A colleges and universities.
- The Notre Dame marching band was founded in 1843 and is the oldest college marching band still in existence.
- Students at Notre Dame have created the first collegiate chapter of the Children's Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization that advocates for disadvantaged children.
- Graduate and undergraduate students at the University come from all 50 states and more than 100 countries worldwide.
