Students are engaged in active learning at Notre Dame! The National Survey of Student Engagement is a nationally recognized survey, and it indicates that 73% of Notre Dame seniors have completed a practicum or internship while studying at the College, in comparison with 48% of their peers enrolled in other four-year colleges and universities. Approximately 71% of Notre Dame seniors have participated in community-based projects, in comparison with 49% of their peers enrolled in other four-year colleges and universities. Additionally, 72% of Notre Dame first-year students participated in co-curricular activities (e.g. organizations, campus publications, student government, intercollegiate or intramural sports, etc.) in comparison with 55% of first-year students enrolled in other four-year colleges.

Notre Dame students praise the quality relationship with faculty. In rating if faculty are available, helpful, and sympathetic, Notre Dame students’ rating doubled the national average for the Carnegie Classification-Master’s colleges and universities. Sixty-five percent of first-year students reported to have worked with faculty members on activities other than coursework (committees, orientation, student life activities, etc.), compared to the national average for first-year students 43%. Also, 81% of first-year students reported to have discussed career plans or ideas from readings or classes with faculty members outside the classroom, compared to the national average of 60% for Master’s colleges and universities.

Senior students enrolled in the Morrissy program, an honors program at Notre Dame, ranked in the top 5 percentile among this year’s 769 survey participating institutions on the survey items measuring the level of academic challenges, student faculty interaction, and enriching educational experiences.

The National Survey of Student Engagement provides the most comprehensive measures of effective practices in undergraduate education, which includes data from 2,030,000 students at approximately 1,300 different colleges and universities. College of Notre Dame students gave high marks to their experiences on each of five benchmarks of excellence:

• Level of academic challenge
• Active and collaborative learning
• Student-faculty interaction
• Enriching educational experiences
• Supportive campus environment

Compared to the national averages and the scores of peer institutions, Notre Dame had its highest scores in the following categories:

• Wrote papers or reports of 20 pages or more
• Participated in a community-based project as part of a regular course
• Made a class presentation
• Discussed ideas from your readings or classes with faculty members outside of class (first-year students)
• Participated in the study abroad programs (first-year students)
• Participated in activities to enhance your spirituality (worship, meditation, prayer, etc.)

A total of 229 Notre Dame first-year students and seniors participated in the 2008 NSSE survey. Since 1990, the College has been using this survey as one of the important measures assessing its educational practices and benchmarking its performances with higher education counterparts.

For results of our 2005 NSSE survey, please see the Institutional Research Survey Projects page.