The Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame has always finished within the top 10 of Poets&Quants’ ranking of the Best Undergraduate Business Programs in the U.S. For 2025, it ranked No. 7, the same rank as 2024.
Of the three methodological categories, they placed best in Admissions, landing at No. 9 out of 104 ranked programs. It also finished 11th in Career Outcomes and 15th in Academic Experience, based entirely on our alumni survey.
For the fall 2024 incoming class, Mendoza had an 11% acceptance rate, making it the 12th most selective program on our ranking. It has a 95% graduation rate after six years, and average SAT of 1469.
Some 94% of the Class of 2024 secured a business-specific internship before graduation, up slightly from 93% for the previous class. Meanwhile, 97.3% of 2024 grads secured a job within three months, down a smidge from the 97.98% for 2023 grads. As far as earnings go, the Class of 2024 reported an average first-year salary of $91,440 with an average signing bonus of $9,981 (with 38% of recent grads reporting that they received a bonus.)
The top employers for the Class of 2024 include PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), KPMG, Deloitte, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase:, Ernst & Young (EY), Evercore, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.
‘GROW THE GOOD IN BUSINESS’
As a business school within a Catholic university, Mendoza College of Business shapes its undergraduate curriculum around the guiding principle of “Grow the Good in Business.” This vision challenges students to contribute to human flourishing, cooperate in solidarity, and compete in the spirit of excellence. Mendoza’s approach reflects a deep commitment to community, human development, and integrity – values that have defined the College since its founding in 1921 and the University since 1842.
Its business program is at once student-oriented, integrated, and innovative. Recent updates to its curriculum provide greater flexibility and expanded options, allowing students to tailor their academic journeys. With increased opportunities to pursue secondary disciplines, students can explore their interests more deeply while building a strong foundation in fundamental business principles. The newly approved double major option exemplifies this flexibility, enabling students to specialize in multiple areas of study without compromising their core business education.
Mendoza’s integrated curriculum stands out for its emphasis on both analytical excellence and ethical decision-making, with a strong foundation in Catholic social teaching. Ethics is woven throughout business disciplines, ensuring students develop not just technical expertise but also a principled approach to leadership.
CONTINUOUS INNOVATION
In 2022, Mendoza introduced the most significant changes to its core curriculum in over 15 years, allowing students to better tailor their coursework to their academic and career goals. The revised core offers expanded options for secondary specializations within both business and other disciplines while enabling students to begin major-level coursework earlier for deeper engagement in their chosen field.
The recently approved double major option allows students to pursue two business disciplines without extending their time to graduation. Examples include its STEM-designated Business and Computer Science (CSBA) double major, a collaboration with the College of Engineering, equipping students with a rigorous foundation in both fields. Additionally, Mendoza has introduced several new minors, including the Foundations of Business minor and the Finance minor.
The College continues to expand its experiential learning offerings through innovative programs such as the Impact Consulting minor, which launched in Fall 2023. This interdisciplinary program immerses students in real-world consulting projects where they collaborate with organizations to develop and implement impactful solutions. Participants engage with stakeholders through design thinking principles, prototyping, and field-based immersions, with full financial support for required travel. The Powerful Means Initiative (PMI) serves as the umbrella for Mendoza’s hands-on learning programs, including the Impact Consulting minor, the Innovation for Impact Club, and an emerging Impact Investment Fund and Incubator. These programs give students direct experience in applying business principles to tackle global challenges.
FORESIGHT IN BUSINESS AND SOCIETY
Mendoza’s signature undergraduate course is called “Foresight in Business and Society,” a required course for all junior-level students at Mendoza. The capstone course is designed to give students a view into the real-world and features guest lecturers, use of alternative class space and activities, a mentorship program, class discussions, and teaching by a diverse team of instructors. Throughout the semester, students take part in the Foresight Project where they test research and analytical skills and techniques by working in student teams to address complex problems.
The Mendoza undergraduate program offers a holistic education with a rich variety of classes in liberal arts, science, theology and other programs, and a foundation in ethical ideals. Mendoza students can choose from six majors including: accountancy, business analytics, business technology, finance, management consulting, and marketing.
ALUMNI SAY
“Business Foresight was a required course that challenged students to build a group project and presentation throughout the course of the semester. It taught us to identify others’ skill sets and to develop a high quality work product in a team environment. Additionally, it challenged us to research extensively and to approach an issue from multiple angles and perspectives, while ultimately presenting the results in an engaging manner.”
“My last semester, I took the capstone course for the entrepreneurship minor, and we worked the whole semester on coming up with a viable business to start up. While my group didn’t continue fully after graduation with our project due to our respective full-time jobs, what I learned throughout the project, especially with respect to maintaining creativity and flexibility with ideation and proper validation of ideas, has helped me in the workplace and in my personal life continuing to come up with new ideas of potential businesses to start. Of course, the connections I made with my classmates, professor, and full-time entrepreneurs helped me develop invaluable friendships and the confidence that there are always new ideas and avenues for me to explore, especially when it comes to helping others. Go Irish!”
“My Machine Learning and sports analytics courses were with the same professor and entirely project based. I use projects from those classes as talking points in interviews (even now 2 years post-grad) and I’ve gotten feedback from hiring managers that they were a key reason I was hired.”
“First semester senior year, one of my entrepreneurship classes had us working on ideas to help St. Bakhita’s Vocational Training Center in Uganda, which involved taking part in several conversations with staff and students from the school, as well as subject experts to help guide our ideation and decision making processes. Most importantly, we were exposed to another culture and got to experience the gift of being able to do something in service of others. It was amazing being a part of a group of students working to help others halfway around the world.”
“Notre Dame’s alumni association (specifically as it pertains to their business school alumni) is widely known as one of the best in the world. The level of care Notre dame alumni take care of current Notre dame students and Notre dame alumni is to a level that is unmatched. As an example, Notre Dame’s Wall Street club is one of the most respected groups both on campus and among the alumni.”
“I can’t say enough about how much I value my time at the Mendoza College of Business – the connections I made through friends, professional experiences, and the seemingly endless opportunities outside of my major made my degree 100% worth it. I’d highly recommend every prospective college student to look into the University of Notre Dame as an option, and if they’re going the route of a business degree, there’s no better school to me than the Mendoza College of Business. Go Irish!”
“Cannot emphasize enough the Notre Dame Network and people’s willingness to take intro calls, connect students to employers, and assist in career guidance and networking. Outstanding!”
