The University of Notre Dame was founded by Edward Sorin in November of 1842. It was originally an all male Roman Catholic Research University. The University handed out its first degrees in 1849. The original main building was used for classrooms, and housing for both the students and faculty. The library was also located in the main building. Unfortunately, in 1879, a tragic fire destroyed the main building and everything in it.

In 1880, a science program was born, but a science hall was not built for three years. The university also had the main building rebuilt, and a music hall built around the same time that the science hall was built. The university just continued to grow in the numbers of students, which made the university grow in the number of facilities built. When 1921 came around, the university had grown in size to five colleges, with the advent of a sports programs and a law school. In 1972, Notre Dame started accepting women, this decision was made by the then-president of the university Theodore Hesburgh.

The current leader of Notre Dame wants to make them a leader in research, and also to make faith and learning into one. Interestingly, over 50% of the alumni give donations back to the university, and in turn they are honored by having classrooms and buildings named after them. Some of the university alumni are in Washington serving in Congress, one is the Secretary of State, and some are in the media, including talk show host Regis Philbin. They even had the honors of educating an astronaut, Jim Wetherbee.