Education in science at Notre Dame is a coordinated program involving the basic sciences, the chosen advanced science, and the humanistic and social studies, including theology and philosophy. In this education, the student should acquire a thorough, integrated, and broad understanding of the fundamental knowledge in his or her field, a competence in orderly analytical thinking, and the capacity to communicate ideas to others orally and in writing.

This system of education is so arranged to develop in each student the desire and habit of continuing to learn after graduation, advancing over the years to higher levels of professional and personal stature and keeping abreast of the changing knowledge and problems of his or her profession.

Emphasis is placed on fundamental principles so that the students can develop abilities to apply these principles to the solution of new problems never before encountered by society, to the discovery of new things, and to the invention of devices not learned about in books. Notre Dame stresses basic concepts useful in later learning rather than masses of particular facts and data that can better be found in books at the time of need.