University of Dallas students studying

Academic Rigor

Here's What Makes UD Different

Academic rigor is the foundation of all our programs.

UD has one of the nation’s highest percentages of National Merit Scholars as compared to other Catholic colleges and universities.

All undergraduates participate in our nationally recognized Core curriculum.

The Core curriculum is a two-year, 60-credit sequence of classes focused on the Great Books of Western literature and culture. Our student:faculty ratio of 10:1 means that Core classes are kept small, allowing students to participate in thoughtful, meaningful dialogue with their peers and their professors. Because all undergraduates take these Core courses, discussions usually continue outside the classroom and serve to create a tightly knit community of scholars sharing a common intellectual experience.

Students experience a semester abroad in Rome as part of their Core curriculum.

The Core curriculum typically culminates with a semester abroad on our 14-acre Eugene Constantin Campus (informally known as Due Santi) located just outside Rome, Italy. During their Rome semester, students are able to experience firsthand the roots of Western culture, immersed in the architecture, culture and history of the place where so much of Western tradition began. In Rome, students learn to meld intellectual inquiry with an independent spirit of exploration in a way that is truly the heart of the University of Dallas experience.

A supportive community of scholars is dedicated to intellectual inquiry and the independent exploration of ideas.

The university has a world-class faculty who are truly thought leaders in their fields that value the pursuit of wisdom, the quest for truth and the importance of virtue equally in both their professional and their personal lives. 

DBA classroom

Graduate students find their program rigorous, thought provoking and spiritually grounded.

Our graduate students come from a wide variety of diverse backgrounds to study an equally wide array of subjects: literature, ministry, cybersecurity, business or art.