<p>Notre Dame is a great school, but unlike the schools it ranks with, it doesn’t have a standout department (or stand out departments) like its peer institutions do, which is why it has an “average” PA rating.</p>
<p>Business is awesome, pre-med is awesome, and I think it can be argued that our theology and philosophy are world-class. However, people discredit philo and theo as religious, business is not an “academic” major, and pre-med is a conglomerate of other majors. I think that we have the strong departments, they just may not be the departments people look for. Also, a lot of schools will strengthen certain departments at the expense of others. My old school, Creighton University, was horribly guilty of this. However, ND I truly believe is strong across the board, which is valuable but often overlooked for the reason you mentioned.</p>