John

I am always amazed at the things the students around me have done with their lives. Everyone was the top of their high school class, did varsity sports, was in numerous clubs, etc, but everyone still has different amazing things that blow my mind, from growing up or going to high school in different countries, to living with your coach hours from home so that you can be tailored into an Olympian. It can be a little humbling when you realize there are varsity athletes who have higher GPAs in harder majors, and on top of that, they're pretty attractive. So they're jerks, right? Wrong, also the nicest people you will meet. You'll find kids chugging alcohol who will become Senators or solve the world's problems. Almost everyone takes working out seriously, as well as partying, and religion, and helping others, and obviously, school. Our lives are pretty darn put together, however, it can be pretty stressful keeping everything perfect.

On the other side, we're not very diverse. If you're used to hanging out with groups based on religion or nationality, people still do that here, but know these groups will be limited. Most people are Catholic. People do not judge though. I've never seen any prejudice here, which is part of our other lack of diversity of lifestyle. Drugs are not big on our campus, not because of the rules, but because we're not the kids who do drugs. Most of our campus would say something like, "I don't want a tattoo, but if I were to get one, it would be of Notre Dame" because we are also in love with our school. Most kids want to move to a big city right out of college. I feel like there's no term to describe us, but most people fit into a very similar lifestyle.

The one thing that separates Notre Dame from other schools is that we all are obsessed with our school, as are all of our alumni which makes getting a job pretty easy. My dad went here and brainwashed me into thinking ND was the best school ever. I struggled to do well enough in high school to get in, which was rough at times. Part of me thought it would be impossible for the school to live up to my expectations, but it far exceeded them. I can't think of anything that I love more than this school.

Personally, I want to change the world for the better, and I feel that almost everyone has that mentality, which is my favorite part of Notre Dame. Our mission statement spells it out, but living it is different. If you pay any money on campus besides tuition, it's going to charity. Every event is for charity. One example - my dorm has a mud volleyball tournament that raises over $10,000 for Habitat for Humanity. I'm pretty sure that happened in the same week that I ran a half marathon for charity and then shaved my head to raise money for cancer research.

Our size is perfect. You don't know everyone, so you're never bored, but you know enough people that this is definitely home. Our dorm system is great at making a smaller family in a larger university. I feel that if we had more students, or if we were located in a larger city, our students wouldn't be so united or close-knit. You only do college once, you can live in a city later. We make fun of South Bend, but it has everything we need. All of the essential stores, an airport, right off of the toll road, bars, and places to volunteer. We spend a lot of time on campus though, probably because I could be here for 10 years not taking classes just trying to experience everything Notre Dame has to offer.

The worst part of Notre Dame is how I cry about once a month about how I'll eventually have to leave. And I'm still an underclassman. And a guy. I think that sums it up pretty well.

My econ professor complained about how only Neoclassical economists won the Nobel Prize. He spent fall break promoting his book in England.

I love most of my professors, but some suck. I went to dinner at a professor's house, and I would love to hang out with them more if everyone wasn't so busy. Students try to do well, but would probably do anything to help another student out, which I hear is not true of other schools at our academic caliber.

The first year of studies makes you take classes in a wide range of subjects, which some people don't like, but I really enjoyed. One of my sciences was astronomy. My history was on revolutions. My art was a film class, where we watched movies straight from the Oscar Best Movie nominees, like Slumdog Millionaire, Avatar, the Hurt Locker, and other obscure movies that blew my mind. You're probably afraid of our theology and philosophy requirements, but only the first one is standard (and ND theology is way better than theology in high school if you went to a Catholic school) and there are tons of interesting options for the second. There's definitely room to take random classes that interest you besides your major, and adding a second major or minor is probably more common than not.

Classes are hard, but worth it. If you have a chance of getting into Notre Dame, you've worked hard before. If you're not trying your hardest, what are you doing with your life? We also have plenty of time to have fun, so don't think this is torture. Everyone loves life here, except for finals week. Haha.

I described this under stereotypes. Everyone is accepted. The students who feel out of place are those who are very attached to racial or national heritages. If you're used to hanging out with only black people, Latinos, or Koreans or other groups, you can do that although numbers are pretty limited. Most racial minorities will hang out with everyone with no problem.

We're not prejudiced, although you can find evidence of homophobia from some things, but I have never seen any of it, and I would be someone who would experience that. There are some super hardcore Catholics who think being gay is a sin, but they're definitely the minority and would be too polite to say anything.

Most students are upper middle class to upper class. Clothing is what you would expect. The best example is how everyone has a Northface jacket. People still wear sweatpants to class, but that's usually just guys.

Students are from all over the country. I have friends from other countries, but percentage wise, there's not too many. I'm from Maryland, my freshman year roommate was from California. Currently, I'm in a six-man, and my roommates are from New Mexico, Texas, Florida, Indiana, and Iowa. I know people from literally every state, including the randoms like Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii.

Students are politcally aware and active, but there's no ill will. It's probably 50/50 between the parties. Everyone's pretty chill about everything. Except abortion. We have people who are pro-choice, but bring it up at your own risk...

Since we go to ND, we can make a ton of money if we want to, and alumni do, as many of our buildings were donated by them (we're also ridiculously high on alumni donations, like # 1 or 2, because we all are so obsessed with ND). It's not a topic that anyone brings up though. I want to save the world and work for a non-profit, and I'm perfectly fine with not making a lot of money, and I know quite a few kids who feel the same way.