Bad news first! Worst: the disparity between boys and girls dorms is ridiculous. Girls, get used to going to boys dorms to do anything loud or fun, even if it does not include drinking. The rules are way strict in girls dorms and any type of get-together is likely to get broken up. Also, parietals are not fun. 2 am is pretty early by college standards, and that is the time on the weekends when you are forced to go back to your own dorm and go to sleep. But honestly, all dorm parties are the same and they aren't that great. Best: Beer and wine are allowed on campus, if you are 21. The administration (especially in boys dorms) usually look the other way if you are drinking, even if you are underage AS LONG AS YOU DO SO RESPONSIBLY. If you get out of hand or get sick, you will get in trouble - but if you are hanging out and just having some fun and there happens to be alcohol involved, they are cool about it. The other great thing? If you don't drink - everyone is so cool with that! No one will ever try to make you drink. Notre Dame also sponsors TONS of awesome events on weekends including concerts, themed dance nights at our nightclub (go on Hip Hop night), poker tournaments, comedy shows, hypnotists, and tons of free food!

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.

People here think smoking a joint is the equivalet of mainlining black tar herione, and the only place to find weed is to hit up creepy townies. We all have nuns and priests living in our dorms...enough said. I feel like a lot of people come to ND thinking that it's going to be the most amazing place in the wrold because it's hyped up so much, but it has it's flaws just like all other colleges. Even though there's a lot of things I odn't really like about it here, I still love my friends and I love ND as a whole. I know when I graduate it will pay off in the job market and that i'll remember my time here fondly.

Many of the professors are extreemly rude and are not knowledable about today's education. It's very mainstream university being Catholic. Notre Dame excells in the Liberal Arts so if your not strong in general studies it's not a university for you. For example, reading, math, english, history. There are not many majors. Lastly, religion is sometimes forced on you. meaning if your not catholic sometimes you will get penalized for your papers if there not cathlic writen with their standards. The school conducts themselves with moral values. moral values is a vertue at Notre dame.

Unlike most colleges, nobody here ever goes home on the weekends. Since there are 8,000 undergrads and the administration doesn't want most of us drinking, there are always tons of events and things to do. If you want to know what campus is really like, though, you have to come up here for a visit (preferably not from October to March unless you really love snow).

I completed this survey on the behalf of Cavanaugh Hall

i love nd. it has helped me grow in ways i never thought imaginable. our research is amazing as well!

I'm taking this survey on behalf of BADIN HALL, Relay 4 Life

I had a terrific Intro to Finance class during the spring semester of my sophomore year - my teacher was Carl Ackermann, and he had memorized facts about everyone of his 400 students (whom, after a week of class, he had memorized each and every one of our names). His class was interesting, and you could tell he was putting in 200 percent everyday that he taught. Fantastic memory.

All my professors know me personally. Kids study anywhere from an av erage of 1 hour (business majors) a day to 14 hours a day (for the hard sciences, engineers and architects). Class participation is very common and students very often discuss intellectual topics at meals or in the dorms. Pre-med students are competitive, the rest of the students like to see classmates succeed and professors help foster this attitude. My most unique class was either Latin dance, fencing, or a class on J.R.R. Tolkein. Often professors invite students over for meals (especially thanksgiving and easter if the students have no where to go)

It's a medium sized school where you see people you know walking to class, but there are lots of people you don't know. The Catholic element is very present, and it's a great place to develop your spiritual life. It's fairly conservative socially both in the structure and the students. The student body is, on average, more athletic and interested in sports. It's very demanding academically, but you can grow so much if you want to.

I love the sense of community at this school. Everyone is so genuine, friendly and polite. Also, the large role that faith plays is very appealing. Complaints usually include dislike of parietals and strictness of rules.

The student body, just like at any university, is full of people different from yourself. There is a culture of unity at Notre Dame, but at the same time there are factions. Cultural clubs are opportunities for people to understand and learn about one another, from time to time, however, they become dividing lines that may seem difficult to cross. At the same time, if you want to, it is easy to mix into groups different from yours if simply through clubs, student council, or mutual friends. As far as class differences go, you will encounter people who have more money than they know what to do with and others who are barely scraping by. Though everyone seems to have more or less the same economic appearance, you will be surprised when you find out the truth about the range of incomes on the campus. Going to class you'll get sick of northface jacket after northface jacket, but will be happy that people dress pretty casually. Business students have an unofficial (but at times very strongly recommended by certain professors) dresscode. One thing about ND is that the male student life and female student life is quite different. The campus currently houses 27 (soon to be 28) single-sexed dorms. With something 80% of the student population choosing to live on campus, these dorms become a type of sorority or fraternity. Though the same rules are written for both men and women, you have different people upholding them in each dorm, and male dorms are overwhelmingly, and obviously more lax than female dorms. The school just became co-ed in the 70s so there are still hints of that "boys club" atmosphere.

-Great size -amazing community -driven and motivated students who are competitive but still supportive -Work hard/play hard -Spiritually active -Service oriented -Great school spirit -the best friends I have ever had

challenging but extremely high quality and rewarding

The student body is not very diverse at all. Most are financially well off white kids.

No

Notre Dame is a very unusual place in terms of college. The whole dorm community atmosphere is, as far as I know, unique to ND. The single sex dorms can be nice, as they function as welcoming sororities or fraturnities of sorts. The major drawback with the system, however, is that meeting people of the opposite sex on a friendly level is somewhat more difficult. Notre Dame doesn't really have a college town. If you want to go anywhere off campus you have to call a cab or borrow a friends car. I think there are plans in the works to build a little shopping district within walking distance which would be really nice. My biggest frustration with Notre Dame is its conservative policies. Due to the Catholic nature of the college the policies tend to be very conservative and old fashioned.