University of Notre Dame Top Questions

Describe the students at your school.

Kiely

My classmates at Notre Dame are preppy, white, Catholic, smart, easygoing, fun, hardworking, overly nice and generous, and financially stable.

Jennifer

Classmates are extremely friendly and welcoming (Midwestern charm).

Leandra

Accomplished, driven, and friendly.

John

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.

Notre

Diversity is slim. Because of the Catholic nature of the University, the LGBTQ environment is not as good as I would hope. However, I have many friends who are a part of the LGBTQ scene who love it here. Different ethnic groups tend to associate only with each other, which is unfortunate, but it is also not always the case. Everyone here is pretty much Conservative, which can be pretty frustrating for me when I try to express my own opinions. I am not Catholic, rich, athletic, or a genius and I still feel right at home here! College is what you make of it. I spent a lot of time worrying about not being Catholic and it held me back, but once I realized no one else cared, things were much better. Students are from all over the country and all over the world. They are super into volunteering. Everyone wants to volunteer, and there is no doubt in my mind that, someday, a ND student will!

Megan

hardworking but still willing to have fun. thoughtful, compassionate, friendly

Colleen

My classmates are incredibly smart, talented, intimidating, but some of the nicest people I have ever met.

Kristoff

My classmates are intelligent, caring individuals who work hard towards their goals and ambitions.

Alexandria

Classmates at the university of Notre Dame that I have encountered are friendly, like minded individuals who are interested in a variety of things and are willing to go out of their way to help each other.

Stephanie

Intelligent but cocky

Tiffany

My classmates are fun, intelligent, outspoken, considerate and confident members of our academic and social society.

Lauren

My classmates are extremely enthusiastic, friendly, proud to go to ND, intelligentm, and hard working but know how to relax and have fun on the weekends.

Audrey

My classmates are very intelligent and driven, as well as helpful and friendly.

Jill

The graduate school is not the core value of Notre Dame. Most of my classmates go to undergrad in Notre Dame too, so called "double domer"

Amanda

Students come from all over the country and different countries. It is hard to describe the entire student body as a whole.

Ellen

They are priveledged and sheltered but are very friendly and supportive.

Kyle

Many are too socially focussed and care surprisingly little about school while others are outstandingly academically driven.

Tara

My classmates are caring, intelligent, engaged and Domers.

Nicole

Classmates are responsible, goal-oriented, and open-minded.

Heidi

My classmates are very driven to do well in classes and are knowlegable.

Kara

Work hard, play hard.

Jason

Great, fun loving, hard working people who will be my best friends for life.

Jasmin

Most people are very studious and willing to work together, so there is a very supportive learning environment.

Brendan

My classmates are very intelligent, very driven, and very focused on making the world a better place through unique uses of their different skill sets.

Tristan

As discussed above, Notre Dame is fairly homogenous. It's common to joke that everyone on campus shops at the same stores, listens to the same music and has the same political views, and there is some degree of truth to this. When I was there in the late 90s-early 00s, it seemed like everyone shopped at Abercrombie and loved Dave Matthews. But you would have to put some effort into NOT finding other students who come from different parts of the country, have different backgrounds and hold different world views. And even over the 4 year period that I was there, you could see that the student body was becoming increasingly diverse on many different fronts. LGBT issues is definitely the area where the most progress remains to be made. While I never felt that the student body itself was hostile to LGBT issues, LGBT prospective students should be aware that the administration does not go out of its way to address those issues (e.g., there is no officially sanctioned LGBT student group on campus). Most students are laid back and friendly. Friendship groups are most often based around the residence halls, which function as fraternities and sororities. While people get set into those friendship groups early and stick with them throughout their years on campus, classes, athletics and activities offer plenty of opportunities to branch out and meet different people. Generally, the longer you've been there, the more different types of people you will interact with on a regular basis.

Anna

They go out of their way to be helpful and friendly.

Mary

Friendly intelligent fun (most) while some are socailly awkward or arrogant

Danny

My classmates are hard working, intelligent students but they lack diversity overall.

Lindsay

Several clips of students answering three questions, including their favorite class.

Nick

ND students do match the stereotype of kind of preppy upper-middle class suburban white guys, but it's not as bad as lots of people make it out to be. We have a reasonable amount of diversity still. Everyone is fairly intellectual, which creates a very different atmosphere than lots of state schools. Still, you won't be the least intelligent person around. It usually feels like a normal school ought to. One thing that bothers me is that the music taste of Notre Dame is pretty terrible - it's centered predominately on bad eighties music.

Kristin

Everyones really nice and open to meeting every student on campus.

Brian

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

Eileen

The ND student body is very studious, but its not hard to find people who like to have fun too. Students are from all over the country so there are many different perspectives on life.

Matt

The student body is not diverse. I will not kid anyone. But this makes the students body amazing. Students do not faction off into groups racially because of this. For example in my dorm's section there is only one hispanic kid and as a result he hangs out with all of us instead of with only hispanic kids like you might find at a "more diverse school." Students are generally smart, catholic, faithful and into sports. Something like 70{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of students were captains of a varsity team in HS. Students are from all over the country. The catholic nature of students is generally manifested in the political views. The campus is very pro-life, anti-war, pro-catholic social teaching and such. Consequently there are both democrats and republicans but students are generally Catholic first.

Lexie

ND is known for not being very diverse. A lot of rich, white kids from the midwest.

Joey

The student body here is pretty homogeneous; most people here are preppy white student-athletes. However, that is not to say you can't find different people; you might just have to look a little harder. Also, the more you get to know people here, the more you realize how interesting they are. Almost everyone has some hidden talent or interesting piece of background that you can find if you can just get past the initial "Notre Dame social awkwardness." For the most part, Notre Dame students come from middle or upper-middle class families. If you take the pyramid-shaped distribution of wealth of the real world and turned it upside down, that's the distribution of wealth at Notre Dame. The students are generally more conservative, but this is only a loose rule, as there are a good number of liberal students, too. But even more common are politically apathetic/unaware students. Notre Dame has often been described as a "bubble" in which students are sheltered or disconnected from what is going on in the rest of the world. This can be a negative, but it also allows students to focus on their studies and enjoy their college lives without unnecessary worries. As I have said, a majority of the students here are religious to some extent, and Catholicism pervades just about every aspect of campus life. For this reason, a student who has no interest in religion or spirituality would probably feel out of place here.

Amy

The student body tends to be very relaxed. Most people just wear jeans or sweats to class.

Nicole

I think it's not very diverse but probably more so than in the past. Geographically the student body seems diverse, which is pretty cool because I have friends from all over the place. I don't see a lot of cliques here which is good.

Jules

this school is a bubble made up of primarily rich white people. however, i have friends of all races and backgrounds. Catholicism is the major factor as more than 80 percent of people are catholic here. This is something that unifies the entire school as a whole, in ideaology and inclusion. people who would feel out of place would probably be gays. which is a very big shame. most students wear presentable clothes to class, no sweats. many girls wear dresses on a regular basis. the dining halls are split up more by dorm than by anything else. most people are rich. even if someone is black they are probably rich.

Steph

Most students come from well-off close white families. Kind of a stereotype, but also kind of true. Most students that don't fit this description tend to stick out a little bit and band together. A lot of students are concerned with their future financial situation but still a large amount of students are more concerned with making a difference and serving people first.

Amanda

Not much diversity, but that doesn't mean people other than rich white legacies aren't here and can't enjoy it!

Pat

Very diverse, but in a good way. I have friends from all over the country, and I don't travel that much. Pretty much everyone gets along or is friendly, I don't really see people segregated that often. One exception is that every so often I see a group of African Americans eating in a group in the dining halls, but that is not due to racism, in my opinion. Some of my best friends here are different nationalities and races.

Meg

Notre Dame is a very catholic, predominantly white university, although it is trying to incorporate more diversity. Because of its conservative catholic population, I would imagine that people of different sexual orientations or different religious beliefs would feel out of place but I think if they made an extra effort they could be incorporated. I interact with my peers in and out of the classroom, at the dinning halls, in the dorms, in the student center, and all around campus at all times of the day. I have found that most of the students here are very nice welcoming people.

Madison

Notre Dame students, for the most part, are hard workers who want to do well and make a difference. There is a strong and pervasive attitude of "work hard, play hard." Several people were obviously admitted because of athletic or family reasons, and often (but not always), they are the uninterested and unmotivated students.

Celia

nd is not diverse. in many ways. most students dont get overly dressed up to class. typical nd student would be jeans, uggs, shirt/sweater and north face. dining hall is organized by groups of friends, although minorities do tend to eat together. most students are from the midwest and northeast. not many from south/southwest. most people are very well off. students are more republican. most students have plans to live successfully.

Katie

85{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of people are catholic. very little diversity. at all. students usually wear sweats to class. or jeans and a t-shirt. most students are upper middle class

Elise

To be quite frank, until they have been at Notre Dame for a little while, the most liberal students feel out of place. Many students are involved and interested in the array of cultural groups on campus, but the administration (for religious obligations) will not give official endorsement to LGBT groups. Students aren't concerned about inter-racial/-religious/-orientation interactions but that doesn't mean that everyone sits together at the dining hall. It practically is a running joke on campus that the dining halls are still segregated because it is so common to see students sitting together grouped by heritage. Most ND students come from the immediately adjacent states (Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio) but a huge number come from the East coast, Texas, and California. International students are predominantly Asian or Latin American. Financial backgrounds are often upper middle class, but the University strives to meet the financial needs of all who fill out a FAFSA. As a general rule, if you are worried about not blending in with the crowd, save yourself some time later and buy a pair of Uggs or Birkenstocks, comfy men's sweats from the Bookstore, and a black Northface now.

Mary

Most students are Catholic; however, this is not required. It is often fair to assume that people are Catholic, but most people are understanding and actually quite curious about different religious experiences. This means new experiences people have had in other denominations/religions or even within the Catholic faith.

Kelly

Notre Dame's student body is not the most diverse, but students will find support of others that they have similarities with. Notre Dame students an often develop cliques, but are also generally friendly and welcoming. Many students are from the Midwest (especially the Chicago area), but students come from all over the country and the world. Many students come from upper-middle class backgrounds. Although many students are Catholic, they are well educated on political issues and students don't necessarily make their political decisions on their religion, although the underlying principles of Catholicism may influence their thought process.

Pat

Notre Dame is all pretty much upper middle class to ridiculiously rich white kids, asians, and a few minorities. That's kind of disappointing, but i guess the high tuition causes that. Maybe if there were more scholarships it would be different. Most are conservative and most are from the midwest.