Do you have any questions about ND?

atsen · 01-02-2009, 01:07 AM

Hello,
I hope all prospective students are able to come to Notre Dame! It's truly one of the best campuses I've been to and I am very happy with my decision to attend it. I'm currently a freshman at ND and was wondering if anyone had any questions they would like to ask. I can share with you my experience so far at ND as well as try and answer any other questions the best I can. If you have a personal question, feel free to PM me or email me at atsen@nd.edu.
Best wishes,
atsen

eph19 · 01-02-2009, 06:19 PM

I'd like to echo atsen's sentiments about ND and as another freshman, I would also be happy to share my experiences so far. I'm a chemistry major and a member of the marching band if anyone has specific questions about either of those areas. Congrats to everyone who has been accepted already, and good luck to everyone applying RD!

c-high 09' · 01-04-2009, 01:49 PM

to both of you, what made you choose to attend ND out of the other schools you applied to? oh, and how's the science department (i'm interested in biology) thanks for being available for questions!

ociosskmi · 01-04-2009, 04:58 PM

To Eph19, are there any casual jazz bands you can join?

eph19 · 01-04-2009, 08:00 PM

C-high, I should say first that I only applied to a couple other schools, St Olaf and a branch of the U of Minnesota, mostly because I was accepted to ND EA. However, I was also considering Northwestern and U of Chicago. There were a few reasons I preferred ND. My older brother went to ND, so I've been exposed to the Notre Dame family for awhile, and now experiencing it first hand, it really is amazing. The people here are definitely one of the university's best assets. Notre Dame's campus is also one of the nicest I've seen and there are a lot of top-notch facilities like the new science building and there's a new engineering building that should be open in a year or two I think. It's also pretty hard to beat Notre Dame if you're looking for school spirit and a big sports atmosphere.

I don't know a lot about the biology department specifically, but the science department is definitely well-regarded here. There is also an emphasis on undergraduate research here, which you can start as soon as sophomore year. I know some biochem majors so I'll ask them if they've got more bio specific information when I get back to school.

ociosskmi, there are two jazz bands that meet I believe once a week. I don't know how competitive it is for spots in these, but I'm pretty sure they expect some skill at improv. I know a few people in jazz band so I'll ask them more about it.

atsen · 01-05-2009, 01:55 PM

Hello!
First of all, I'm so glad that you're considering in ND! To answer c-high 09's questions, I actually never expected to end up coming here. I'm originally from Texas so naturally I recieved the majority of my acceptances from Texas universities: Texas Lutheran Univ, Trinity Univ, Baylor Univ, Austin College, and a few others all of which offered my tremendous scholarships. I could almost go to school for next to nothing. However, when I recieved my accpetance to ND, I had to really weigh my options. For me, it was either go to school and cost my parents very little or take the chance to go to a dream school for nearly $50,000? The academics though were the answer. ND has such immense academic achievement. Not only are the students brilliant, though, they are WELL balanced. They are people who could handle sports and still do amazing in their classes. After experiencing being here though, ND really is something. The very first thing I noticed when I got here was how courteous and encouraging everyone was, like they truly wanted you to do well here and to feel as comfortable as possible. I have heard that ND is very different in this sense from other schools. The family feeling here is everywhere. Besides that, my experience with my classes have been great. I'm a science preprofessional major (or intent, I should rather say since you don't actually declare your major until your sophomore year). So far, chemistry has been one of my most enjoyable classes. If you're having trouble in a class, prepare to be bombarded with a million different ways that ND will help. Take chemistry and math for example. There are TA office hours, multiple ways to contact the professors personally, and the learning resource center. ND does not intend to weed out any of its students. It wants to challenge of course, but still is there to provide help if needed. So all in all, it's a really encouraging environment. The academics are top-notch as well as the sports, and that's just simply no comparison to the scholarships that the other Texas schools offered me. It's the only chance I know that I'll ever get.

atsen · 01-05-2009, 02:04 PM

I forgot to tell you about the science department. Since I'm no biology major, I cannot tell you what specifically you will be taking, but the majority of my bio friends have taken calculus, chemistry, and biology this past semester together. Bio majors have tons of labs to do in comparison to SCPP majors. I only had to take calc and chem together. It's rigorous, but very thorough. You'll be challenged, but don't worry, the professors and the univ provide more than enough help to get you through it. Plus, study groups are a definite must since they are more than helpful. My roomate (who is also my best friend) is a biochem major. Biochem is one of the most difficult majors here on campus (besides chem engineering I think) and it requires lots of time, more so than the bio and preprof majors here. Lots of bio majors here are also premed. It all depends on what direction you're planning on taking. As for research, it's also possible to start doing research as a freshman. I had spoken with the Dean of the College of Science and he said that there were currently freshman working in a lab. I would wait since organic chemistry is this next semester but working in a lab as a sophomore sounds like a wiser idea. In any case, if you want to begin early, I don't believe that it should be too difficult to find a lab to work in. Also, everyone I know thinks Jordan Hall of Science is absolutely gorgeous.

colinization · 01-05-2009, 03:43 PM

How are the winters? I'm from VT, and it would be nice to get somewhat warmer weather, but that's by no means a deal breaker.

What's South Bend like and how isolated is the school from it?

How religious is it? I'm Catholic to a degree, but I'm not very intense about it; the Irish part is more important to me than the Catholic part.

atsen · 01-05-2009, 04:11 PM

Hello colinization!
I'm so glad you're interested in ND. The winters so far has been wonderful. I don't know what the weather is like in VT since I'm from Texas, but I have had no problem adjusting. I guess the weather is one of my least worries because everything on campus is about a 15 min walk. South Quad is known to have wind tunnels, but it's really not bad at all. During the first snowfall, the campus all participates in an unspoken war, known as the "Civil War". It's called this because it's North Quad vs. South Quad. It happened at 1AM this year and from what I heard (I was extremely disappointed to have missed out on it) it was loads of fun.

Honestly, I haven't seen much of South Bend. It's a really small town and the nicest (and most safest) part of it is ND. I have been living in small town for the past seven years and South Bend is just like it. There is not much to do and I usually don't leave since everything I need is on campus. If I ever need to buy anything (necessities) LaFortune carries it. Other than that, there is the bus system which is free for students to use and you can use it to go to the University Park Mall. ND is very much a bubble. I wouldn't say that it's completely isolated, but there is a certain degree of isolation that you feel from the town. If you are concerned about being isolated from South Bend, though, there are various opportunities to become involved.

It's hard not to say that ND takes Catholicism seriously. I'm Baptist, but the Catholic influence is everywhere. For the first part, you already have to take two courses of Theology. I had a wonderful teacher and although I've always loved studying the Bible, ND has me almost convinced that I want to take on Theology as a minor. In every dorm there are also chapels and most people have fun trying out the different chapels in each of the different dorms. Every dorm also has a nun (who is the rector) and a father. What this really leads up to is the family feeling of each dorm. There are also various other student worship groups. I have once attended an Iron Sharpens Iron worship where lots of people just get together and sing and pray with each other. So in summary, ND is pretty religious but not so religious to make you feel claustrophobic.

ociosskmi · 01-05-2009, 05:59 PM

So, taking into account the religiosity of a famously Catholic university, is there much discrimination against gays/lesbians on campus?

atsen · 01-06-2009, 11:28 AM

I have not seen any discrimination against gays/lesbians on campus. In fact within the first few weeks, each dorm is given somewhat of a pep talk on ND's views regarding homosexuality. Basically, multiple people give their testimony, ask that you respect their views and give the church's views. Nobody that I know has any problem with it. It's just the fact that the univ appears to be forcing the issue that bothers most people. In general though, because the dorms are single-sex, gays/lesbians must stay in a single.

ociosskmi · 01-06-2009, 01:49 PM

Hmm.....Thanks for the information, Atsen. Much appreciated.

Anticipation16 · 01-06-2009, 08:59 PM

What are Politics like at ND?

jmmmom · 01-06-2009, 09:05 PM

How hard was it to make the marching band?

atsen · 01-06-2009, 09:48 PM

Hello Anticipation1!
First off, I'm not really the best judge of what politics are like here since I have chosen to not become so actively involved. I tend to limit myself to being involved with medicine and health-related groups and activities. Of course, there are multiple opportunities and events that the political board here on campus hosts. From my experience, though, during the vp and pres debates the political club sets up areas like the coleman-morse center where people can just walk in and watch the debate and then afterwards the debate team closes with their own review. There's also a "Politics and Popcorn" session that's held...I don't know the details but it's held pretty regularly. There was also a student poll during the election. Besides that, I don't really have that much to say. Are there any specific questions you have? Are you asking about polisci majors?