University of Notre Dame Visit Report by indiejimmy

Visit Activities:

Classroom Visit: Yes - It was some number theory class for people that do not want to take calculus but need to fulfill the math requirement (my friend is more social science/humanities oriented lol)...it was pretty boring

---

Campus:

---

Everyone was excited to meet me and seemed to genuinely care about my college choice.

---

Admissions office staff provided me medical school admissions data quickly and were very friendly about it. It was like pulling teeth trying to get this information at *ahem* some other schools.

---

I'm going to echo what everyone else has said and reaffirm the fact that this campus is one of the most beautiful in the world.

---

This campus is impossibly well taken care of, despite its huge size.

---

I stayed in Alumni, and some of the rooms were quite small. This is an old dorm, of course, and some of the newer ones have luxuries like A/C and larger rooms. However, there is a lot of dorm spirit.

---

Staying on campus, I cannot see how one would ever be unsafe, given the school's location, surroundings, and size.

---

I didn't want to like Notre Dame. I wanted to dismiss it as inferior to my other choices. The fact that I ended up ultimately choosing it, going in with an attitude like this, should reveal somet

---

Off-Campus:

---

It's pretty rural/suburban right around campus; it would be a lot of fun to go on a bike ride around the Notre Dame area, seeing the lakes and some houses and the quaintness of the overall settin

---

From what I've heard, there are much better schools to attend if one's priority is being near a thriving city or booming college town.

Campus Visit Notes for University of Notre Dame

Visit Description:

As mentioned in the overall campus impression, I went into this visit considering Notre Dame my #3 choice, with Northwestern (#1) and Georgetown (#2) both ahead of it. But when I came on campus and saw the dome as I illegally drove my rented Mitsubishi Eclipse down Notre Dame Avenue, I could not help but be in awe.

It's easy for students who have loved Notre Dame all their lives to write brilliant reviews about the school and declare that it is so amazing in all aspects. While I recognize that Notre Dame does have its shortcomings (e.g. surrounding area, lack of diversity), I believe that the benefits one gains from attending this fine school outweigh any other relatively minor considerations.

Experiencing the overwhelming sense of community and quaint, natural setting of the campus appealed to me a lot, since I feel like if I went to school in a busy city, I would be frequently distracted by the attractions a city naturally brings. With regard to my college choice, I wanted to find a school in which I felt I could do my best possible work, make great friends, and be happy. Notre Dame clearly won out compared to my other schools in its potential for fulfilling these wishes of mine.

It may be because I'm a white Catholic, but I felt more comfortable at Notre Dame than at any other school, and I got the impression that the undergraduate experience it offered made that of Northwestern and Georgetown pale. What can compare to the exhilaration of attending a Notre Dame football game or seeing clear visible signs of changes in the seasons? The changing of the leaves to red and yellow in the fall, and the idyllic snow-covered trees and frozen lakes in the winter are incomparably beautiful sights, and I am eternally thankful that I will have the privilege of experiencing them each year for the next four years of my life.

Notre Dame is a lot like a liberal arts college in the attention given to undergraduates by faculty, even though its endowment is among the top 15 in the nation of all universities. This combination of a semi-rural liberal arts college atmosphere with the financial benefits of a research university seem to together form all the necessary components of a perfect undergraduate institution. I am so glad that I am attending Notre Dame.

Hotel/Lodging Recommendations or Comments:

The Morris Inn is spectacular.

Dining/Restaurant Recommendations or Comments:

South and North Dining Halls are both great.

Other Comments (Transportation, local attractions, parking, etc.):

I would fly into Midway via Southwest Airlines (if possible) and drive to South Bend. It's only a 90-or-so minute drive, and the scenery is dazzling.