<p>As I just posted in the Notre a Dame thread on this topic, my son just today chose Notre Dame over Dartmouth. It was a very close call and you can’t go wrong with either place.</p>
<p>I do want to correct one error, though. Yes, football at Notre Dame is a big deal and it really pulls the community together. All the students go to the home games, they stand the entire game, and they scream their heads off. It is a blast. But they are screaming for their friends and fellow students, not semi-pro athletes. There are no athletic dorms or majors at Notre Dame. And virtually all the football players graduate with real degrees in real majors. In fact, a couple years ago when the football team was #1 at the top of the BCS poll, it was also #1 in football player graduation rate, besting Stanford and Northwestern in that regard, the first time that that had ever happened at any school. So you might not like big time sports or how commercial college football has become at most schools (and that’s a legit position), but it actually IS different at Notre Dame. Which is one more thing we and my son liked about it.</p>