I know we are not supposed to explain or object. But what exactly would you expect to be going on at ND, which (outside of the old country) has one of the world’s highest percentages of Irish Catholics in one place? Look at the names on the buildings – Ryan, Walsh, Cavanaugh, O’Neil, Morrissey, Fitzpatrick, O’Shaunessy, etc. etc. etc…
Some (not all) stereotypes have some factual basis. It makes sense that Smith would have a lot of same-sex sex going on, and it makes sense (at least to us ICs) that ND would have a lot of drinking.
Now the Catholic school my wife and kid HATED was Georgetown. Ugly dirty campus, scattered (on a Saturday morning) with bums and empty beer cans. Overhung preppy bro tour guide. I’m told that ALL the girls (literally every single one of them!) were snobby mean girls that all carried the same designer purse and wore the same designer trenchcoat. Kid (who loved ND) wouldn’t go there if they paid her.
Big difference between Rudy and St. Elmos Fire I guess.
By the way, many of our worst college tours happened to occur on Saturday morning. In hindsight, of course that’s a terrible time to visit a college campus.
Being from the Chicago area, it seemed like a requirement to visit ND.
So, we went, did the tour, and D was impressed.
I was decidedly “meh”. I’m definitely more in the Jesuit camp, so there’s that. Then, there are the ND alums I’ve crossed paths with in my life (granted, a small sampling size) that are…insufferable.
One of my colleagues summed it up with the following:
“How do you know someone graduated from Notre Dame?..They tell you in the first 5 minutes of ANY conversation.”
Another one of my collegues, a transplant to the Chicago area from the East Coast was all “WHAT is the deal with Notre Dame around here?”
I may have to go into the witness protection program now for saying anything negative about the school.
I’ll have to be extra careful crossing the street to go to Starbucks in the morning for fear a Land Rover with a ND sticker will run me over.
Northwesty, I hope you meant your tourguide was “hungover.”.The Rocky Mountain contingent will take us deeper into the gutter (or shower) if you don’t revise your dangling modifier.
Colomom, I think it’s clear the ND administration thinks pre-marital snuggling is immoral, that’s why they discourage it.
Hey, I was never an ND guy, & their alumni seem to be really full of themselves. So there are plenty of things to fault them for other than being less liberated than the Jesuits.
@northwesty Your comment about Saturday morning tours reminded me of a Saturday morning tour at Vassar. It was early on a gorgeous fall morning and when our group arrived in the graciously appointed main floor living room of a big dorm, one parent in our group sincerely asked, “Where are all the students?” My daughter, husband and I all looked at one another and simultaneously said, “Sleeping!” The parent who had asked the question was truly shocked to find out a college students don’t get up to study on Saturday mornings!
The Ohio State mascot is Brutus Buckeye! That said, I lived in Morrill Tower about 40 years ago and LOVED my experience at OSU. It’s a BIG school with BIG everything so you seek out your niche. So many BIG academic programs and student organizations - lots of opportunities for leadership and involvement.
@Twingles you seem to have made a wrong turn, we are all about the negative of any school with no judgement or defending allowed. No room for pleasantries on this thread. >:)
We are staying in the B&W Pleasantville, no happy color allowed here.
My 88 year old father hates Rutgers because a cab driver told him that that are out! in! bars! late on weeknights, as compared to Princeton, where they are all tucked in studying. He repeats this story many times, always adamant.
Cadre, Twingles was gleeful about everything being big and finding a niche…I’d say his/her comments fit right in with a discussion of showers, Georgetown tourguides, and Amherst’s endowment.
Thank goodness the big cigar has distracted us from bashing poor North Dakota. I never thought there were enough people up there to start a college – much less a Jesuit one. Live and learn on CC.
Back in the spirit of the thread. We toured Pitzer in September. It was blazing hot at the time. We drove out from Pasadena and almost missed the college. There was no “boom, here’s the college” but rather a bunch of low-rise buildings. I think there were three other kids doing the tour. Our guide was fine but sort of a stoner. He spent quite a bit of time talking about the old house that the students had moved to the campus. When we went inside the students there looked like they had been caught in the middle of doing something! Overall, the place just seemed slow and dull. D18 was in a strong SJW phase at the time and even she was very negative about it. I had read so much about LACs here that I was looking forward to seeing one. My takeaway: there’s no way I’m going to pay 60+K/year for my D18 to do what amounts to riding around in a beat up old VW van with a bunch of stoners.
The worst result of this event: D18 refuses to tour some of the beautiful LACs in the Northeast. The LAC ship has sailed. Swarthmore, Smith, Williams, etc can send her all the email and physical mail they want. Not gonna happen…
Edit: forgot to add that one family (mother and daughter) on the tour with us kept talking about how nice one of the other Claremont colleges was. I kept thinking, “how much better can it get just 100 yards to the west of where we are???”.
:-c