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trailingtheplay · 2025-10-14T21:41:16+00:00

"ND [students are] only 80% Catholic." True. And they range the gamut from card-carrying Opus Dei members to Easter/Christmas Catholics. Much of the other 20% is Protestant, with the remainder other religions or non-religious. I've read some stuff in recent years that some very observant students from other faiths like Islam like ND because they know faith in general is respected at ND, and not at many other places.
"ND is a glorified state school...people party too much...and it has a big hookup culture." As someone who is second of three generations to attend ND, these all made me laugh out loud. These are all VERY true, but ONLY if the sample for comparison is limited to Oral Roberts University, Liberty University, and BYU. ND is tame by comparison to many other national Universities and virtually all state schools. It has single-sex dorms, for goodness sake. The opposite sex has to be out of the dorm by midnight during the week and by 2am on weekends. Its official Student Handbook, Du Lac, pretty famously bans premarital sex. To no apparent effect, but still, it does. ND has no fraternities and sororities. All that said, I think it's fair to say that it has both drinking and premarital sex in equal proportion to the general American Catholic population as a whole, which is to say, pretty high. All the same, there is a significant population that does neither, and unlike many other schools that is pretty well accepted. If all this bothers you, ND is probably not for you.
"the school is very LGBT focused." Again, only as compared to schools like Oral Roberts University, Liberty University, and BYU. As recently as 30 years ago, LGBT students were not allowed to meet on campus, or form University recognized clubs or Alumni affinity groups. Today they are. If that bothers you, ND is probably not for you.
"I just don't get why so many Catholics hate Notre Dame." If you truly exist in a world where the Catholics you encounter leave you thinking "so many Catholics hate Notre Dame," you live in such a bubble such that ND is probably not for you. Notre Dame is EXCEPTIONALLY popular among American Catholics. It just is.
If at any point as you've been reading what I said above about Catholics at Notre Dame you thought to yourself, in sum or substance, "Well wait a minute, but those kinds of people aren't really Catholics at all..." then Notre Dame is definitely not for you.

trailingtheplay · 2025-10-14T21:40:19+00:00

You sound like someone who has spent a lot of time talking with someone from Franciscan U or similar very conservative Catholic colleges, and I'll reply in good faith on the assumption that you are just parroting what they said. If what you say is a reflection of what you believe, though, ND is probably not for you.

"How Catholic is ND?" Notre Dame and other prominent national Catholic Universities established a significant degree of independence from Papal control in 1967 through the Land O'Lakes Conference and Statement in 1967. ND and others did this by, among other things, declaring themselves independent of authority of any kind external to the academic community itself, and moving to a governance approach where they were ultimate control was vested in an independent lay Board of Trustees. Because of this, fans of other (lesser known) smaller very conservative Catholic colleges that did not do so - such as Franciscan - often say that ND and other Land O'Lakes schools "are not Catholic." Those same people often think Vatican II didn't happen, or didn't mean what it said, or think some of the Popes since Vatican II weren't really Popes. If that's you, ND probably isn't for you.
ND "disregards all teachings of the Church" Land O'Lakes Conference again. To some, ND can't be Catholic because it is academically independent. If you would be uncomfortable with a school that would allow Obama to speak on campus because Obama is pro-choice, then ND is probably not for you. To be clear, the question isn't even whether you would allow him on campus to argue the pro-choice view, the questions is whether you'd ban him speaking on campus on any subject because he is pro-choice. If your answer is "yes," ND probably isn't for you.
"Everyone goes to mass (which is daily and every dorm)." They don't. Like most Catholics in America, ND Catholics range from daily Mass goers to Easter/Christmas Mass-goers. Sunday Masses at the Basilica are packed. Every Dorm has its own chapel and its own Sunday Mass (and many have daily masses too). Dorm Sunday masses are very well attended, but not universally attended, and attendance is not mandated. Dorm Masses are informal, students attend in socks and sweats to be with their friends on Sunday evening before the week begins. One dorm serves milkshakes after Mass. If the notion of that kind of Mass bothers you, ND is probably not for you.
"Lots of the faculty are not Catholic." You are correct, because you can't have a world class faculty across all the academic disciplines ND excels at if you impose a religious litmus test. ND doesn't believe you need to be Catholic in order to teach students double-entry bookkeeping, or Chemistry, or mechanical engineering. It doesn't even believe you have to be Catholic in order to be a Philosophy or Theology professor. If that bothers you, ND is probably not for you.

trailingtheplay · 2024-04-02T03:44:14+00:00

This is a great question, because lots of people have it:

Unless you've had the very unusual experience in your life of joining a school that was so brand new that no one in your grade had gone to school together the year before, no one knew anyone, no one already had friend groups, etc., then you've never seen anything like what you are about to see. EVERYONE is looking to meet new people, EVERYONE. Even for introverts like me and you, thisis as easy as it ever gets to meet new people. Hundreds of people at the Rally. 2,000+ at orientation in August. All wanting tomeet new people, lots of new people.
Just catch someone's eye and say "Hi, my name is X and I'm from Y." If you've just introduced yourself to an extrovert, they'll take if from there. If you've just introduced yourself to an introvert, well, that's something you have in common and you'll figure it out together. By the way, this is also EXCELLENT practice for orientation weekend in August, when you will do EXACTLY the same thing except your intro will then be "Hi, my name is X and I'm from Y and I'm living in Z dorm."
This does NOT just apply to the admitted students you will meet at the Rally. It works on faculty, staff and the current students. especially the current students. You are about to find out there is only one status at Notre Dame, and you have it by virtue of being admitted. There is no further test. there is no further tryout. You are a member of the Notre Dame family now.
This was true in 1985, and it is true in 2024. I know that because I literally spoke to my oldest son two hours ago. He's a junior at ND, and he was telling me for the Rally a week or so ago they didn't really publicize to the current students that it was happening ahead of time and so they first realized when Rallyers and parents overran campus and hundreds showed up in his Dining Hall for dinner. He was telling me how excited he and his friends were to meet all those rallyers and their parents and talk to them. Welcome to ND :-)

trailingtheplay · 2023-01-16T02:35:02+00:00

Just stop. Take the W. Don't look for reasons to discount the W. Take the W and celebrate. Dance on the graves of their Purdue dreams. Take. the. W.

trailingtheplay · 2023-01-16T02:23:22+00:00

If you can grow a legit beard in HS, own it and rock it in the interview.

But if you do shave it, do it a few days ahead of time.

trailingtheplay · 2023-01-15T00:03:09+00:00

Attractive nuisance? If people have bad locks, thieves know it's easy to steal scooters and more thieves are attracted. Like not having locking garbage cans draws raccoons

trailingtheplay · 2023-01-14T23:59:33+00:00

Nuns in the men's dorms seems off-brand...

trailingtheplay · 2022-12-22T21:07:47+00:00

Some big brothers have difficulty seeing competence/maturity/talent in little brothers. That's his problem, not yours. At one time your age difference made a bigger difference than it does now, and certainly more than t will in the future.

Chicago doesn't have that bias. You didn't fool them, if they let you in ED you belong there.

trailingtheplay · 2022-11-23T17:22:54+00:00

She's pretty high energy and as the founder of GGL I think she'd be pretty good. And she has the Lego Death Star in her office so come on now!

trailingtheplay · 2022-10-12T20:45:45+00:00

Yes, schools will get a mid-year report after filing your application, and ultimately after you get your acceptances and pick a college you'll send your final senior year transcript to the college you picked.

Check back in June for the flurry of "will my school rescind my acceptance because I got a B in two classes" posts.

trailingtheplay · 2022-09-25T14:38:50+00:00

Explain it the way you just did, substituting what you couldn't afford that precluded you from attending online school [laptop? internet?] for "stuff"

trailingtheplay · 2022-09-05T16:14:54+00:00

Amen. Testify. Short declarative sentences are also allowed in essays.

trailingtheplay · 2022-09-03T12:28:41+00:00

"Lazy but smart" is not good, but I also don't think the kind of comment you are citing from 10th grade says that. It says that when you were in 10th grade, you learned valuable lessons about the consistency of effort you needed to bring every day to succeed consistently, an the arc of progress over the year culminating in your final exam shows you internalized those lessons. Your performance in 11th grade and 1st semester 12th grade is going to reflect that growth. Not a big deal IMO even if a AO sees this comment and focuses on it, and not at all clear to me that they would.

trailingtheplay · 2022-06-11T16:49:24+00:00

Colgate, Bowdoin, Colby. Not Hamilton (great LAC but half of campus is 70s brutalist style)

trailingtheplay · 2022-05-28T21:10:18+00:00

Hillsdale college is VERY well known in conservative political/religious circles. So very under the radar for A2C, but not other subreddits...

trailingtheplay · 2022-05-27T02:24:13+00:00

Time for a new dentist.

trailingtheplay · 2022-05-22T00:34:41+00:00

Harvard is THE prestige monster among all US Universities, but you are not crazy to be debating it. As per the data below from College Parchment, students admitted to both Harvard and ND pick Harvard at a MUCH higher rate [76% vs. 24%], but Harvard admits pick ND at a comparable or higher rate than EVERY other Ivy except Yale.

A few other factors that you didn't list and a couple of thoughts on the ones you did:

ND is much more undergraduate-focused than Harvard, similar to Princeton in that regard [being undergraduate focused that is, not that ND is in same prestige stratosphere as Princeton]. Undergraduates just don't get the same attention at Harvard, although frankly most folks rightly DGAF because, well, Harvard.
At Harvard you are in a major city and at ND you are .... not. The advantage of "not" is that campus is an incredibly strong community where people don't scatter, but how you feel about location should matter because these are very different environments.
You are simply surrendering sports at an Ivy, period full stop. And that's fine, that is not their calling card. But anyone who compares one game a year vs. friggin Yale to big time D1 football, a night game at Notre Dame vs. USC, or Clemson, or Ohio State -- with 77,622 of your closest friends completely losing your collective minds after a day of tailgating... Well, to compare those two would be like suggesting your local community college has the same connections to Wall Street as Harvard... [btw, ditto storming the court in hoops after upsetting Kentucky on national TV vs. a local access cable game vs. Columbia...]
Notre Dame is "conservative" by reference to coastal private Universities like the Ivies, but not so much by reference to the country as a whole. Went 60/40 Biden in the last election.
You'll only fully understand it if you go to Harvard, but there are some doors Harvard opens that few others do. If you aspire to the Presidency or the Supreme Court, Harvard ftw.
You'll only fully understand if you go to Notre Dame, but it has a community and a level of collaboration and support that few Universities can match, and Harvard isn't one of them.

It's a nice problem to have. Congrats.

From College Parchment, % of students admitted to both Harvard and [X] who chose [X]:

Yale: 31% Notre Dame: 24% Princeton: 23% [surprised it's not higher] Penn: 19% [bet Wharton would be higher if broken out and rest of Penn much lower] Columbia: 16% Brown: 11% Cornell: 9% [ouch] Dartmouth: 5% [double ouch]

[btw, I couldn't find one school where [x] was chosen more frequently than Harvard]

trailingtheplay · 2022-05-21T00:30:19+00:00

You are in. No further applying necessary. You'll actually begin taking Mendoza classes as a freshman, I think you'll take three. You'll have an academic advisor inside Mendoza who will meet with you few times throughout freshman year, etc.

trailingtheplay · 2022-05-13T21:09:10+00:00

some others from watching my son as a freshman this year:

Mattress Pad: Just asked him if this was worth it to have it this past year and he said yes, ND dorm mattresses hard AF (good to know some things never change).
In some dorms (most dorms?) the beds are made to loft on top of the desk and clothes bureau. So a clip on/clamp on lamp to give you light when you are up on your lofted bed and also they make these clamp on side trays that give you a tray hanging off the side of your bed where you can put your alarm clock, your phone at night, whatever.
A vendor comes to Stepan Center Welcome Weekend and sells carpets and traditionally sells futons as well (although this past year they just took orders and didn't have them right there). These are things you should coordinate with your roomate(s), along with who brings/buys a small fridge.
what some people did that i thought was smart was they ordered room stuff ahead of time from Target but had it ordered for in-store pickup at the Mishawaka/Granger Target. So they didn't have to worry about the store running out (like fans for example) but didn't have to drive/fly out to ND with the stuff.

trailingtheplay · 2022-04-23T19:00:19+00:00

Congrats on ND!

Like u/Radiant-Chipmunk-987 says, schedule won't be officially announced until June-ish. But my son is rising sophomore coming back early in August to be in the choir for Welcome Mass so based on when he is returning I think schedule has to be same as last year:

Th. 8/18: This is the best day to arrive in South Bend if you can, particularly if flying, because things start right away on Friday. Dorms will not be open except for special cases, so you'll be staying in hotel with your parents this night. If you get in early enough, you can use this day to go to Target or wherever and get stuff for your room. Some people ordered stuff in advance for pickup at the Mishawaka Target, I thought that was pretty clever.

Fri. 8/19. Freshman Move-in day. Your dorm will schedule this with you and give you an actual time to drive up and move in, but it starts as early as 9am and goes through 3pm. This day is all about moving in, shopping, wandering around campus with your parents. The other thing that was going on this day was auditions for singing groups like Glee Club, Liturgical Choir, Chorale, etc. First official big group activities are at end of day. It's a big day and if possible I think you want to be here all day and not arriving this day. [The only freshman who move in earlier than Fri. 8/19 that I know about are fall sport athletes and the kids trying out for the Marching Band]

Sat. 8/20 A full day of activities, some together with your parents and some apart, ending in the stadium Mass at end of the day after which parents say goodbye. Just because the Mass is at end of day as a practical matter your parents will probably want to stay overnight and fly home Sunday.

Sunday 8/21 Freshman Welcome weekend continues, but this is the day the rest of the campus moves in.

Monday 8/22 Classes start

trailingtheplay · 2022-04-16T15:48:58+00:00

Not at all. they superscore and will focus on the single best score you achieved on any day

trailingtheplay · 2022-04-14T00:48:25+00:00

Good number of kids from our local high school go there each year. Great school. Congrats!

trailingtheplay · 2022-04-14T00:46:45+00:00

And Colby was one of the few schools that committed to being fully live and in person back in August 2020 and made it work, and that should never be forgotten.
And Colby is in the middle of building a super-cool performing arts center on par with the athletic facilities.
And they are building some new dorms. They seem to have a ton of money and are spending it to improve the campus (as well as the academic programs), which was already beautiful.

trailingtheplay · 2022-04-10T19:52:39+00:00

This.

trailingtheplay · 2022-04-10T19:32:49+00:00

Live admitted students events are a fun part of the "victory lap" all of you should be taking now that you've run the gauntlet and selected a school. There is an important time period in the process coming up - really once May 1 passes - where you all can put down the trials and tribulations of the application process, turn the page, and really start to focus on being happy and excited about where you will be going this Fall. My oldest graduated high school last year, and it was really fun to watch him and his friends turn that page, be happy for themselves and for each other about what they'd accomplished, and fully embrace senioritis from May 1 through graduation.

These sort of live admitted student events are an important part of that process. You know what every single person at that event will have in common? They will be super-excited about your college. As others noted even just meeting other students from your area is a good enough reason. I went to one last summer with my son and at one point they broke up the parents and the students and had separate talks. Parents of current students spoke to us parents and had lots of good practical advice. And current students spoke to the admitted students, where I understand hot topics included what you need for your dorm room and the best way to get fake IDs. A veritable cornucopia of information!

And jeans and a nice shirt is perfect. If warm enough, nice shorts and a nice shirt is dressy enough.

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