Hi ND community, Our son was admitted to the University of Notre Dame in the REA round back in Dec '17. He really liked the beauty and tranquility of the Notre Dame campus when we visited the previous summer. The excellent reputation of the university and the Mendoza College of Business were big selling points, so he went ahead and applied.
When we went to the Admitted Student Open House on Feb 22-23, several of the student panelists mentioned that some of their most-cherished “ND traditions” were the close-knit residential halls, especially the dorm masses every Sunday night.
Our son was raised Methodist and has attended a Catholic high school for the past 4 years, so being around Catholic students is something he’s very used to. But my wife & I walked away from the Open House sessions wondering if Christian students who are not of the Catholic faith might feel like outsiders at Notre Dame.
I’m posting here to see if other parents of students who are non-Catholic could talk about their child’s overall experiences at ND. Or if any current ND students see this and can talk to it, we’d really appreciate it. Notre Dame is such a fabulous school, and quite probably the world’s foremost Catholic institution of higher learning, but we’d just like to get a better sense for whether Protestant students feel out of place in this environment.
My daughter is a freshman. She tells me that about half of her dorm attends the Sunday evening Mass. There is absolutely no pressure to attend in her dorm. When visiting ND last week we had the opportunity to attend the Thursday evening Milk Shake Mass at one of the dorms. Interesting enough they took a poll to see if every dorm was represented. There were about 100 kids attending the 10PM Mass. All but 2 dorms were represented. But actually there were only about 3-4 kids from each individual dorm in attendance. Your are right that ND is one of the world’s foremost Catholic institution, but it is also a very welcoming institution. Your son will not feel out of place.
My child is a junior there and she is not religious at all, much less Catholic. She has nothing but fabulous things to say about her time at ND. It’s a special place. He will not feel like an outsider at all. Congratulations to him!
My son is a sophomore at ND and we are not Catholic. My son feels like he is part of the “Notre Dame Family” and doesn’t feel like an outsider. I’m sure your son would have an excellent experience.
Thanks to the parents above for their responses.
I am Catholic, but my wife is Protestant, meaning my son was raised “Catholic lite”. My wife is a huge supported of Notre Dame she loved the experience our son had there. In four years there my son never attended a dorm Mass, and not once did anyone say anything to him about that.