<p>Hey all,
I've been accepted to ND with a full scholarship, and while this seems absolutely perfect, there are a couple of hitches. ND is known as the premiere Catholic university, as well as being particularly conservative. I was wondering if a liberal, non-religious student would feel out of place at the university?
Additionally, seeing as I'm a potential polisci major, are the professors generally conservative as well?
I'm deciding between ND and Barnard, obviously two very different schools. Any input would be great.
Thanks.</p>
<p>I have had several friends who were in the same position, and as a moderate I had some of the same concerns. I will try to give what I’ve heard from my athiest/Jewish friends who went to Notre Dame as well as Democrats</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The general atmosphere encourages discussion, so you will probably debate your beliefs and political opinions, but the administration does a good job to ensure that everyone’s opinions are EQUALLY respected.</p></li>
<li><p>You don’t have to go to mass, and apparently each dorm reaches out to all faiths (or lack thereof) to go to dorm masses if they want because it builds unity. You don’t have to go and you will by no means be ostracized for that.</p></li>
<li><p>Some of the professors are pretty big on the whole Catholic thing, but they channel this into a focus on passion and ethics. Biology class will still discuss controversial topics, and Political Science will still give an “objective” view of the different parties and philosophies of government.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>People get scared away by Notre Dame’s reputation as a Catholic school, but the University wants to attract the best and brightest regardless of faith or political beliefs so that they can experience the one-of-a-kind Notre Dame education that prepares you for your career and life outside of school</p>
<p>I suppose I’ve just always been relatively scared by the stigma of it all, seeing as that’s not who I am. But thank you! It’s comforting to hear that it’s a lot more open than it appears at first glance, seeing as the likelihood of my ending up at South Bend is really, really high considering the FA package.
I’ll keep your comments in mind. Thanks again!</p>
<p>hi snw2367 - I graduated from Notre Dame a few years ago, but I’ve been reading College Confidential a bit because I’ve been helping my younger sister with her college applications. My situation was somewhat similar to yours - I am an atheist and relatively liberal, and I ended up going to Notre Dame due to a very generous financial aid package. While I didn’t feel completely out of place while I was there, I think I would have had a better experience at a different college.</p>
<p>1) I never, ever went to Mass, and no one cared. No one will ever outwardly judge you for it. But there was this element of social bonding that accompanied dorm Mass attendance…and I absolutely missed out on that. I knew some non-religious people who attended dorm Mass just to “fit in,” but I wasn’t comfortable doing that.</p>
<p>2) The political leanings of the professors dramatically varied by college. All of my humanities professors seemed to be pretty liberal (but what humanities professors aren’t?). I’m not sure about the political leanings of my STEM professors. Most of the business professors seemed relatively conservative. I took one intro business class out of curiosity, and the professor made us pray before class. It was bizarre, but it was the only time that ever happened during my four years there. </p>
<p>3) The idea of the “Notre Dame family” is very interesting. I am not really sure what to think, even now. It is a really lovely thing that everyone goes out of their way to make every single person feel included. Everyone is very collaborative with their coursework, people are nice to one another- it is very warm and fuzzy. Most students absolutely loved it. But that being said, I don’t think that other students understood if you DIDN’T want to participate in everything. The dorms being “fraternities and sororities” is, for most people, wonderful- no one is excluded that way. But it also means that EVERYONE is forced into that type of environment…there is no escaping it.</p>
<p>Pretty much, you will be able to find all types of people at Notre Dame, but the majority of students are relatively conservative and at least semi-religious. If you want to join in, people will welcome you - but it might take awhile to find your niche if you don’t identify with the overall environment. </p>
<p>I don’t want to deter you from attending, but I wanted to offer my opinion because I wish someone had told me this ahead of time. I also wanted to say that I was in the distinct minority of students who weren’t completely thrilled with their experience- 99% of people love it there, and you might love it too. There is nothing wrong with the school, but it probably wasn’t the best fit for my personality.</p>
<p>I’ve actually just been accepted to georgetown and as a potential polisci major, I’m planning on committing there as the FA package came close enough to ND that I could manage it, and I’d much rather be in the city and on the east coast.
Thank you so much for your response though; I feel as if I would’ve had a similar experience to yours, seeing as I happen to agree with many of your positions in that I wouldn’t attend dorm mass, or if I did, it wouldn’t be because I felt particularly religious or inclined to do so… it would just be to fit in… I’d rather go to a college where I don’t have to feel like I have to do something religious to fit in… it’s just a strange concept to me. And that business class thing is incredibly bizarre.
Thank you for your input again though. It’s greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>In terms of political leanings, I found ND to be more diverse than any other school I’ve experienced. ND students start off majority conservative as freshman and become much more liberal by the time graduation rolls around. The result is that the student body tends to have a relatively equal set of political views. This is of course not the case at most universities, where the extremes of conservatism (BYU) and liberalism (most other places) seem to predominate.</p>