@OnTheBubble do you think that when job searching a degree from any of these three would be equivalent?
ND has an alumni network like no other and educationally it is far more undergraduate focused than either UVA or Georgetown.
If you were my kid, it would be Irish for you.
What about soecifically for biochem?
ND is extremely strong in sciences with pre med kids being a very large portion of the student body.
What you have to decide on is the social atmosphere. ND is overwhelming when it comes to school spirit and sports including intramurals and competition between the residence halls. ND is not only a football power, basketball, lacrosse, hockey, fencing, soccer both men and womens.
If you like that, ND is for you. If you want a smaller school where undergraduates get the attention they pay for, ND is for you.
Thank you that is very good advice. I have not been to ND recently but will be visiting again. I just spent a night at Gtown and UVA and feel just as torn and contlicted as before… Maybe I will have to flip a coin…
My daughter got her masters in science at Georgetown – I can tell you, the school is very well connected with a lot of government research labs, making it very well located for a wealth of internship/job opportunities. She LOVED living in Washington, DC: tons of young people, good restaurants, clubs, museums – all the Big City pleasures in a livable, exciting city. And she knows big cities! Before DC, she lived in Boston and NYC. Plus, Georgetown itself is an especially beautiful place to be.
I think all three schools are well regarded, with VA and Georgetown especially respected - Georgetown is often described as Ivy-caliber, and VA as a “public Ivy.”
Hi everyone, I’m the parent of a high school junior looking into all three of these schools with my daughter. I’m also a college counselor so I do have a pretty informed opinion on them all…and my daughter will be applying to all three next year.
My overall opinion of the three is I like ND the best for my daughter because of the warmth of the student community. We visited this past fall and were literally greeted with a hug in the hotel on campus when we arrived. That set the tone for an extremely warm 24 hour experience. She will likely go back for another visit in the fall, but we are pretty sure ND is her top choice.
I’d like to address two of the points that were brought up on this thread. First of all, our feeling for the dorm life at ND is that it offers the best of Greek life without all of the baggage. You don’t have to “rush” your dorm and most students connect with their dorms and stay there all four years. The friendly rivalry between dorms sounds amazing and that it plays into the amazing school spirit that this school has. As for career opportunities after graduation, it is my feeling that Notre Dame might have the most loyal alumni out there and that ND grads do extremely well after graduation.
With that said, as it relates to career opportunities, Georgetown and UVA also are quite strong. If your interests are business, ND is the strongest of the three, but they are all good.
I hear mixed things about the social situation at UVA. I think Greek life is huge and I know of a few GIRLS that were unhappy and transferred because they did not like the pressure of the greek system there. But I know there are students there that love it, so it might just depend on the student. But I think ND is more inclusive.
We just toured Georgetown a month ago and loved it (as we did the last time we saw it a few years back). There is definitely something special about being in DC. The academic environment seems very stimulating. However, I do think that Georgetown has a bit of an edge to it…I’ll stop short of saying snobby, but not as warm of a place as ND (we haven’t been to UVA yet so I cannot compare it). And I happen to know two freshman girls at Georgetown right now that are not happy. One of them, if not both, are looking to transfer…one for social reasons, and the other for both social and academic reasons (the latter is a recruited athlete who just doesn’t have the same academic background as the average Georgetown student). With that said, we hear from others that Georgetown can be quite inclusive socially and we like the fact that there is no Greek life. And access to DC is a bonus.
So while ND is our favorite, if my daughter is lucky enough to get into both ND and Georgetown, she will have to think long and hard. The only real negatives about ND are location and location…not very close to a real city and it is a long ways from home (we live in NJ). But at the same time, NOT being near a city can help students foster amazing friendships and community spirit because very few people venture off campus. I hear the dorm life at ND, in spite fo the strict rules, can be pretty amazing.
For what it is worth, my other daughter who is a freshman at Boston College (my alma mater) absolutely loves the school and that she is near Boston and they do utilize the city pretty often. She’s trying to convince her sister to just go to BC…and who knows she may end up there!
But my ultimate vote is ND!
You really cannot go wrong with any of them! Good luck and let us know what you decide!