<p>Did you just go to ND b/c of its reputation?
b/c it values catholicism? it's football team? its Irish spirit?</p>
<p>Please feel free to share your reasons for choosing ND over other schools.</p>
<p>well i grew up in an ND family</p>
<p>what i say is most important to me is how it is consistently with the best if not the best in:</p>
<p>tradition and spirit
academics
religion
athletics</p>
<p>i think that it is the best school at bringing all these things together into one</p>
<p>you should visit the campus and if nd is right for you . . . you will just know</p>
<p>To be honest, I chose it to meet Catholic girls. </p>
<p>But I've realized that the alumni are incredible and something about this place makes me just smile when I'm walking back to my dorm at 3 am. </p>
<p>A visit would definitely help get a feel, although I think it will be changing for the better in the next couple of years: physically more attractive and more academic opportunities. I've visited a couple of places (Rochester, Emory, Stanford, Columbia) and I liked the Notre Dame feel the best. It wasn't a factor at the time but I'm glad now.</p>
<p>Go visit the campus. Try not to fall in love with the campus (good luck) in case you don't get in.</p>
<p>Yeah seriously. Coming from a non-Catholic, non-ND loving family, there is something very different about ND. I recommend taking a walk to the Grotto @ night, and just walking around campus. If you get the feeling, you will know. </p>
<p>Coming from someone who didn't want to follow her sister's footsteps here (I was dead set on doing my "own thing"), this school actually ended up being the right fit for me. </p>
<p>When they say no where else but notre dame, they really mean it. I haven't been able to find a school which embraces not only academic excellence, but its spiritual side in exactly the same fervor. This is a place where a student who volunteers on a regular basis is more the norm then the minority. If those things are important to you, then I think ND would be a great fit.</p>
<p>Although campus feel is definitely an important factor to consider, </p>
<p>I'm little more concerned w/ factors that will help when I search for a job or go to law school. Things like difficulty level of getting high GPA, competitiveness among students and intership prospects are what's primarily going to be the determining factors that'd lead me to reject other colleges.</p>
<p>Any input on that?</p>
<p>I think ND has a fantastic reputation and an even better alumni network, both of which will help you with finding a job or going to law school. I don't really know numbers or specifics because I'm just an accepted student too, but I think ND's international good name could go miles when it comes to job hunting.</p>
<p>I agree once you visit: You just know. There is no where else but Notre Dame.
Before that I had just always liked it because it was renowned, good at sports, but catholic(even though I'm lutheran, but my dad's side is catholic), has more academic standards for athletes than most schools, and is not some huge public school.</p>
<p>Princeton Review says our career services are second only to Texas. 34% of students continue their education upon graduating, 12% commit to service, 3% are commissioned in the military and 48% go into the work force. Notre Dame has great law school placement (okay, there's no way I could actually know this relative to other schools, but ND does send many students to law school, and all the alums in my hometown are lawyers or accountants, or Jesuit Volunteers).</p>
<p>And we have an awesome hockey team.</p>
<p>Your own performance in college will have FAR more to do with your future -- whether in grad school or on the job market -- than the reputation of your school. Graduate schools and employers do not pay nearly much attention to the nuances of undergrad "reputation" than high school seniors do. I went to a top 10 law school, and had classmates from the Ivy League as well as obscure liberal arts schools and middling state universities. You are most likely to perform well in college if you are happy there, so focus on finding the right fit and don't worry so much about the rest.</p>