<p>I keep reading that a great majority of the student body is very conservative, varsity lettering athletes in high school, and skewed towards the maths and sciences; is there a healthy community of Democrats, those who can't play sports to save their lives, and more humanities-oriented students?</p>
<p>Hey I'm a liberal (but an athlete) who will attend Notre Dame next year...the school is not as conservative as you are led to believe, but it is definitely more conservative than many other college campuses in America. A mock election held on Election Day had Bush getting about 47.8% and John Kerry getting a close second at 47.0%. ND is very evenly divided, and the faculty is more to the leftist side of thinking. Political leanings are based mostly on what your major choice is: business and science (two of the bigger majors) are conservative; political science, american studies, and english are liberal. Every academic program at ND is </p>
<p>BTW, I plan on majoring in Political Science and Philosophy. </p>
<p>Furthermore, while many people at ND are into sports and were athletes in high school, it is not a prerequiste for current students. All that's really asked of you is that you wear the Shirt at football games and yell like crazy when everyone else does.</p>
<p>Hey bing - my d did not play sports in high school and she is majoring in psychology. She has quite a few friends who are majoring in theology and other humanities-oriented majors. I think ND has an outstanding reputation for math, science, engineering, business, etc. so you naturally hear more about those majors. </p>
<p>My d has found the professors to be very liberal. In one philosophy course, she had to constantly defend her more conservative or moderate views. I think the professor said some outrageous things to provoke the students into REALLY evaluating what their beliefs were and to verbalize their opinions in the hopes they would solidify those beliefs. </p>
<p>I agree with rraley - you'll find the campus fairly evenly split along political lines and you don't have to play or even enjoy sports to love the football games. </p>
<p>One thing I did want to say is that many, many students are involved in what I would call humanitarian efforts. There are so many service oriented groups on campus and you will be surprised at how many students participate in service projects. </p>
<p>Even if you can't play a sport to save your life, you can have a lot of fun with intramural sports. Dorms have a, b, c, and even d teams. The c and d teams have just as much fun as the more competitive teams - if not more fun because they don't take it so seriously. My d played co-ed broom hockey this year. We're from the south and she has never even put on a pair of ice skates much less play hockey- but she had the time of her life!</p>
<p>My S is an English major at ND. He finds the students very conservative and the professors liberal. He has never been a sports fan and was relieved to find out that most of the student body is more interested in academics than sports. However, the football games are not to be missed.</p>