ND LIFE questions..

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Notre Dame
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<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>I wanted to ask a questions about ND life....</p>

<p>1.) How is the academic pressure at ND for a premed?</p>

<p>2.) Whats offered in South Bend...movie theater, clubs, etc....I hear the city is just "ok"?</p>

<p>3.) I hear that ND is a great community with lots of generous and friendly people. Do you find a large group of really preppy, snobby rich kids that you may find at other universities or is that a minority at ND?</p>

<p>4.) How many hours on average would you say you get a night at ND?</p>

<p>5.) Since ND is really big on sports, is there sort of an athletic/physical competitiveness that each student has? That is, I had this image in my mind that everyone goes to the gym, plays a sport, and is basically a hardocore athletic whether playing varsity football or playing intramural softball...</p>

<p>6.) Do you think ND awards a great deal of financial - need based- aid in comparision with other top universities? I am an EA acceptee and this component will determine whether I will attend ND.</p>

<p>7.) Well I also Asian Indian and I was wondering if I would have problems fitting in? I basically am from a white town, went to a preppy boarding school, and I hope that now that I am attending a Catholic university, I am not sure if there are any really conservative social steroetypes or what not..</p>

<p>8.) Also, Im serious about work, but I also like to party on weekends... how is ND party life on weekends. I had this impression of the school placing so many restrictions on student life.</p>

<p>9.) Do football guys like Brady Quinn just chill in the dorm or they all busy with press conferences and work?</p>

<p>Thanks guys. Let me tell you, I seriously am in love with ND and really hope to go there.</p>

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<p>Wow first off I would state that a lot of the these questions have been answered in previous posts on this board, so you would be well advised to go back through and do some research...That having been said I will try to addres some of your questions.</p>

<p>1.) Premeds and academic pressure, ahhh a subject where I had some choice words to say in an earlier post. The whole concept of the ALPP and SCPP programs are in transition right now. Thankfully as I understand it the SCPP program will be phased out and eventually cease to be a viable academic option. I haven't had a chance to see the long term plans yet but I am basing this off of certain rumors and scuttlebut I've heard from friends. Personally I some professors who DO actively dislike teaching premed classes because they are often besieged by those who aren't here to learn but to get the A to boost their GPA...considering I spent two years in college of science while I was a Biochem major, I think a lot of the stress on Premeds is that which they place on themselves, I'll be honest and say I did less work Freshman year here then I ever had to do in my last three years of HS (and I was pulling 18 hours both semesters up here).</p>

<p>2) The city is what you make of it. A car is a necessity unless you plan on using public transportation buses or a cab. Transpo isn't a bad deal, students can ride for free thanks to student government this year. As far as movie theatres, I know a multi-screen one within 15 minutes of campus that isn't too bad, there's also a dollar theatre up betwene the grape/main corridors that is a great deal if you don't mind seeing a movie that was in the theatre 6 months earlier...clubs - I don't know, I'm not a big party animal, perhaps someone else can chime in on this subject</p>

<p>3) I've found the community to be full of great people, many of whom have a negative impression of students on this campus. In their defense it is well deserved I feel. I've seen a good number of students up here with an air of entitlement and who feel as though they are superior to those who live in the town. On a whole the general impression of ND students that I've gotten is that we are a bunch of party, spoiled and irresponsible teenagers...of course I know a good number of the SBFD, and they have a rather unique perspecitve of us, considering they're the ones who have to deal with the instances when a drunk is being sent to the hospital...</p>

<p>4.) I assume you mean sleep with this question. Before this year I could average 8-10 hours. These days I average 4-6 hours, but this is because I am working between 30-40 hours of week on campus while doing 16 hours of classtime...</p>

<p>I'll come back to this later...I've got to go microwave some dinner</p>

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<p>Not to steal Nemo's thunder in any way but I will give the rest of your questions a shot.</p>

<p>5.) You are right in that most all of us played a varsity sport in college and many of us are active (I am not nearly as active as I should be, however). I don't think you are going to find a lot of competition per se, but what you will find is a lot of people who really enjoy playing sports with each other. You will see it in the intramurals and intrahall sports but really it is fantastic because it helps bring your hall together, you know? While there certainly is competition in the games it isn't that it really splits people apart but it is more that it pulls your dorm together in my experience. Also, you aren't excluded (in my experience) if you choose not to play the sports but you are probably just missing out on a good time and a chance to meet some people. Not sure if that helps or not but I tried.</p>

<p>6.) I am not a financial aid recipient so this is hard for me but I would say we are better than most of the top colleges. From what I have heard from students and administrators ND really tries to make sure that everyone who is accepted can afford ND. Now sometimes this isn't the case, or sometimes the student has a better deal out there, but usually I think the financial aid is quite competitive. I hear more good things about it than bad.</p>

<p>7.) Not sure what you mean by conservative social stereotypes but again, from what I have observed (I am a white male so I can't help too much) I think ND is a very accepting place. Granted, a lot of the minority groups eat together in the dining hall but it is by choice, not by segregation. We have a fair number of minority students and I don't think you will have a problem with being accepted or anything like that.</p>

<p>8.) ND has some restrictions but I honestly think they just make sense and are a lot better than the rules you will find at places like UCLA where (I believe) they have a dry campus. At Notre Dame they know the students will party and they know that they will drink alcohol so it is more about being safe with these givens. They are very harsh against hard alcohol but very forgiving with beer because again, they know you will do it but they don't want you to hurt yourself with it and would prefer you to do it in the dorms where people can watch you. Now of course they don't say this, but this is the unwritten rule I have picked up on. Now, for the wilder parties you can always go off-campus. There are options if you want to party but it just won't be a huge party engulfing the campus like some places. Most of the students here feel the same way as you do so don't worry, I think you will be happy with the amount and type of partying. I hope that description helps because I really don't go to the parties much even though I am 21.</p>

<p>9.) I can't speak for Brady but I do know several less well-known players and they often chill in the dorm. They are busy, there is no doubt about that, but I have had many chances to just hang with some of them and get to know them and that is a lot of fun. Most of them are really down to earth and are genuinely good guys.</p>

<p>I don't know how much that does help but hopefully a little and now Nemo can come bat cleanup!</p>

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<p>7) I can tell you that the Asian student organizations on campus here are some of the most involved with a variety of cultural clubs. There's an Asian-American Association; a Chinese Cultural Society; an Asian International Society apparently; the Vietnamese Student Association; the Korean Student Association; a Japanese Club; the Fillipino American Student Organization....and a whole host of other cultural organizations....</p>

<p>If you want go to this website and take a look around at missions of these various clubs and their website...
<a href="http://sao.nd.edu/studentgroups/listing/cultural.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://sao.nd.edu/studentgroups/listing/cultural.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>eh, I'm an Asian Indian Hindu who lives in South Bend (dad is a prof @ ND). There definitely are Indians here, some fresh-off-the-boat, and I'm friends with quite a few of them, but understand that the overwhelming majority of the kids are white, mostly catholic. All my african-american friends are asked almost daily which sport they play, and a lot of peopel assume that Indians must be pre-med (to be fair, you are...).</p>

<p>There is a LOT to do on campus, so you donj't have to do much off-campus if you don't want to, and the Browning theater has ridiculously good sound, and often plays good movies. But there's a good movie theater (14 screens) within 10 minutes, and another (16 screens) within 15, although a car would be good for that sorta thing. The Transpo buses, though free for ND students, aren't the height of convenience, South Been really hasn't grabbed hold of the concept of public transportation. As far as "clubbing" goes, there are a few clubs around, but really not the most active nightlife, as far as cities go. Princeton Review, etc. all tell us, and I'll tell you it's true, that kids really don't want to leave campus often, their often is something to do.</p>

<p>If you have any other questions regarding being Indian @ ND, PM me, I'd be happy to give you a hand. Now I'll give this back to the kids who either research exhaustively, or actually are students. I'm only a high school senior (though I got into ND early action, so perhaps I'll be your classmate next year)</p>