S20 is trying to decide between several schools that we will not be able to visit. One is Notre Dame, we like a lot of what we have read, but one aspect sticks out. Princeton guide for some reason rates Notre Dame as very low on quality of life (score 71 on 65 to 100 scale in our book), Fiske also rates it relatively low at 3***. Yet my impression has always been Notre Dame graduates loves their time at Notre Dame. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Was wonder if it is related to large class sizes or heavy workload, or other factors?
Major will be Math or computational math.
Of our final choices, Notre Dame is among most expensive to us, although we just received an additional alumni club scholarship. This brings up a second question. It sounds like the alumni club scholarships can be renewed, but it is not guaranteed and depends on local clubs availability of funds. If anyone out there has received and then had renewed their alumni club scholarship would love to hear from them. The scholarship, if renewed at same level, brings the cost to a range we can potentially afford without going into debt. Thanks!
@STEMFocus
“It sounds like the alumni club scholarships can be renewed, but it is not guaranteed and depends on local clubs availability of funds. If anyone out there has received and then had renewed their alumni club scholarship would love to hear from them.”
Our DD, who will be a Senior next year, started to receive the scholarship from our local ND alumni club, which was automatically renewed for all 4 years.
Concerning quality of life ratings at Notre Dame, it probably will be best for your DS to reach out to current ND students and to speak with them directly, I personally would not suggest to rely on somewhat dubious third party ratings, the criteria for which might not always be very sound or reliable. Send me a personal message if your son would like to reach out to current ND students. What is his intended major?
@hpcsa Thanks for the feedback! Your alumni club scholarship experience is especially helpful. Agree on caution regarding over reliance on college guide evaluations, although given inability to visit, we are using less than ideal sources to help with final decision (as are many others I am sure). We have reached out to some recent ND students and will be following the online events. Very much appreciate your offer to help put us in touch with some current ND students, will PM if we end up needing more input beyond the contacts we are making. To answer your question, intended major is math or computational math, which appears to be a strength at Notre Dame. The need aid at Notre Dame was excellent, but we were lucky enough to get some full tuition and full ride scholarships at some other schools, but there are a lot of unique advantages at Notre Dame that may be worth the extra cost for us. Thanks again!
Quality of life grading might be because of the rough winters in South Bend. As long as you have the right coat and boats you should be fine. Also there is a large range of amenities in the dorms. Some dorms are like country clubs and others more homey. Dorms and roommates are randomly assigned. My daughter is a junior and I truly never understood the uniqueness of the dorm system until they came home and are doing online learning. Older daughter is engaged with her dorm, rector and RA’s weekly if not daily. They have Zoom Hall meeting weekly. Younger sister (freshman) at a different university has had no contact from anyone in her dorm except snap chatting friends. ND has done an unbelievable job of keeping the kids engaged and still making feel as though they are on campus. Hall council meeting still happens on Tuesday night. They are still working on dorm of the year presentations and trying to figure out how to have a Zoom formal. I am biased towards ND but only if you can afford it. It’s a special place.
@STEMFocus Hello! Current ND student here happy to answer questions and help. If you would prefer a more private discussion and opinions about ND, you can feel free to PM me. I’m locked up in the house so happy to help! (and bored lol). I think @FarmerMom makes some good points. Notre Dame of the T20 schools probably has an equal maybe higher quality of life. I would say it is equal to Northwestern, better than Johns Hopkins etc. I have some high school friends at both that’s where my knowledge comes from. Compared to T50, I think it is probably lower than some, higher than some and equal with some. “Quality of life” is a difficult thing to quantify in a ranking because it varies so much with each individual—we are all different. For me, ND’s quality of life is slightly below average and if you look at my post history, I am a transfer student. ND has a lower “quality of life” than my old school. It has better academics, worse location, worse weather, better professors, and generally I am about equally happy. So, even though I am a student at ND, I would rank it’s quality of life lower than I would satisfaction of the school. Does that make sense? It is tough second semester walking to class freezing and in snow. It’s not a dynamic location. Those are the things that students tend to think of when they rate their quality of life. I would NOT equate quality of life to satisfaction. In general, my rough estimate is that around 85% of students at ND are satisfied with their college choice at ND, and probably closer to 60-70% are happy with their “quality of life”. Tried to explain the differences, and hope that makes some sense.
Thank you @FarmerMom , it is good to hear what strong connections your junior daughter is able to have at Notre Dame, even remotely.
Thank you @irish2022 , your explanation does make sense and provides further insight. I do have one question for you, how big have your class sizes been? It sounds like Notre Dame has a lot of classes in the 50-99 student range, have that been your experience? Do you have a feel how much that shrinks beyond the intro courses?
@STEMFocus - I will echo comments above. My DS is class of '22. The dorm life was very unexpected. While every dorm is different, I have been impressed with the level of support and “home” that is present. We are from California, so distance and weather were concerns. So far, my son has been able to adapt to both. I will also add, ND is focused on getting students through in 4 years. Keep that in mind as you evaluate ‘fit’. I don’t envy you, this will be a tough decision without the ability to visit some of the choices. My son was ready to go to UCLA until we went to the accepted student weekend. They really live by the motto “Welcome Home”.
@Ez2020 and @usma87 Thanks for your replies and insights! Notre Dame is definitely staying as one of our top choices, next part comes the $ assessments Best of luck to all! Will post what we decide
An update, it was really close and a very tough decision for us, but we ended up going with a full ride scholarship at another school (a liberal arts school). I think if we had been able to visit, we may have ended up choosing Notre Dame, but with all of the uncertainty going on, it was hard to fully justify the added expense of Notre Dame (although the aid they offered was quite generous, better than the other 100% meets need schools our son was accepted at). We also were not able to visit the school we chose, so “keeping fingers crossed” we made a good decision. Best wishes and thanks to all for their input!
@STEMFocus As mentioned in another thread: Notre Dame will admit around 3,800 students from 21,000 applicants this year, to build the ND Class 2024 of 2,050 First-Year students. Approximately 760 admitted students (20% of 3,800 admits) will decide to enroll at another private university, in many cases due to merit aid considerations. Approximately 20% of students admitted by Notre Dame will go on to attend their in-state public and, in round numbers, 60% of students will decide to attend the University of Notre Dame for their undergraduate degree.
Presuming your son decided for the University of Richmond, it is a fine university and your son will undoubtedly do very well there. All the best to your son and the family!
I graduated in 2019 with a supplementary major in Applied Math. I absolutely LOVED my time at Notre Dame (even though I graduated with significant debt). In my opinion, it was worth it. The community is amazing and I met so many great people. Reach out with any questions!
Best of luck to all! Will post what we decide