<p>Hi, I'm an international student applying for American colleges this fall. There are a couple of colleges on my list and ND is the top because it's the only school I've visited on campus!</p>
<p>While I was in ND, I had a nice tour guide who showed me around the whole campus and I watched the football match that day! However, apart from the great football players and tasty food, I still need more specialties about this school- I can't just write "I feel this school matches me" on my supplement!</p>
<p>So I'm now collecting reasons why people love ND and why they chose to become a member of it. Thanks for everyone who're willing to share!</p>
<p>Well, one reason most people love Notre Dame, besides that it is a BEAUTIFUL campus, is that the school has an amazing sense of community. It is a community that has many different parts, all of which makes one feel at home. Its not that the kids are similar - although they have similarities, but that they form a group that, overall, wants to pull for the success of everyone. The students are involved in lots of activities, and heavy academic loads, yet find time to do things for their dorms, or the school, or the local community or the world at large. Its a community that doesn’t stop after four years, but extends for a lifetime. If you attend Notre Dame, when you graduate you will meet other alums, and feel an instant bond. And they will help you, and you will help them. As my husband, an alum of another university, once observed - No one ever seems unhappy or unsatisfied with Notre Dame.</p>
<p>ndtxmom82 is right, the community is probably what stands out most about Notre Dame. There’s so much to love about ND- the tradition, the football, the dorm life, the beautiful campus, the basilica, the academics, the dining halls… But the Notre Dame family really is what makes it a special place.</p>
<p>When you are on campus there is a sense of family within your friend group, your dorm, and the general campus community. Football brings people together, but it is more than that. So many other schools lack the same sense of cohesion and mutual support that ND students have for each other. ND students support each other both when good things happen and when tragedy strikes. They celebrate and mourn together. They will stand in the pouring rain to cheer on a football team that is losing badly. They put their arms around others they don’t know during the alma mater. When the football team has a particularly exciting win, they run through Stonehenge together. If a fellow student dies, they congregate at the Basilica and pray together- even if they aren’t Catholic or didn’t know the student.</p>
<p>And it doesn’t end after you graduate, the people and the traditions stay with you. Most major cities in the US (and many abroad) have very active alumni associations and most alums will travel back for a football game every chance they get. I just went to a wedding where the wedding mass ended with the alma mater and the bride and groom entered the reception to the fight song. And the alumni network is a great resource for employment opportunities as well. </p>
<p>The folder I got with my acceptance letter almost 7 years ago now said “Welcome Home” on the front of it. I remember thinking that was a bit weird, but in retrospect, I don’t think I will ever forget that, because of how true it turned out to be. There really is no other place quite like Notre Dame.</p>
<p>[Tradition</a> // Notre Dame In Depth // University of Notre Dame](<a href=“http://www.nd.edu/features/tradition/]Tradition”>Tradition | University of Notre Dame)</p>
<p>It can’t get any better than this! ^^^</p>