I feel as though I’m in the same position as you, and this conversation was a great way to find real advice from real people. I, too, was raised Jewish. WashU is my #1 right now but on the very likely side that I won’t be accepted (nothing against myself, just looking at the stats), I’d like to go to ND as a backup. The Catholicism is genuinely the only prong that concerns me, as the cross is in their school’s logo (so, obviously, religion plays some sort of role in life at the school). I like the private, medium size, and suburban school area of ND. Honestly, it’s the religion that is inhibiting my application. Also, it concerns me how my religion will play into the admissions process. I’m aware that spots can’t be reserved for those of a specific race/ethnicity/gender, but it can play a role in increasing/decreasing a school’s diversity. While this post doesn’t give any real advice or feedback, I just wanted you to know how similar our circumstances are and how you are not alone in this process.
I’m about 5 years late with this post, sorry about that (I didn’t look at the dates but this information is still highly relevant 5 years later).
The better part of my family went to Notre Dame, including my Dad, most uncles, and about all of my Dad’s friends. I know ND has a big rep for being a Conservative Catholic type place, but honestly, I have had no experience with anything like that based on the grads I know. While my family is Irish Catholic, they are all very liberal socially and politically, and man of my dads friends from ND are not religious at all, and more than half are liberal. They all still loved Notre Dame. My dad tells me that there is definitely a Catholic vibe in the air, but it’s the “Living as a good person” aspect of catholocism that is stressed, rather than the stereotypical finger wagging catholocism. From what I can gather, there are people of all types and beliefs at Notre Dame, which is really what I think a college should be.
I’m a recent ND grad and an atheist, so here are my experiences.
When I got to ND, I was a casual Catholic, but the increased exposure to the religion during my freshman year kind of turned me off and I had stopped believing by the start of my sophomore year. Most of my friends were Catholic, either nominally or moderately so, but several were atheists and I also knew some “extreme” Catholics, though none were personal friends of mine.
You have to live in a dorm your freshman year (and will probably live in the same dorm through junior year), and all the dorms have their own chapel (well, two particular dorms are conjoined and share a chapel). The rectors who run the dorms are often priests, but not all of them are. The religion is certainly there for anyone who wants it, but you’ll never be forced into going to Mass, and I can say that as someone who lived in a dorm whose rector was a fairly conservative priest, most people didn’t go to Mass regularly and no one cared whatsoever.
The academic curriculum is completely divorced from any religious bent whatsoever. The Catholic Church accepts the Big Bang, evolution, and all that, but it’s more that the academic departments (made up of faculty that have no religious test and who are chosen by the same standards as at secular schools) make the hiring decisions and set the curriculum, so religion doesn’t enter into it at all. I learned about all the horrible things done by the Church in my history classes, with no special justification beyond the historical context in which everything was placed. I’d be surprised if most of the professors were Catholic.
The only exception here is that everyone is required to take two Theology courses (one intro and one elective). These aren’t taught in a “Catholicism is right” kind of way, but the intro class is definitely a “this is what Catholics believe” class. My elective was a course on atheism. There are courses on Islam, Buddhism, Eastern Christianity, comparative religions, the development of Catholicism, liberation theology, and all sorts of things. I didn’t particularly want to take Theology courses, but now I can discuss religion in an informed manner, which can be helpful.
There is basically one big way that the school’s religion will interfere with your life, and that’s with the rules for students living on campus. The dorms are single-gender and you’re not allowed in an opposite sex dorm (except for designated 24-hour spaces) after midnight on weeknights or 2am on weekend nights. It’s also against the rules to have premarital sex, though if you keep your door shut, it’s very difficult to enforce that.
Here’s one student’s perspective on this from an article in the student newspaper last year:
http://ndsmcobserver.com/2015/04/catholic-school-vicious-roman-rule-2/
The writer was a little… harsh here, to be sure, but the sentiment is one shared by many.
On the whole, I wouldn’t change my Notre Dame experience for anything. However, the dorm rules could be frustrating and are basically the one way in which the school’s religion will interfere with your life even if you choose not to practice it.
Please feel free to ask me any questions.
Hi @DuckIsland15 I’m a high school senior and ND is my top choice. One of the reasons I love Notre Dame is the single-gender dorm. I actually love how they administrate the dorms. I’m pretty religious and conservative and I have abstinence life style. Notre Dame really is the place for me when most of the schools have strong hookup culture. Sure different people have different choices, but it doesn’t make sense to me that a lot of college students are complaining about the loan while hooking up and drinking and don’t care. Sex life is not what college is about, I believe. It is about how teenagers grow into adults with knowledge, integrity, and moral value.
Hey @Fiona1997, I totally get that. I didn’t mind the single-gender dorms much myself, but the other rules were a bit stifling. From my point of view, it’s not necessary to punish the students who want to have sex or who want to have members of the opposite sex in their dorm anytime in order for the students who don’t want those things to also get the experience they’re looking for. Your ability to choose your lifestyle isn’t diminished by someone else being able to choose a different lifestyle, which I think is a better view than the one taken by certain people in the Notre Dame administration.
Also, I do think that the single-gender dorms could be handled better. Men’s dorms are more lenient with parties than women’s dorms, and women’s dorms more often have alarms on the side doors and force you to check in visitors on weekend nights (though not all do). When I was involved in student government at Notre Dame, I was on a committee that was trying to address these gender relations issues. They weren’t horribly severe, and I would still strongly recommend Notre Dame as I loved my four years there, but I do think that there are things to be fixed.
You might not want to hear this, but Notre Dame certainly has a strong hookup culture. True, “hooking up” means “making out” a little more often than it does at other schools, and “sex” a little less often, but there is definitely a hookup culture. At dorm parties, off campus parties, and the college bars (not to mention Hip Hop Night). It’s certainly not for everyone, and it’s not something you have to be involved in, as there are always tons of things going on for people of all different preferences (there are tons of people there who think like you), but I wouldn’t want you to be surprised by it when you get there. A lot of freshmen will go to dorm parties, drink cheap beer out of a keg, grind together in a dark sweaty room, and make out with people they don’t know. It’s something I wasn’t too into, but plenty of my friends did that (and plenty others didn’t). Just so you know.