I had posted several times throughout my daughter’s search for college, so I thought I would give an update on how her first year went at the University of Notre Dame, as we always appreciated follow up from other students/parents. She has absolutely loved ND and had no regrets about her decision to attend school there. She has loved the school spirit, finds students to be friendly, has a very diverse group of friends from around the country. She thinks the food on campus is great. It was a challenge, food-wise, when she stayed on campus for the week of fall break. She wishes one of the dining halls were open that week, but she, of course, found places to eat that week. She found the bus service to the airports in Chicago to be great when she came home for winter break. She was able to take a Greyhound Bus to visit relatives in another state. For Spring Break, she went on a service project trip out of state and found it to be fun and very rewarding. Being Catholic, she found many ways to be involved in her spirituality. She attends daily mass whenever her schedule allows and went on a couple of retreats. As an engineering major, she was challenged with 19 credit hours her first semester and 20 her spring semester. Her most challenging classes were a chemistry class and her Calc II class. As with any university, she said the kids in STEM majors seem to have to spend a lot more time studying than some of the humanities/business majors. She has taken advantage of the professor’s office hours and tutoring sessions when she needed additional help. She felt the professors were very open to talking with students outside of the classroom. Like any campus, she felt some were better teachers than others. She felt all the students in her engineering small groups were very engaged in their projects and she has made some great friends there, as well. She felt everyone on campus is VERY supportive of ROTC on campus and that does take a lot of her free time. She enjoyed her dorm and was easily able to get into the type of room with friends for next year, when they had their room picks. She said she always feels safe on campus. She has taken the public bus to shop at various locations in town, but doesn’t have a whole lot of need to leave campus. She enjoyed attending football games, other sporting events and really got into hockey. She is really looking forward to returning for her Sophomore year!
Just curious, what engineering is she in? I’ll be in AE next year at ND! And do you know about how many hours she spent outside of class on work?
She is a Mechanical Engineering Major. She said she averaged at least 40 hours a week for all of her coursework outside of class.
@MidwesternHeart Thank you for the update!
Glad she is having such a wonderful experience. Go Irish!
Thank you for this! My daughter starts this Fall and your review is very encouraging.
Glad she is enjoying ND.
Great summary. Thanks for posting.
Hi Midwestern Heart, and other posters. Great summary of your daughter’s first year – very helpful.
My daughter will be heading to ND in 10 days for orientation. I did some web searches (last minute double-checks) today related to preparing her for freshman year. Most of it, my wife and I had already covered, but there was some good content re: both big and little things we will incorporate over the next two weeks.
Since you had to go through this last year at this time, perhaps you can offer some perspective re: things you did (or wish you would have done) as she entered ND? Others are welcome to comment too. Thanks…
My DD said, As en Engineering Major, there was not nearly enough time to do all the clubs that she had an interest in so she had to choose carefully. She said she wish she would have bought a “sick kit” with cough drops, thermometer, etc. She also wishes that she had gone to the open house at the student health center during orientation to learn more about their services. She didn’t realize that she could go there whenever she was sick for no charge, even though we didn’t have the campus health insurance. She said to check out that service project trips that are offered over fall and spring breaks. She said she had a really great experience with that. We did the ordering from Bed Bath and Beyond from our local store and it was ready to pick up at the local store. That service worked out great for us. A good pair of winter boots was a real must she said. Make sure you pick up the parents’/visitor meal cards when your daughter checks into her dorm. For some reason, we never got them, and didn’t realize we needed them when we joined her in the family meals at the dining facilities. Have everything packed up in bins, bags, crates, etc. ready to go when you go to the dorm. Some people had a bunch of loose stuff thrown in their cars, and it really slowed down the move in process for everyone. You literally just pull up to the curb and dump your stuff off. You then need to go park the car, usually quite far away, while your daughter starts getting stuff moved to her room. I’m looking forward to taking our DD back in a couple of weeks. She’ll be moving early to be involved with some of the Engineering dept. stuff for the Freshman. Enjoy the weekend. It was a really incredible experience.