Social Scene

Trying to get a sense of the social scene on campus. How big a problem is drinking? Is there a lot of peer pressure? Are there enough activities for people to do that don’t involve drinking?

@jthstudent If you question focuses on undergraduate on-/off-campus alcohol consumption, this Observer student article is a few years old yet represents a good summary of key findings in a survey by the Notre Dame Office of Alcohol and Drug Education (OADE), which is being conducted every year:

“Those statistics include a 20 percent of students that in an annual campus-wide survey say they absolutely refuse to drink, another 20 percent that may be labeled as alcohol-dependent and a 60 percent that falls in between the two extremes”, comparable to findings for other US undergraduate university & college campuses.

https://ndsmcobserver.com/2007/04/nd-drinking-matches-other-colleges/

Hi there, I’m a current student at ND and I have never partied or drank alcohol while here. It is definitely very prevalent, but by national standards I would not consider Notre Dame a “party school” and I have never heard of drugs being used on campus. I would say that there is minimal peer pressure and my friends who do party have never pressured me either.
There are things to do that don’t involve drinking. We have on-campus movies every weekend, hockey games on Friday nights in the winter, other events hosted by student groups and dorms, just to name a few. I have found a really great group of friends who choose not to drink either, and most weekends I just find myself hanging out with them if I do anything. It can be hard at times, as it seems most people think that drinking is the only way to be social or have fun – but I have no regrets and am perfectly content with my social life here.