<p>Any suggestions for schools in the Midwest similar to ND in size, setting, etc?</p>
<p>Hard to answer because Notre Dame has a unique combination of qualities, Dorms rather than Greek life, all single sex dorms, high caliber of students, rural setting, tight knit community feel.</p>
<p>University of Dayton (OH) and Marquette (WI) are Catholic and similar in size, but both more urban, as they are in the city. Also lower test scores and GPA students coming in. Visited both, Dayton had an extremely welcoming feeling and great presentation that highlighted many research, travel, and internship opportunities. Also great scholarships if you have a good studentI don’t remember anything standing out to me about Marquette, but think maybe they didn’t focus on those things in the presentation that we attended.
Daughter visited St Louis University and Washington University (St Louis). I did not go on that visit. She was not crazy about either one, but probably worth checking out.<br>
We didn’t visit Xavier University (OH), but imagine it is similar in setting, quality of student, etc. to Dayton and Marquette, except only 4000 undergrads, so about half the size.<br>
Northwestern is probably the most similar in size, caliber of students, academics…you are probably already familiar with it.
Found a site called college mapper that lets you choose schools and compare on different characteristics. May be helpful. Also similar thread below, but not limited to Midwest.<br>
Good Luck in your search.</p>
<p>My S went to a Jesuit school for undergrad and is now at ND for his masters degree. You can look at this link and see where the Jesuit schools are located and see which are geographically viable for you. These schools are not like ND in every respect, but might be worth looking into.</p>
<p>[Jesuit</a> Institutions | Jesuit Institutions](<a href=“http://www.ajcunet.edu/institutions]Jesuit”>Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities--Jesuit Colleges and Universities)</p>
<p>I am fascinated that whenever a post asking for “[fill in the blank] schools similar to Notre Dame”, the vast majority of responses list other Catholic schools.</p>
<p>I suppose this is an indication that ND’s primary identity is as a Catholic school, as opposed to:
-a highly selective school
-a school with a nationally representative student body
-a school with highly visible athletic programs
-a school where almost all students live on campus for four years
-etc.</p>
<p>^^^ IMO an important and unusual attribute of ND is the school’s Catholic heritage. I’d agree with suggesting the Jesuit schools such as Marquette, Xavier, Dayton, St. Louis, Loyola Chicago which I believe all have residential campuses and some of which have good sports (esp. basketball) teams. Other high caliber Midwest schools which come to mind offhand are WashU, Northwestern, UChicago, UMichigan, UWisconsin, IU,</p>
<p>@rmldad
…Or maybe an indication of schools that ND students/families are familiar with. With my daughter, we visited mostly Catholic schools because that is what she was interested in. We also visited a couple non-Catholic schools and the Midwestern ones are mentioned above. Now that you have set out your list of characteristics I am curious to know what schools you would suggest. I really can’t think of many that are similar to ND in multiple categories.</p>
<p>I apologize for sidetracking the thread, since geography was not a large consideration for my kids. We are not Catholic, but Notre Dame was appealing for many of the reasons that I mentioned in my earlier post.</p>
<p>Not exclusively Midwestern schools (in fact mostly Southern), but highly similar to ND in other ways:
-Vanderbilt
-Duke
-Northwestern
-Cornell
-Rice
-Wake Forest
-Johns Hopkins (lacrosse is huge, no football)</p>
<p>I’d suggest looking into Creighton. A bit more urban than ND, with Jesuit heritage and strong sports programs.</p>