<p>Don’t understand why people concerned with midwestern mid-sized town. The South Shore Train is at the airport, a 90 minute ride takes you downtown Chicago at Millenium Station/Park. Corner of Randolph and Michigan Avenue the beginning of the Magnificent Mile. We combined a Chicago visit with our Notre Dame tour this past July. It’s my D’s No ONE choice. Go Irish</p>
<ol>
<li>notorious high prices at the bookstore</li>
<li>lack of diversity (religion&culture)</li>
<li>south bend sucks</li>
<li>ND football sucks too in the past 2 years</li>
</ol>
<p>“Some schools are notorious for playing the USNWR rankings game (WashU in St. Louis is one example), but ND hasn’t really obsessed over it.”</p>
<p>No wonder why!</p>
<p>I’m the mom of a future domer and would probably crawl on my knees on broken glass to keep my kid at ND (if it wasn’t too far and I had kneepads). Still, I continue to get sticker-shock. This past summer some of my kid’s old highschool classmates went to economical university summer programs and all of ND’s are too expensive for us. In our case, studying abroad is out. I would advise checking the price of these programs before majoring or minoring in a foreign language. I do think that there are scholarships for needy students. Also, students have to pay for tickets to athletic events so football and basketball season tickets for our sports fan were more than the monthly budget. Some students will have to decide which things that they want to do the most. Another unpleasant surprise was my freshmen had to take many second and even third choices when selecting courses but we have heard that will improve for juniors and seniors. It is very difficult to pay 50K for courses taken just because they have openings. My kid says that athletes get first choice and others get the slots that are left but I find it hard to believe that to be true. It helps to go on line at the first possible second. Still, it is more than worth it.</p>
<p>I second what chauffeur just posted. I feel if ND asks me to pay for one more thing I will lose it. My child is in a study abroad program. So many costs are popping up that we either never thought of or weren’t informed about. Throw in the $750 just because she is in an international program, and the $300 flight to LAX to meet her group to continue on to Australia. Then, try to have her survive on $90 per week on the allowance ND gives her for 20 meals. Next, pay another $1000 plus for her trip to Singapore for a business class. At the end of it all, get her back from LAX for another $300 or so.</p>
<p>What is mind boggling to me is that while she is in the study abroad program, we continue to pay her regular ND tuition and room and board. However, ND is paying her study abroad program maybe $10,000 tops. A huge money maker for the university. (In their defense, I believe all programs operate this way.)</p>
<p>Concerning her trip to Singapore, I believe the school of business kicked in about $500 to supplement the cost of the trip which was supposedly about $1500 or so. All that included was the flight, hotel,(sharing a room) breakfast included in the hotel rate, and one dinner and a trip to the zoo. In my opinion, again a huge profit for someone at my expense. (Hotel is $150 per night per Travelocity) I would like to see an itemized list of expenses and how they justify this cost. </p>
<p>It is winter over in Australia and she doesn’t even have heat in her dorm. $50,000 a year.</p>
<p>Agree with chauffer–it was irritating to have to take second or third choice classes when paying full freight-and it IS true athletes have priority. The stated reason is so that they can work around their practice schedules. But since we are paying and they are on scholarship, it rankles.</p>
<p>D. got the hang of things rather quickly though and if she wanted a class she just went and talked to the professor and they let her in, so although on paper it is maddening, at a big school they might not be as accomodating.</p>
<p>She also dislikes the conservative politics of a large number of students. The anti-abortion but pro-Iraq war people drive her insane. She is OK with pro life people who understand you are supposed to respect ALL life–even Iraqis–but the conservative students don’t think like that.</p>
<p>AS the parent of a senior this fall, I can certainly empathize with many of the previous posts. Imagine our shock, paying full price freshman year for a room that was just slightly larger than most closets. Roommate’s parents were even more shocked as at least our student had participated in a ND summer program while still in HS and lived in a dorm room for several weeks w/a roommate that surely must have been a closet! But, apart from all of this, I can tell you that as our student has just visited friends at state flagship U and upon return remarked that the kids at ND were just “smarter”! I think our student has enjoyed being around students that have been held to a higher academic standard as I reminded student that ND was indeed a private institution and could pick and choose just who they wanted to admit. Yes, I agree that during class registration there have been times when student has complained about having to “sit on the computer” for a course during registration, but how about having to take the course on-line because there are just too many students needing that course and there just isn’t a room big enough or a prof to teach the course? (This is what is happening at the flagship U!) How about the fact that ND offers no pure merit aid (or even participates in the NMS program), yet our student could have attended our flagship U for free (not to mention many other perks!). Still, no regrets all the way around and our student is not even Catholic!</p>
<p>Notre Dame is not a perfect university–there are many areas that could use some improvement and we all have our own suggestions for improvement. Yet, as I reflect on the past 3 years, I think our student will tell you that there is no where else that one could find the sense of community, among other things, that exists at ND. No regrets!</p>
<p>It is nice to read about some of the issues that others have stumbled upon–who knows, maybe Fr. Jenkins will tap into this thread and feel compelled to make even more changes!</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, except for the revenue sports and Olympic stars, most athletes aren’t on full scholarship, or even close to it. The more typical situation is 25-30 students on a team sharing 9.5 full scholarships, especially on men’s non-revenue teams.</p>
<p>Contacting the professor if a course is full is a good suggestion. If there is sufficient interest in a closed class, it can sometimes be moved to a room with larger capacity.</p>
<p>It does annoy me too about athletes always having the best dart times, but then again, you have to keep in mind they are not on a free pass. Their tuition, even if not paid out of pocket, is still technically being paid by various scholarship funds, and the athletes for the bigger name mens sports (think basketball and football) bring in a lot of revenue for the university which is diffused into greater benefits for all. Of course, some of that revenue is the direct result of really-expensive-even-at-half-price football and basketball tickets bought by students.</p>
<p>As for the conservative thing, I’ve found everyone to be exceptionally polite when it comes to politics, which is a refresher considering conservatives can’t speak their minds without being ridiculed or worse at many other colleges. I admire when someone stands up for what they believe in, even if I personally think their beliefs could use a bit of fine tuning.</p>
<p>With the classes, even before you have to try contacting a professor to get in, if you show your advisor that it is very important to your 4 year plan that you take the class now, they might be able to open a slot for you, as they did for me once.</p>
<p>One of the things that DD complained about was as a second year student, she took some classes where the questions on the final exam ASSUMED knowledge that would have been covered in a freshman seminar. She was particularly indignant about her micro econ class which was all about introductory micro econ and then on the final, with no warning she was asked to apply Catholic social teaching to what they had learned about micro economics. </p>
<p>She thought it ridiculously unfair, and when my husband and I gently pointed out that was what we were shelling out that RIDICULOUS amount of money for–professors who expected you to THINK and apply your general education to the question at hand and not be all formulaic and spoon fed she got awfully quiet.</p>
<p>As it turned out she had gathered enough about Catholic social teaching to make some sort of coherent reply so she did OK, but it was more about the principle of being thrown a curve ball that she objected to.</p>
<p>Thanks to clairmaire for the encouragement concerning getting into full classes. My sophomore was able to get in a class by contacting the professor and finding out that someone had dropped. It would have been very hard to be pushy enough as a freshman to do this with some many things going on. Still find it hard to believe that Nation Merit Semifinalists are taking classes just because the classes have openings. I just never knew that about college. Some kids (like my other one in high school) wouldn’t mind this but for those interested in very specific subjects, it is very frustrating.</p>
<p>Chauffeur, part of the what’s making it so difficult for you to understand is your frame of reference, considering you find it hard to believe that NMS students aren’t getting into every class they want. Well, the fact is, there are a whole heckuva lot of NMS students on ND’s campus. When students come here, they quickly realize they’ve dropped pretty drastically on the fish/pond food-chain and are no longer entitled to a lot of special treatment, regardless of how their high school operated.</p>
<p>chauffeur-Honors classes/program solves a lot of issues with regard to classes and being able to get into classes as well.</p>
<p>What honors program are you referring to, notre dame AL?</p>
<p>these…[Glynn</a> Family Honors Program // University of Notre Dame](<a href=“http://glynnhonors.nd.edu/]Glynn”>http://glynnhonors.nd.edu/)</p>
<p>google before asking</p>
<p>Hey genius, I know what the Glynn Family Honors Program is, I actually am in it. There happens to be many different honors program and honors classes, held in each department and it was unspecified what the poster was referring to.</p>
<p>So, next time you want to wise off and be a smartass, recognize that there are people besides you who know what google is.</p>
<p>To Notre Dame AL (assuming that was the honors program being referred to), I am in the GFHP and, in my opinion, has not had that much help from them in regards to getting into the classes I wanted. It seems to be geared to helping students get into a select few number of classes, but they are unable to necessarily hold spots for students.</p>
<p>Don’t get ur panties in a bunch over it. It was an honest answer.</p>
<p>An honest, smart-aleck answer trying to show that you are the only person in the world who understands the power of google.</p>
<p>Appropriate user name.</p>
<p>^^for who? lol citric you’re pretty sarcastic yourself so you cant talk</p>