<p>I don’t know about you, but as a fellow atheist, I would feel pretty stifled at a school like Notre Dame. I’m avoiding religious and/or conservative schools like the plague, myself. It’s a great school, but it’s definitely not for me. I know I would be unhappy.</p>
<p>Students at Notre Dame tend to be devoutly Catholic and quite conservative. If that is not you, I wouldn’t suggest it. A school being the “right fit” certainly comes into play here.</p>
<p>UofR is also starting to be much more well recognized. I have a family friend who got into JHU grad school from UofR undergrad and he just gushes about Rochester.</p>
<p>Also, you cannot go wrong with UofR sciences.</p>
<p>I agree that Notre Dame has great prestige, but yea from what I hear, UR is rising and getting a very nice name for itself
Seems like a great place and I am actually applying to transfer there, its one of my top 2 choices
I think that ca 95% of transfers to Notre Dame were catholic, thats why I didnt apply </p>
<p>Also, yea, UR science seems really great, a friend of mine has family there and around there, and he said that if you go UR undergrad in science, youll almost definitely get into a very top PhD or MD program, as long as your grades are good ofc :)</p>
<p>I’ve never thought of South Bend as an exciting place. It’s not very big - about half the size of Rochester and is 2 hours from Chicago. Growing up in Michigan, we kind of thought it was nowhere. My impressions of ND are somewhat biased because I grew up in Michigan but it’s interesting to me how the impressions of Catholic universities have changed so much in a few decades. When I was younger, ND was not considered much of a school. (Neither was BC.) There seems to have been a sea change in how they are viewed and some of that must relate to the number of Catholics in America, the publicity accorded to the schools (some of it controversial) and the way that applications are more national now and so we have Catholic kids from all over the US applying to these schools. </p>
<p>As to prestige, I think ND is clearly better known - which isn’t the same as quality - and obviously has more alumni (because it’s larger) and some people “affiliate” to ND because of sports. I have no idea what a person means by “prestige” because I don’t see that mattering much or at all unless you’re talking about small handful of genuinely “prestigious” schools.</p>
<p>The kids I know who’ve gone to ND have all been religious. I don’t know how much that is true across the student body Not being Christian, I can’t imagine going to a religiously run institution at all.</p>
<p>An issue for you to consider is big time sports versus small time and club sports. Big time sports are fun for some but they also come at a cost, meaning special status for athletes, lots of resources thrown at them, a social structure that orients around that kind of thing. You could definitely feel that at Michigan, even though that school has a long history of counter-culturalism. You can even feel that at lesser athletic schools because the status of athletes sticks out. Sports are the 2nd religion at ND so you should consider that.</p>
<p>I am enjoying this post - interesting discussion. I don’t have much to add other than to say Rochester is a wonderful destination for biological sciences. A large percentage of Rochester students are successful gaining admission to medical school, and there are more research opportunities at our hospital than we have students to fill. I think the advantage is that you are at a smaller school where opportunities for hands-on, experiential learning are more accessible. That being said - I don’t know much about ND beyond what has already been posted.</p>
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