<p>any input?
I'm torn between the two schools; I've visited both and I'm not sure which I like more. I realize they're incredibly different, but what do y'all think?</p>
<p>Depends on what’s most important to you. Care to share your priorities?</p>
<p>thats what I’m struggling with. I love Notre Dame’s community environment and strong school spirit along with the idea of attending the huge football games. However, I would love to attend WashU because of its diverse student population and more relaxed rules (I’m not a fan of ND’s parietals or single sex dorms). While I am Catholic, I consider myself to be more on the liberal side.</p>
<p>wow, that is REALLY tough.
I guess the other two factors might be financial aid and location.
If money is an issue, which one has given you more?
Do you prefer to be near a city? Both are in a suburban environment; however, WashU has very immediate access to St. Louis. If that’s an issue, then WashU might have the upper hand. Notre Dame isn’t far from Lake Michigan, if that’s a plus. It’s about an hour and a half from Chicago, so weekend visits are possible, but not easy. The weather in both locations is pretty much the same. Unpredictable midwest kinda grossness. However, WashU is warmer overall.
Hope this helps. Good luck. It sounds to me like a win-win decision!</p>
<p>I’m in the same position, AllThingsGrow, and I’m really not sure which way to go on this one. I’ve visited both schools multiple times (each within the past two weeks as well) and I still can’t make up my mind.</p>
<p>ATG - I’m getting old and don’t remember if I sent you a PM or not?!?! My D is a soph at WashU and had the same dilemma you are having 2 years ago. Someone asked this same question awhile back on the ND thread and I posted a long reply as to what factors went into my D’s decision to attend WashU. I also noticed on another post you are a ND legacy - that makes the decision even tougher I am sure! Here is the post I mentioned - </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-notre-dame/475056-nd-vs-wustl-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-notre-dame/475056-nd-vs-wustl-2.html</a></p>
<p>Both fine schools. </p>
<p>If you go to ND, be prepared for:
-Very traditional (read: conservative, single sex dorms, curfiew, one religion, less diversity)
-VERY small town and nothing going on off-campus</p>
<p>For the Football thing… keep in mind that there’s, what, 8 home games per year? Should you really be making college decisions based off of something to do on 8 sundays? 32 football games during college (while they would be exciting, for sure) hardly seems to be a legitimate reason to choose a school over another. I just don’t get that.</p>
<p>I definitely get the Athletic Spirit argument and wanting to be part of something exciting, but you’ll only go to a few games per year. Every school has sports, and WUSTL is probably the #1 school in Division 3 and actually WINS championships every year. Wash U is more about “school spirit” while ND is more about “athletic spirit”. WUSTL is more balanced with many different things to do and not being a school where everyone does the same thing. I understand the football argument to some degree, but choosing it over another school that is argubaly better for academics, academic presitige, things to do on campus/off campus besides church and football… it just doesn’t compute to me.</p>
<p>You’ll find WUSTL’s “athletic spirit” to be less than ND’s Division 1 Football type of athletic spirit… but if you go to any of the Bears’ games, you’re still going to find great attendance and great athletic rivalries and matchups. It’s not going to be as crazy as ND, but you’ll be able to be satisifed enough, and be confident that you went to a better school for academics, diversity, and well-rounded students.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for yalls responses!
Unfortunately neither schools offered me much money (even after calling the financial aid offices), so I can’t use that as a deciding factor.
MidwestParent, I did receive your PM-sorry, Im terrible at responding to those things and this week has been really busy. Your post is really helpful; I loved what your daughter said at the end about learning something from everyone there. That’s one thing that I’m looking forward to the most about college, learning from my classmates. I’m still debating between the two, but Sunday I’m going to visit ND so hopefully that will allow me to decide. I visited WashU last weekend for the ArtSci weekend, which of course made me lean towards WashU. However, like you noticed my dad and almost all of his family are ND alumns, so it would be hard to turn down all that tradition I’ve known my whole life (much like your daughter’s situation-lots of family pressure). Thanks for your help–only two weeks left to decide!</p>
<p>vbball - Since ATG’s family all went there presumably religion is not an issue, but I still think your comment needs correction about there being only one religion at ND. Of course it is a Catholic associated university, and obviously that religion dominates both because of that association and by tradition, legacies, etc. But there are students of many religions at ND, and from what I am told there are no issues with that.</p>
<p>Having said that, I agree with everything else you said. Well, there is basketball at ND too, and they have done much better recently. So 15-20 of those games at home also. But it doesn’t change your point, which I think is dead-on with respect to what reasons one should use for picking a school. Attending Div 1 sports is nice for many people, but come on. Go to the school you really want, even if it isn’t Div 1, and watch the Michigans and ND’s on TV.</p>
<p>Yes, ATG, very hard decision. ND doesn’t give any merit money - only FA. WashU does give some merit aid, if you are luck enough to be selected.</p>
<p>Trying to be fair in relation to both schools, I would advise you to not let any one adverse or one positive visit totally sway you. D had one nearly perfect visit at ND and one that was not so hot. Even getting home from the visit was bad - got stuck in the South Bend airport NINE HOURS. Was rescheduled for a flight the NEXT DAY out of CHICAGO - we were still in SOUTH BEND. Luckily, we got the last train out of SB and got ourselves to Chicago. Stayed overnight in a hotel (we paid for) and flew out of Chicago the next day. I think even that experience tainted D’s view.</p>
<p>Wanted to mention that I grew up Catholic, but joined another church after marrying, so D is not Catholic. Since 85% of the students are, she was lucky to be accepted! I think in the end, she also worried she would feel like an “outsider” not being Catholic (although many students told us that alot of the students are not what they considered to be “strong” Catholics).</p>
<p>You will just have to list all the positives and negatives after your visit to ND and see which school comes out on top. You can’t go wrong at either place!</p>