VISIT: University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana

As you may know, Notre Dame is one of the most prestigious universities in the country. It’s a leader in the arts and sciences, has a stellar law school, exceptional engineering programs, and has a top-flight business school. And you might have heard that they also play football there. (That’s me being sarcastic. That’s why I don’t do that very often—I’m bad at it.) Check out their newly redesigned website at http://www.nd.edu. I find it a little hard to use, but you may have a better time with it than I do.

The campus is exceptionally beautiful and rife with traditions: there’s the Grotto (a replica of the shrine to the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, France), the Golden Dome (the 23-karat gold dome of the administration building), the “Touchdown Jesus” mural on the wall of the Hesburgh Library, and the famous Notre Dame Stadium, otherwise known as “the House that Rock Built.” The campus contains the College Football Hall of Fame and many beautiful bronze sculptures, all of which have affectionate student-created names like “First-Down Moses”. The buildings are gothic in style and like a less-ornate version of Oxford University. Many buildings were built in the nineteenth century and are beautifully restored and have modern function. There is considerable construction going on, including major expansions to the law school building and the erection of a new dorm.

Like Purdue, Notre Dame also offers a First Year of Studies program to which all freshman students are admitted. As a first-year student, all students take core courses that fulfill requirements for all majors on campus. At the end of the first year, all students choose a college among the five undergraduate academic units at ND: Arts and Letters, Sciences, Business, Engineering, or Architecture. Students finally declare a major at the end of the sophomore year. One fact the university is especially proud to mention is that 96% of Notre Dame students graduate on time in four years—including the engineering students. That’s a big deal in a time when the norm for undergraduate degrees in engineering is five years.

Notre Dame also prides itself on its financial aid packages: Notre Dame meets 100% of demonstrated financial need. ND has made this policy a major priority of its aid program and its general university mission; our Texas regional representative, Gil Martinez, told me that all proceeds from the football team’s television deal with NBC go directly into the financial aid fund. While this is an extraordinary policy for students with need, it means that the university does not offer any merit-based (menaing non-need-based) aid. Instead, the university emphasizes that all of its admitted students have meritorious records—that’s why they were admitted in the first place. This can be a little discouraging for a school where next year’s total estimated price tag (including tuition, room, board, transportation, fees, and incidentals) is $49,000.

I had a great conversation with our Texas regional representative, Gil Martinez, and he’ll be visiting our school this fall to speak at greater length with STES students. He wanted me to let you know two things about the admissions process at ND this fall. First of all, ND will be moving to the Common Application for the first time. If you apply to ND, make sure you apply to the RIGHT ND. Just to remind you: there are other schools with similar names in California and Maryland; ND is in Indiana.

Furthermore, it’s important to know that ND’s admissions process is not rolling in the way that many other schools’ processes are. Let me explain this, because it’s a little different from the way other schools do things. Notre Dame has two admissiosn pools: Early Action and Regular Decision. They do not have an Early Decision program. You are advised to apply to the university “when your application will be strongest”, since they really evaluate all the early action applications together, then take a break, then evaluate all of the regular decision applications. Many other schools encourage you to get your application in early because the application pool is smaller and admissions officers might be more generous or less selective in such earlier rounds. At Notre Dame, Mr Martinez told me, this is not the way things work. The admissions office is instead especially conservative with admissions in the early round, and they will deny students at this point in the process. Applicants are advised to apply when they feel their application is strongest. That is, if you’re still awaiting an improved SAT score or first marking period grades, don’t apply early action! Make your application only when you feel happiest with the total picture you’ll be presenting to the admissions office.