How "Catholic" is Notre Dame?
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Anonymous
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We have a DS whose stats match up pretty well for Notre Dame. He wants to be in the Midwest (we moved here five years ago from WI) and wants to be in a smaller town or a suburb of a larger town. Not wanting to be isolated (ie no Kenyon), but a University of Chicago type school is out. So here's the dilemma- how Catholic is notre Dame? We are Catholic (on paper at least), so he is not at all against crucifixes in the classroom, prayer, and the like. BUT we fall more in line with the 'Cafeteria Catholic' line of thinking, only go to church a few times a year outside Christmas and Easter, fairly liberal, etc. No interest in a school where the large majority is uber-conversative. Does that rule out Notre Dame?
Hopefully I am not opening a can of worms here 
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Anonymous
| ND is not super conservative. Many of the students will be social justice Catholics. But South Bend is not a "smaller" town, it's a small town. |
Anonymous
| Very |
Anonymous
| I'm an alumna of ND. I am also cafeteria catholic (although these days barely even that). Religious conservatism runs the gamut there. You will find uber religious ppl attending mass every Sunday and some weekdays, and you will find people who could care less. Dorms are single-sex, and have times where opposite sex cannot be in them (ie overnight)...although that rule is broken frequently (at least when I was there) in guy dorms, and only drunk or stupid people get caught. You are required to take 2 religion classes to graduate, but they weren't anything ridiculous, and since you are catholic already, it certainly won't be out of left field. Yes there are crucifixes everywhere, yes they serve fish or Lenten Friday's in the dining halls, and yes, a lot of dorms have priests and nuns as heads. But overall, I certainly didn't feel like I was being forced to comply with some ultra-catholic agenda, and most students that I was friends with were liberal like me. Also, I had a bunch of "out" gay friends there who were never harassed or looked down on, fwiw. And it has the upside of being very tight-knit. Going to the grotto is a spiritual experience regardless of how catholic you are, and one of the best things I remember is when the entire student body, faculty, and clergy met on south quad for an impromptu mass on 9/11. While even then I wasn't very religious, it was...something special. I loved my years there; it sounds like your DS would be a good fit! |
Anonymous
| I went to ND. Plenty of cafeteria Catholics there. Your kid will be fine. The administration is very conservative, but the student body is less so. |
Anonymous
| ARGH who couldn't care less! If they could care less than they do care! |
Anonymous
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Very Catholic. And recently very conservative.
Have your kid visit Notre Dame on a non-football weekend and let him talk to the students. Very, very conservative. Notre Dame Alum here and I wouldn't send my children to Notre Dame now. |
Anonymous
This. Becoming more conservative recently. |
Anonymous
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Conservative Catholic here-- it is changing. When Rev. Jenkins he made some decision which left many wondering if ND was turning into a Georgetown. After much criticism he has started to change his leadership and worked to make the University more inline with Catholic teaching.
If it makes you feel better I would never pay for my children to attend ND-- or Georgetown for that matter. |
Anonymous
Why? |
Anonymous
| Among the other high ranking, popular Catholic colleges (Georgetown, Boston College, Villanova, etc.) yes...it is definitely more conservative, and has a much higher percentage of hard-line Catholics. |
Anonymous
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What about U Mich or U Wisconsin? Rah rah large schools like ND, in medium-small college towns
Purdue? |
Anonymous
+1. I graduated from ND about 10 years ago. Your son sounds like the majority of my friends when I was there. There is a more conservative contingent but I found people tended to find their like-minded peers very quickly. I think your son would fit in perfectly. Now if you said he hated football and everything surrounding it, however, I would be much more concerned about him fitting in. |
Anonymous
| I am very liberal and went to ND. There were plenty of folks like me. Interestingly, when I think of it, 4 out of my 5 best friends were conservative. It really was a non-issue because they were all such good people and I liked them so much. I think the whole thing is sort of a non-issue. |
Anonymous
| Liberal, my folks quit giving in disgust. |