The only place on Earth that really matters

Introduction
The biggest piece of advice I can give is to people considering ND is to visit. Notre Dame has something special about it that can't fully be described; it can only be felt. A visit to campus will tell you if this is the place for you or not. I had always wanted to go to Notre Dame since I was very young, so Notre Dame was really the only choice for me. When I visited in the fall of my senior year, everything was confirmed that this was the place I wanted to be for the next four years. Notre Dame is mostly rich, white kids who are Catholic. I have never heard any minorities, whether they were racial or religious minorities, really complain about ND. The people here are extremely nice and are nice to everyone. I would encourage everyone to apply if they can deal with living with a bunch of nice people 24/7. If you are really offended by rich, white, Catholic kids, then I would suggest not applying here.

Campus Life and Social Life
The best part of social life/ campus life would have to be home football on Saturdays. They are AMAZING. It is truly indescribable to experience a game surrounded by all of your friends in the greatest student section in America. The worse part of the social life/ campus life in my opinion would be the relationship between guys and girls. Notre Dame is very unique in that it only has single sex dorms and there are also these rules called parietals, where guys can't be in girls dorms after a certain hour (midnight Sun.-Thurs. and 2 on Fri. and Sat.) and vica versa. With these rules in place it can become very awkward between the sexes because you aren't living with anyone besides people of the same sex. The dating scene at ND isn't really existant. There are those couples who are either engaged or practically and then there is a bunch of single people. There are very few couples who are just casually dating. Sports are a big part of student life on campus. Almost everyone plays at least one sport in the form of interhall or intermural athletics. There are also two very nice gym complexes on campus. Service is also a very big part of campus. Over 80% of students do some sort of community service during their time on campus. There are a ton of ways to get involved with different clubs and organizations. The weekends are very diversified depending on what you are into. Every weekend there are several "parties" in the guys dorms. These "parties" are mostly just people grinding on each other to really loud music while drinking cheap beer in a dorm room with the door closed. ND has pretty strict rules on alochol and underage drinking. No alochol over 14% is allowed on campus and no public drunkenness is allowed either. If you get caught with hard alochol or being drunk you usually get sent to ResLife, which is the committee that punishes you if you have done something bad. Basically the rules for "parties" are only beer and to keep it in the room with the doors closed. On the weekends, there are also quite a few off campus parties. They take place at the apartments of students who live off campus and are more of your traditional type of parties. If the party scene isn't for you, then there is always some sort of music or comedy act or some sort of other cultural event going on on campus. In addition on Saturdays that aren't home football weekends, there are usually a good number of service projects that you can do. As for Sundays, they are work days. Almost everyone does work on Sundays all day long. Also on Sundays each dorm has their own mass at night. It is a Roman Catholic service but all are welcome to attend. The mass is one of my favorite parts about my dorm. Advertisement
Academics
The academics here are hard. No matter what your major is you are going to have a ton of work to do. Typically the engineering and science students have more work than the business and arts and letters students. It is very typical to do work from say, 6 at night till 2 or 3 in the morning 4 or 5 days a week. Even though there is a lot of work to be done, you are recieving a great education. All of the professors are very easy to talk to and are willing to help you any way they can. I haven't seen any classes that are taught by TAs yet. The only thing that is really taught by TAs are the labs for the sciences, and then the TA are usually very knowledgeable about the topics. Most of the professors are very good, but there are a few that are not very good teachers. Overall the academic experience is very positive.

Student Body
The typical student at Notre Dame is a rich, white, Catholic kid. Most students, when they aren't wearing Notre Dame apparel will wear brand name clothing, such as Abercrombie, Polo, Ralph Lauren, Lucky Jeans, etc. Over 80% of the student body is Catholic. And like 70% are white. Students are from all over the country as well as all over the world. There are quite a few students at ND from the Midwest, and the Chicago area is pretty popular. The Northeast is also an area that is well represented here. The majority of students who come here were the typical overachievers in high school. Everyone is very future oriented and is always looking at what will help them the most in their future. The main attitude of the students here I would say is work hard and then play hard on Friday and Saturday.

In Closing...
In my opinion, Notre Dame is the best school in the world. Most students also agree with me and it is evident by the loyality of its alumni. Notre Dame may seem like it is very exclusive and you have to be a certain type of person to fit in but it isn't. On the acceptance letter it says, "Welcome to the family." That one statement describes it perfectly. Notre Dame is like one huge family, between the student, administration, and its alumni. There is truly no other place like it on Earth.