The Middle West (Notre Dame)

Yup, so this one's about Notre Dame. After the visit to Carleton, I NEEDED something big, something for me. Thus, heading to my dad's alma mater was what happened. Notre Dame has been ingrained in my memory since I was a young kid. My dad probably bleeds blue and gold. Naturally, this wasn't my first trip to the beautiful South Bend, IN, where the university is located. We rolled in off the Indiana Toll Road towards dinner time, driving through the well-kept neighborhoods surrounding the university, we finally arrived at our hotel, which was across the road from Notre Dame's grounds at St. Mary's University. Both St. Mary's and Notre Dame were founded by the Order of the Holy Cross. At one time, Notre Dame was all male, and St. Mary's all female. My dad, of course, began recollecting the 'mixers' between the two schools. Since my dads graduation, Notre Dame has become co-ed, while St. Mary's remains more of an all female junior college.


Anyways, we spent probably an hour sitting in the hotel room at the Inn at St. Mary's, before I went down to weightlift and thing about the college situation. We went to a delicious Italian dinner at a place called Parisi's. We got there a bit before closing, but the waitress still served us. Man, the place was decorated like the holy grail of Notre Dame football. Signed posters, footballs, helmets, you name it, were everywhere. A lifesize picture of coach Brian Kelly hung over the door to the kitchen. Looking out the window, you could see the sun setting, glistening off the top of the infamous Golden Dome. We drove by Notre Dame stadium on the way home, and it was picturesque. Row upon row of empty seats, shining in the moonlight. Everything about it screamed 'COME HERE.' And I hadn't even taken the tour yet. I don't know if any of you readers have watched Field of Dreams,  but it's one of my favorite movies. Driving by the stadium, I imagined ghostly appariations of Notre Dame greats running around on the field. I've always dreamed of going to football games every weekend, dressing up in school colors. The other athletic fields were pretty impressive as well; a 5,000 seat soccer stadium that looked like it could have been the football stadium at another school, 4 or 5 baseball fields, basketball gym, etc.

We woke up the next morning to go on the official tour. I kicked off the day by dropping toothpaste on my otherwise immaculate polo, which may or may not have impressed the admissions reps (most likely the latter). The tour, which was my second, and first officially (in which the admissions office is able to use the fact that you visited as a sign of 'potential interest'), was great. My tour guide was a Psychology major in the Pre-Med track with a Spanish minor. The labs were nearly brand new, and the lecture halls were both comfortable and modern. At some of the other places I went, namely, University of Pittsburgh, which I will discuss at a later date, the lecture halls were like some kind of weird kindergarten classroom, with plastic seats and writing stands. Honestly, as a prospective college student, nothing is more welcoming than a cozy lecture chair. One of the more interesting features of Notre Dame is the 14 story Hesburgh Library, named after one of the most revered university presidents, Father Hesburgh. The library gets progressively quieter, each level you go down. On the side, and visible from the stadium is a mural known as "Touchdown Jesus."

I should mention that, being Catholic, I definitely go to my fair share of Catholic college visits, Notre Dame being perhaps the most prestigious Catholic university in the country. If you're not really into the religious aspect, I guess it's kind of hard to avoid at Notre Dame. Religious presence in the form of Christianity is definitely prevalent on campus (grotto to the Virgin Mary, multiple churches, religious symbolism). A lot of the administration is affiliated with the Church, and a number of brothers live on campus. On the other hand, a lot of Notre Dame isn't pertaining to religion.

One of the things that impressed me the most was the housing arrangement and the overall fitness of the student population. There are 29 single sex housing dorms on campus, which become your teams for intramural sports, and closest friends, hopefully. My dad lived in Lyon Hall when he was there. When you're not in your dorms, you can gorge yourself at the South Dining Hall, perhaps the best campus food eatery I've ever experienced. There was everything from pasta, fruit, and Chinese food to self-serve ice cream and fudge. It's safe to say I stuffed myself with food, especially the absolutely fantastic marinara rotini. Something to definitely take note of in a college or university is the food selection. It'll be the difference between healthy habits after college and gaining weight astronomically.

Literally everyone I saw on the ND campus was in shape. And that's something that's really important to me. Healthy students produce good scores, a good environment for learning, and staying in shape. Notre Dame has multiple gyms for students (make sure when you visit campuses that the students' athletic facilities are separate from the collegiate athletics training facilities), but my favorite gym at Notre Dame is the Rockne, also known as "The Rock." My dad used to work out there when he was a student. Named after perhaps the winningest in ND football history, the Rock is like Kenney with a $5 million reno. Somehow, it manages to capture the old legacy and the new, state of the art equipment perfectly.

Aside from the dorms and food, the other parts of campus were incredibly pretty. Notre Dame's campus is nestled near two lakes, St. Joseph's and St. Mary's. It was probably around 80 degrees when we were visiting, but didn't feel overly hot. One of the things that I'm looking for in a college, no matter how insignificant it may seem, is similar seasons to here in Champaign, which I've become accustomed to. Notre Dame has pretty intense winters, due to the fact that it's situated in the Lake Michigan Snow Belt.

Yeah, perhaps I'm a little bit biased, but Notre Dame was everything I expected and more...next week, I'll talk about my visit to Penn, my first experience with the notorious Ivy League.

The long and winding road...to college

 I really didn't mean to be cliche with this blog post, but in all honesty, when I thought of something meaningful that was affecting my life right now, I came up with college. Yup, it's that time already. That time of my life where I begin the tedious process of applying to colleges. I figure that since I've traveled so much to visit various places, this blog will become a sort of reflection ground for me and my collegiate excursions. Honestly, I can't complain with the summer happenings related to college. My dad, the genius he is, decided to combine this year's usual Stavins Family driving vacation with a Midwest/Northeast college tour trip, as well. It started off with a trip to Minnesota, to visit Carleton College in Northfield. Ha! Carleton College, you say. I would be apt to agree with your sentiments. It took probably close to 30 minutes off a semi-major interstate to get to the place. I can't deny, however, that the scenery was beautiful. In all due fairness, it reminded me a lot of Illinois. A curvy road (albeit with numerous potholes) wound its way through the countryside, past barns, green fields, and small airstrips.  We got there and were greeted by the petite town of Northfield, complete with a grocery store, some botique shops, a couple hotels, and...yeah, that's probably about it.

In an attempt to not rip on this fine institution, I would like to point out one of the more interesting aspects of the otherwise miniscule campus: a cookie house. Now, some of you might be wondering, what the heck is a cookie house?! Apparently, there was an elderly lady that used to live on a house on campus. Throughout her lifetime, she refused to sell out her land to the university. However, she did something rather extraordinary with her spare time. Any student brave enough to come up and knock on her door, she would make cookies for. Upon her death, she left her house to the college in her will. Carleton College now spends around $10,000 every year keeping the house stocked with as many cookie making materials as hungry college students could possibly use. If you're as flabbergasted as I am by the expense, we're going to be good buddies by the time you're done reading all of my posts.

On the other hand, if you're into theater and media studies, the College recently finished construction of an ~$10 million 'creativity center,' that includes television studios, a full theater, a cinema, and more. Interestingly enough, the building was integrated with the old Northfield High School, which the college purchased to combine an ultramodern media hub with exposed brick, an old clock and bell tower, and locker room bathrooms.

And then there was the air conditioning problem...I know it's Minnesota, and that we're having what everyone considers to be a hotter summer than usual, but not having air conditioning in dorms during a tour really puts off a bad showing. The tour guide went on to boast about their gourmet catered healthy food options, how their intramural sports and quad were all in the same place, and their outdated planetarium. The one thing that did interest me was The Cave. A notorious hang out spot beneath a mansion of a dorm, The Cave has hosted everyone from Kanye West to The All American Rejects over the years.
Honestly, I wasn't as pleased with the tiny college campus as I thought I might be. Carleton was my first look at the 'small liberal arts school.' I still really am into the liberal arts prospect, but 3,000 seems just too small for a college atmosphere. There's always been something in me that wants to explore somewhere new, somewhere big and exciting. Unfortunately, a town of 20,000 and two colleges (Carleton and St. Olaf) in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota just didn't cut it.

And thus, I bid farewell to Northfield and began my travels anew, heading first to St. Paul, MN to tour (informally) the University of St. Thomas, where my uncle taught economics before he passed away. I was more impressed with my incomplete tour of this university than I had been with my complete tour of Carleton, although the academics weren't quite on par with other places I was looking at. Nestled just a few blocks from Macalester College, perched on a hillside above the river, this university of around 8,000, at sunset, was picturesque. The student union was state of the art, as well as the gym (which reminded me a lot of a totally redone Kenney). After watching the soccer players' night practice and reminiscing with a family friend about my uncle's old office, my family and I, without much ado, bid adieu to Minnesota and began our 8 hour journey to the lovely South Bend, IN and the University of Notre Dame. But I suppose if you want to hear about how that went, you'll have to wait for the next post.