UPDATED: Onwualu commits to Notre Dame

[tap]

That is the most ridiculous statement I've ever heard of in my life. I will put my degree with any degree from ND. I don't give dime about ND. When it comes to science, engineering, Mathematics and some social science majors, the U is as good as you can get on EARTH. I'm absolutely sick and tired of some alumni ( students) having defeatist attitude. Have you ever heard of Noble Laureates laden the U Econ Dept? Mathematics Department? How about Chemical Engineering? Research? My senior year tuition was paid with the money I got from research assistant job. ND has been spending just tens of millions of research expenditure. It is a lot of money. The U has been spending hundreds of millions of dollars. It is all up to you to utilize the resources. Btw I'm turning down the University of Illinois to do my dual Masters here at the U. General population might think UI is better than the U. But they are not the one hiring me.
The U was somehow sluggish in late 80s, and 90s. That is my impression. But please show some respect to current students. Kids from other countries are dying to get into the U. A lot of recent high school students didn't consider the U because they know they won't get into it. It is not a safety school. It is the school for those who know what they will be getting for next four years. Current students are much more serious than when I used to be. It is not painful for me to say that I graduated from the U. But it is painful for me to say that the same is true for UW. I can't say that for Iowa.

AMEN!

 

[GopherGod]

That is the most ridiculous statement I've ever heard of in my life. I will put my degree with any degree from ND. I don't give dime about ND. When it comes to science, engineering, Mathematics and some social science majors, the U is as good as you can get on EARTH. I'm absolutely sick and tired of some alumni ( students) having defeatist attitude. Have you ever heard of Noble Laureates laden the U Econ Dept? Mathematics Department? How about Chemical Engineering? Research? My senior year tuition was paid with the money I got from research assistant job. ND has been spending just tens of millions of research expenditure. It is a lot of money. The U has been spending hundreds of millions of dollars. It is all up to you to utilize the resources. Btw I'm turning down the University of Illinois to do my dual Masters here at the U. General population might think UI is better than the U. But they are not the one hiring me.
The U was somehow sluggish in late 80s, and 90s. That is my impression. But please show some respect to current students. Kids from other countries are dying to get into the U. A lot of recent high school students didn't consider the U because they know they won't get into it. It is not a safety school. It is the school for those who know what they will be getting for next four years. Current students are much more serious than when I used to be. It is not painful for me to say that I graduated from the U. But it is painful for me to say that the same is true for UW. I can't say that for Iowa.

The U is a good school and hiring managers in the upper midwest might know this. However, do you think that the average hiring manager in the Northeast, Northwest, Southwest, or West knows about the quality of a U of M education? Whether it is correct or not, Notre Dame has a NATIONAL reputation for quality that your average hiring manager will equate with a Notre Dame degree. They also have a very strong alumni network throughout the entire country that opens doors for Notre Dame grads. Sometimes perception is more important than reality at getting your foot in the door of a company.

 

[Prado89]

The U is a good school and hiring managers in the upper midwest might know this. However, do you think that the average hiring manager in the Northeast, Northwest, Southwest, or West knows about the quality of a U of M education? Whether it is correct or not, Notre Dame has a NATIONAL reputation for quality that your average hiring manager will equate with a Notre Dame degree. They also have a very strong alumni network throughout the entire country that opens doors for Notre Dame grads. Sometimes perception is more important than reality at getting your foot in the door of a company.

The funny thing is when you’re outside of U.S , people really don’t care about ND, because ND+ football brand has little value to them. This is particularly true for Asia Pacific region which is going to be the center of global economy for years to come. They don’t look at the sentimental facts like how many NCs ND has. They prefer science and facts.
For the jobs, networking helps, but it is be all and end all. During my time at the U, I got a chance to connect with people from different states + some from Asia Pacific countries like Japan, China. Most of them are not silver spoon feed scions. But they know what they are doing. According to my observation, most of my peers aspire to go the other Big Ten schools, the Ives and top Pac 12 schools for graduate education. None of my friends said they’re thinking ND for their education. ND is not what they used to be. It is not only on football field but also in real world. Just like their dwindling T.V ratings, their competitive edge on education is getting wane. I can’t see the future education without research.
How many bright, smart students they will be losing each and every year to research intense (focus) schools? Many of us think ND is nothing more than glorified Liberal Arts school. ND may be NATIONAL but not GLOBAL for sure. It is not a coincidence that ND is far far off in the list of top global universities. There is a reason to see flocks of International students on the U campus. Some people in U.S might say “ Oh ND! ND! Touchdown Jesus. O! NDDDD.” Outside of U.S., people will say what ND.
http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/reputation-rankings.html
We can also talk about Student Loan and cost. I would not trade my finical freedom with anything on earth. If mom and dad will pay for it, go for it. If you have trust fund, even better.
Finally, prestige and glamour are self-fulfilling prophecy. Is Stanford THAT prestigious two decades go? Hell No. If you believe that you graduate from just certificate printing machine. So be it. I don’t care. We can at least agree to disagree. So far in life, the degree from the U serves me well.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Notre Dame is about as Catholic as Minnesota. There are reasons to go there, but an orthodox religious education is not one of them. Most of the schools that devout, committed Catholics send their kids to for an authentic Catholic education are smaller places most people have never heard of.

It's not about going to a Catholic school for a strict religious education, it is what people are used to. A lot of CDH athletes have been going to private (often Catholic) schools their entire lives and it is a comfort zone. CDH isn't a very religious school and a lot of the kids aren't even Catholic. It's not so much about actual Catholicism as much as it is about what the people are used to. As far as the top athletes, it's really the same thing, it's a comfort zone thing. It is a natural progression for a CDH athlete to go to Notre Dame, just like it's natural for a D3 kid to choose St. Thomas/St. Johns over UW-River Falls.

 

[Tee09]

It's not about going to a Catholic school for a strict religious education, it is what people are used to. A lot of CDH athletes have been going to private (often Catholic) schools their entire lives and it is a comfort zone. CDH isn't a very religious school and a lot of the kids aren't even Catholic. It's not so much about actual Catholicism as much as it is about what the people are used to. As far as the top athletes, it's really the same thing, it's a comfort zone thing. It is a natural progression for a CDH athlete to go to Notre Dame, just like it's natural for a D3 kid to choose St. Thomas/St. Johns over UW-River Falls.

I know that. I was replying to somebody who was making the point that people would send their kid to Notre Dame for primarily religious reasons. Really, any small private college should be a comfort zone for them, as like you said, neither school is particularly religious. A lot of people here don't buy that, as you can go somewhere based on where you're comfortable without acting as if you are too good for the University of Minnesota, which is the impression given off by a lot of CDH's athletes.

 

[zubb]

The kid wants to follow in his brothers foot steps - the brother goes to Wharton business school. An undergrad degree from ND and possibly an MBA from Wharton should get him into just about any financial house on wall street.

 

[zubb]

And BTW - anyone who thinks the public schools don't recruit isn't paying attention to high school sports in Minnesota.

 

[zambam]

And BTW - anyone who thinks the public schools don't recruit isn't paying attention to high school sports in Minnesota.

I remember when my Catholic school in small town Minnesota was accused of recruiting by some people. Made me lol like crazy.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

And BTW - anyone who thinks the public schools don't recruit isn't paying attention to high school sports in Minnesota.

I actually have no idea how it works in the public schools but I imagine it is probably relatively similar to CDH.

I think kids recruit CDH much more than the other way around. It's really only natural. You can see the kind of thinking in a thread about Michael Flowers a few weeks ago (and also with some people talking Junius Wilson at Woodbury). People were quick to point out that if Michael Flowers or Wilson were at Cretin, there respective recruitments would have been different. That mindset absolutely drives kids to CDH. It's almost sad that we look at a kid like Michael Flowers who is just going to the public HS in his area and think "things would have been better for him had he gone to Cretin." Unfortunately, because of the state of the programs in Saint Paul and Minneapolis . . . it's probably true.

I think that that same draw is what brings basketball players to Hopkins. I'm not saying that there isn't any sort of informal recruiting happening, I just think that it's mostly just a natural draw.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I know that. I was replying to somebody who was making the point that people would send their kid to Notre Dame for primarily religious reasons. Really, any small private college should be a comfort zone for them, as like you said, neither school is particularly religious. A lot of people here don't buy that, as you can go somewhere based on where you're comfortable without acting as if you are too good for the University of Minnesota, which is the impression given off by a lot of CDH's athletes.

Yeah, I was just kind of agreeing with you. It's not about the actual religion as much as it about their comfort zone in a Catholic school setting.

 

[Go4Broke]

Yeah, I was just kind of agreeing with you. It's not about the actual religion as much as it about their comfort zone in a Catholic school setting.

If you don't understand the pull of Notre Dame for devout and committed Catholic families then you have never been part of such a family. I am close to a family who sent their sons to CDH all of whom played football. Their youngest plays for CDH now and has serious DI potential. If he is fortunate enough to get a scholarship offer from ND the U won't even get a second look from the family or the kid. And the reasons will only be secondarily related to football.

 

[zambam]

If you don't understand the pull of Notre Dame for devout and committed Catholic families then you have never been part of such a family. I am close to a family who sent their sons to CDH all of whom played football. Their youngest plays for CDH now and has serious DI potential. If he is fortunate enough to get a scholarship offer from ND the U won't even get a second look from the family or the kid. And the reasons will only be secondarily related to football.

You also don't understand how few kids at Catholic schools actually give a f*ck about the Catholic faith.

 

[Prado89]

You also don't understand how few kids at Catholic schools actually give a f*ck about the Catholic faith.

Amen! I came from Jesuit family background. I don't give a blip about Catholic. Sorry. I just don't.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

If you don't understand the pull of Notre Dame for devout and committed Catholic families then you have never been part of such a family. I am close to a family who sent their sons to CDH all of whom played football. Their youngest plays for CDH now and has serious DI potential. If he is fortunate enough to get a scholarship offer from ND the U won't even get a second look from the family or the kid. And the reasons will only be secondarily related to football.

I was raised Catholic and went Catholic grade school through high school, including CDH. My father and uncles were Cretin grads and my mother was an OLP grad (not around anymore but it is where William Mitchell College of Law is today), and my siblings and myself all went to Nativity and then CDH. I never attended a non-Catholic school until I went to the U of MN. I understand the dynamics of Catholic people choosing to go to Catholic schools.

From my experience, and this isn't conclusive, the number of actual devout Catholics at CDH is fairly small. They certainly exist and those kids will always choose Catholic schools. I am not arguing with you on that and it seems like your family's friends are probably in that group. However, I knew very few kids like that while I was at Cretin. That isn't to say that those kids wouldn't still choose a Catholic college. My point is that for those kids (the non-devout Catholics) it isn't about the actual Catholic religion as much as it is about what they are used to.

So while I don't disagree with you about the devout Catholic students, I think you are grossly overestimating the amount of those students that exist at CDH. If I had to guess, the Onwualu's are not one of those families. I don't know them at all, but I only say that because John went to Penn. While Penn is an amazing school, John had his pick of what school's he would attend and he chose a non-Catholic school.

 

[Tee09]

If you don't understand the pull of Notre Dame for devout and committed Catholic families then you have never been part of such a family. I am close to a family who sent their sons to CDH all of whom played football. Their youngest plays for CDH now and has serious DI potential. If he is fortunate enough to get a scholarship offer from ND the U won't even get a second look from the family or the kid. And the reasons will only be secondarily related to football.

I'm saying that actual devout, committed, Catholics think Notre Dame is a secular moral wasteland that sold out long ago, claims to be Catholic while openly flouting the teachings they are supposed to believe, and would never send their kids there because of it. There are also very few devout, committed Catholics. Probably ~10% of all who call themselves Catholic, and certainly a minority at schools like CDH. If these people send their kids to a Catholic school for the sake of it being Catholic, they send them to places like Dallas, Ave Maria, Christendom, Benedictine, Franciscan, etc. Any of the larger, more well-known Catholic univesities, you may as well go to a public school and save some money. They offer no advantage other than usually being smaller (and if you consider being smaller an advantage).