gradgirl

I grew up in the South Bend area, did my undergraduate work in the area, and my brother goes to ND now. I'd be more than happy to give anyone info about Notre Dame or northern Indiana in general.
ND's campus is sort of isolated from South Bend, and they are taking steps to isolate themselves still further by closing a main road that previously went through campus. Downtown South Bend is only about 3 miles from ND. There's a decent strip of shopping/restaurants/etc near campus, and in the past few years it's been growing steadily in terms of stuff to do. If you are vegan/vegetarian/health conscious, there are a few great privately owned health food stores in the area as well, and ... *drum roll*...some really awesome coffeehouses! The cost of housing will vary depending upon how far from campus you live, but I'm sure that's pretty normal with most college areas. If you need help finding housing or want more info on the area than you might get from ND's website, check out http://www.ndtoday.com, a popular site among students. To register you may need an ND email address, but I think some parts of the site are available without registration.
The campus is beautiful... and while ND can be a little brusque during the admissions process, they really take care of their students once you're in.

While I'm sure it's probably much easier/more common to find vegetarian cuisine in a place such as LA, I wouldn't worry about it at all in the Notre Dame area. Sure, there are your usual midwest-meat-and-potatoes kinds of places, and lots of unhealthy food, and you WILL be in the minority as a vegetarian, but I've been vegetarian for 9 years (vegan for 1.5) and I've never had problems in the area. We have a chain of stores called Meijer (Wal-Mart's midwestern competitor) and they carry quite a wide selection of vegan products. The other major grocery stores in the area, Martin's and Kroger, both do pretty well too. My favorite, however, is a store called Harmony Market... they have multiple brands of practically everything vegan you could ever imagine--even premade vegan deli sandwiches if you're in a hurry. They also carry organic produce. If you want bulk grains and spices and other specialty products, there's also a small store nearby called Garden Patch.

In terms of restaurants, there's a wide selection of ethnic cuisine--one of my favorites is a place called Elia's right by campus (Mediterranean food). There are also several Indian restaurants, a Thai place, and lots of locally owned Italian and Mexican places. Most importantly, though, is the fact that the area is growing so rapidly. When I visited my family over Christmas, I couldn't believe how many new stores and restaurants had opened since I'd been there last, only 6 months before. With all of the stuff that's been being built and opened, the options are bound to only get better.

As for campus life: never have I seen such campus loyalty and unity among students. It really does feel like a community there. The undergrad dorms are almost fraternity/sorority-like and there are always a lot of events--often free for students--going on on campus. Notre Dame brings in some really good concerts (I saw about 5-6 concerts there while I was a student--most of which were almost free), as well as great guest speakers, TV show tapings (I attended a taping of Hardball at one point), and theater productions (lots of Shakespeare). Their art museum is also pretty nice. And, as you mentioned, football--the games are always a good time...and if you need to miss a game to do work, you can be almost guaranteed that no one will be around to interrupt you on game weekends...hehe. I did experience some frustrations with the football, mostly the traffic (South Bend really can't accommodate a huge influx of people) and also some campus and city stuff will shut down on game weekends, so be prepared for that. It can be a major inconvenience if you forget or don't plan ahead.

Off-campus life is pretty limited. There's a pretty clear divide between the ND community and the South Bend community; I'm not sure if I'd call it animosity, exactly, but many ND students have a pretty negative attitude about the "townies." There are some college bars, about 2 dance clubs, but nothing spectacular. I believe there are some sports leagues (my ex played in a couple of softball leagues and I think he's doing basketball now) but these things aren't heavily advertised and I wouldn't know who to point you toward to find out about them. The lack of off-campus life is probably the thing I found most frustrating as an undergraduate; there was a continual feeling that if you weren't going to go to a dorm party or house party, there was really nothing else to do at night--whether you wanted to drink or not. I wasn't a huge drinker myself, so there wasn't always a lot to do. I guess all of this is to say, don't expect Notre Dame/South Bend to feel like a city, really. There's not the same bustle, and beyond the student body you may not meet a whole lot of other people in the community unless you actively try to seek these relationships and are careful not to seem 'braggy' about your ND degree. This, however, was just my experience and what I observed going on with others I knew.

Good news: in the warmer weather you'll just be about 30-40 minutes from Lake Michigan (the beaches on the Michigan side) and maybe a bit further from Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. (I prefer the beaches in Michigan--the lake is actually quite beautiful and can feel almost oceanic depending on where you go.) If you could get together a few people, it's a blast playing beach volleyball there

Also, there is a commuter train between the South Bend airport and downtown Chicago. It only costs about $10.40 each way--it's about a 2 hour trip or so because the train makes lots of stops, but it's well worth it if you don't have a car. It's nice just having the option there if you do feel like you want to escape for awhile and spend some time in a city.

Okay--I hope this helps! Let me know if you want any more specifics.

One of my advisors told me SPECIFICALLY to NOT mention professor names, becuase it can narrow your options--that is, if you express an interest in working with Professor X but he has no openings for new advisees this year, you're done. He said it can also put you in a situation where you're the victim of department politics you're unaware of--ie, you express an interest in working with Professor X but he's not on the admissions committee and Professor Y is, and Y gets annoyed that you hadn't mentioned HIS work. and is instantly soured toward your application. Also if they're getting a LOT of people who name the same specific person they want to work with, they probably get tired of hearing it... he said if they have someone really famous on their faculty in your area, of COURSE you'd want to work with them, and you dont need to express the obvious. And he mentioned the fact that it's better to approach a program with more of an open mind in case the person(s) whose names you drop are going to go on sabbatical/retire/who knows what... you want the PROGRAM to be a good fit, not just specific people.

This said, I didn't mention any names in my SoP...he pretty well scared me out of doing so. However, I did my homework on the profs in the departments, and i tailored each SoP to make my interests sound as harmonious and relevant as possible to the work that specific profs in the department were/are doing. In one case, I even contacted a specific prof to gain more info on his research interests and the program in general, and while I never mentioned his name in my SoP it was pretty obvious who i'd be a good match for when it comes to advising. I think it's not a bad idea to let the school "fit you in" to their department rather than staking out a claim and being as presumptuous as to assume where you'd fit in best. But that's just me. I'm sure others would violently disagree with me on this.