By TORI CREIGHTON  |  Special to tb-two*

The University of Notre Dame has been immortalized by the movie Rudy and by Saturday home football games on NBC. Some of the hype is true, but there is definitely more to the story. Here’s the real scoop from a Notre Dame sophomore.

Size: 8,500 undergrads — small enough to see people you know on the quad, but you’ll never know everyone in your class

Tuition: $53,000 a year (including room and board), a figure that’s always on the rise. Financial aid is definitely possible though. ND has one of the largest endowments and alumni donation networks.
Location: South Bend, Ind. … or more relevantly, a 2 hour and 20 minute direct flight northwest from the St. Pete/Clearwater airport via Allegiant

Famous graduates: Rudy Ruettiger (obviously), Regis Philbin, Condoleezza Rice, Nicholas Sparks, Brady Quinn, Jimmy Clausen, Mike Golic, Joe Montana

Pros: Legendary athletic programs (We win championships in almost everything but football and men’s basketball these days … although we did upset an undefeated Syracuse this year.); alumni network (you graduate with a ready-made family of thousands of people you have not yet met); numerous service and academic programs; dorm life; campus is only an hour and a half east of Chicago (the nearest major city worth visiting)

Cons: Traveling about in the cold and snow for the majority of the time you spend on campus; parietals (the rules governing visiting privileges for single-sex dorms, a major downside to such living arrangements); nightlife/lack of city life

Social scene: Your dorm, athletics, sketchy off-campus bars, off-campus parties, any mischief you make

Odd things that may seem normal at ND: Late-night Quarter Dog runs (hot dogs for 25 cents after midnight); midnight campuswide snowball fight after the year’s first snowfall; the biannual Bun Run (a naked run through the student union undertaken by the boys of Zahm Hall); homecominglike dances and nonformals known as SYRs (set up your roommate); priests teaching classes; lack of meat available on campus during Lenten Fridays

Typical ND student: Jocks, bros, band geeks (except they aren’t really geeks), people from Chicago suburbs, religious people, students who like to do community service

Tori Creighton is a 2010 IB graduate of St. Petersburg High and a former student editor of tb-two*.