Student Profiles
Andrew Miller
History and English
Class of
2009
McLean, VA
"I decided to come to Notre Dame because after looking at and visiting the other schools at which I was accepted, Notre Dame was the only place that felt right. I had a lot of friends going to the state school and considered some of the Ivies, but there was something about ND that I couldn’t describe that drew me closer. When I found out I had been accepted into the Honors Program, it was like an added bonus.
"I would be able to go to a school that I absolutely loved, based on two visits, and now I was being offered the opportunity to take small, intensive classes with top professors in a wide variety of subjects. Knowing that, and reading information about possible grants and research opportunities made Notre Dame sound like the perfect community for a guy like me.
"For me the Honors Program, or HP, has been great. I was able to take classes with people who were academically like-minded and who have become some of my closer friends here at Notre Dame. The professors of the Honors Program freshman classes are amazing. We all want to learn as much as possible and the profs enjoy the fact that we’re interested in a lot of different fields. The smaller seminar-style class sizes also helped. The fact that I didn’t have a class my first year over fifty people helped me to focus on my academic work more easily than some of my hallmates who took large introductory courses. I love going into the HP lounge on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when Wendy has brought us in free pastries, and just talking to other people in the program. There’s always an interesting conversation happening, sometimes with professors who stop by to chat as well.
"In the HP you get pretty close to a small group of people because you generally take all the same classes. I think the best part of the Chicago trip was getting time to hang out with people that I had been in classes with for the whole year. It was a blast. I love the Art Institute, and even though I’ve been there dozens of times I still find things there that I have never seen before. The Opera was fantastic. I had never been to an Opera before and was really impressed with the grand production and general ambience of the opera house itself. Being able to spend time with my HP friends in a setting off-campus, in a city, with complete freedom, was priceless."
