Two things that might concern a young scholar:
1). the claim about USC being number 1 in something associated with hearing research: US NEWS ranked the 64 leading graduate audiology programs in the country --- USC was not among them.
2). what sort of general support could a person with some hearing loss be able to depend on at university? Notre Dame offers a full range of support services including interfacing with instructors, special testing rooms and time, note-takers, tutors, texts on CDs, and what they call "adaptive equipment". If that might mean a device which could give real time captioning in classroom lectures, then that would be state-of-the-art [Ask Coach if he can get you one, Tee].
Coincidentally, the award-winning senior thesis this year was by a student who got a Undergrad Research Opportunity Grant to study hearing impaired students at Gallaudet University [the flagship college for hearing impaired students]. Also, a recent [2011] Masters thesis [not from ND but not SC either] studied hearing impaired students as to the factors in their becoming successful. One of the questionnaire points was interesting.
The issue was whether it helped the students to have experienced a hearing impaired role model. Of all the responses, one caught my eye:
Question: "Do you feel that as a student in an oral school for the deaf, you would have liked to have met other deaf role models?"
Answer: " I met a deaf man who graduated from Notre Dame University and I was impressed with his successful background in work and civic leadership".
It was, with the sole exception of Gallaudet, the only mention of a college by name in all the responses.
We are Notre Dame.
