it just wasn't for me...
Written: Feb 28 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: near major city, good academics, small classes
Cons: homogenous, small campus, too small population
The Bottom Line: college is what you make of it. everyone has their own personality and so does every university. SCU just didnt' suit my personality.
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| calband36's Full Review: Santa Clara University |
you can probably tell from my member name that i chose to go to UC Berkeley (go bears!). however, searching for colleges, Santa Clara University was one of my top choices. Although I came to the conclusion that it just wasn't for me, it might be for you. I'm going to try my best not to be biased.
why santa clara university?
a good friend of mine, an RA (resident assistant)at SCU (Santa Clara Univ.), recommend that i visit the school a couple of times and see if i like it. So, i went and visited. The campus is gorgeous! It looks like a mini-country club. The main church is nice and the campus has a spanish mission feel to it. (it use to be a spanish mission.) Because the campus is fairly small, you can get to any building w/in 10 minutes. The dorms (they call ts residence halls) are all situated ON campus, unlike other universities like UC Berkeley where you have to go on a trek to get to your dorm. Since the campus is fairly small in both size and population, most of your classes are relatively small in comparison with other universities. There are around 5000 people all together at SCU compared to 28,000+ at UC Berkeley. Also, the school is less cut-throat than Berkeley. The environment seems more relaxed. However, this doesn't mean that the academics is easy, because it's not. SCU is also the #2 university in the West (Regional category, which is different that the National category in which UC Berkeley is in (#1 public univ. Go bears!) Sorry, I digress. Also, just because it's a jesuit school, doesn't mean it's a religious school. There are all sorts of people who to school at SCU that are not affliated w/ the Catholic church.
Sounds good, why didn't you go there?
Because the school is so small, it felt like another high school. I wanted to leave high school as quickly as possible and i didn't want to go to another school where gossip and everything else travels w/in a few days. i wanted my anonymity. SCU wasn't too diverse either. The school was too homogenous. Everyone seemed the same. As for the campus itself, the campus was too small! After two visits, I practically knew where everything was. I wanted to explore the university i'd go to. I wanted to discover new things every year or every day. In SCU, i felt like it didn't have too many surprises. There was also a lack of school spirit. Everyone went to school, and that's about it. It didn't really feel like a college atmosphere. I also felt that the academic setting wasn't what i was looking for. I must admit that i wasn't looking for a cut-throat enviroment (like UC Berkeley's), but i was looking for a challenge. On top of everything else, as good of a school SCU is, it just wasn't as prestigious as UC Berkeley or other universities out there. SCU was also surrounded by nothing, but suburbia. There was a mini-mall to go and eat lunch, that's about it. To go somewhere fun around SCU requires a car! Unlike UC Berkeley, everything is a bus ride, a walk or a BART ride away. The cost was also quite a lot. It's around $30,000 a year including housing. Most private schools do run around that much, but I would rather go to a more prestigious university like Yale or Harvard if I'm paying that much money. (sounds a little harsh, but it's true.) Don't get me wrong, SCU is a great school, just not as prestigious as many other universities. (i know this is a superficial thing, but for some people, it matters.)
now what?
maybe everything i didn't like about the school, you liked. or maybe you agree with me. Either way, I hope this helps you. When it comes down to it, make sure you feel comfortable at the college you choose.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
calband36
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Location: berkeley, ca
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
My opinions are MY opinions, NOT that of the Cal Band!
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