<p>I recently visited SCU and thought it was a really nice school. Nice campus, weather, facilities, and people. I just had a couple concerns. They sales pitch seemed very centered on location and how you can go to the beach, skiing, Napa, and San Francisco. How often do students actually venture off campus and take these trips? I did not seem to like the schedule at SCU of starting in the middle of September and finishing in the middle of June. What are your thoughts on this schedule? My last concern was when walking around campus everyone seemed to know each other. With only around 5,000 undergrads do the people around campus seem to get old? Is the student population too small?</p>
<p>As far as location, what you see is what you get. We’re about 45 minutes away from SF by car and roughly an hour and fifteen minutes by CalTrain, which is the commuter rail service. Students don’t go into SF as often as you’d think, but really it is just because we don’t see the need to. Freshmen usually go in more often than upperclassmen. </p>
<p>Skiing and snowboarding is a little different. There are some people that carpool up to Lake Tahoe every weekend. Some people also seem to go to Santa Cruz pretty regularly. </p>
<p>If you want to go to school in an urban environment, you can clearly see we don’t have it. I myself am very happy with our location. </p>
<p>I personally like the quarter system. For one, if you have a class you don’t like, you only have to put up with it for ten weeks. It also allows for more flexibility. We can take five courses a quarter as opposed to six courses a semester. That winds up being fifteen classes a year versus twelve. It makes it easier to double major or minor. Assuming you’re not a transfer, the quarter system will seem very normal to you. </p>
<p>To me, our UG population size is perfect. There always seems to be plenty of strangers to meet balanced out by a number of people you do know. When you think about it, 5,000 people is a lot. </p>
<p>Based on my experience, this is a critical factor in the college search. Just keep in mind if you start to look at schools that are bigger, you’re probably going to start seeing lecture hall style classes. That was always a no-go to me. Then again, the town I went to high school had a total population of about 3,000. For the record, I haven’t heard anyone complain about the size of our student body. </p>
<p>Good luck with your search and let me know if you have any more questions.</p>