Real Scoop on Loyola

Colleges and Universities A-Z Loyola University - Maryland
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<p>rbdiaz- there is school spirit, but only for a couple sporting events. a lot of people go to the lacrosse games and some people go to the basketball games, but we are lacking in the school spirit department. i wish we had a football team, then it would be fun. people love the loyola name though and they are proud to wear it and be a greyhound so that’s good. the food gets old really quickly, but then again i’m really picky. it sucks that it opens at 9 and closes at 9. the food is okay. i’m sick of it. a lot of people go to iggys across campus or just order food. once you have an apartment you can cook dinner which is good. as for the seating, there are certain times of day where there are a ton of people in boulder 12-2 but you just have to avoid it at those times if you can. there is seating by the chinese food and outside when it’s nice out. </p>

<p>fruttivendolo- good luck with finding a school! there are some down to earth cool kids at loyola you just need to look extra hard. i wish you the best of luck :D</p>

<p>JRZMom- the food here is expensive. mozzarella sticks are like 7 dollars which is ridiculous while a grilled cheese with fries is like 5. it’s absurd. if you go to iggys and get meals i think its 7 dollars which can be ziti or chicken with two sides. the food here is ehh. its just really expensive which sucks. kids can cook food in their apartments or order food. some people will take the free collegetown shuttle into the harbor or the mall to get a good dinner, because you need that every now and then. as for the social scene loyola does offer things to do, but it gets old. options which is the alternative to drinking club on campus offers things a few times a month. they are really fun. but the majority of kids go to bars, which is annoying. i personally don’t want to spend 100 dollars on getting a fake id, spending money for a cab there, maybe buying drinks, then paying for a cab back. i don’t think that is fun and i don’t like drinking anyway. you can go to the mall or the harbor but it gets old. there are other kids on campus who don’t drink, you just have to find them. i found my best friend and we don’t drink. we’ve actually gone to museums, to the harbor, the mall, and just roamed around campus. the campus is small but we try our best to find new hidden places or something baha we’re weird. i am thinking of transferring to a school in california or even oklahoma. to be honest i don’t know where i want to go to school. loyola is just not the fit i thought it would be for me.</p>

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<p>JRZMom, thanks for the info on TCNJ. I’m going for an overnight soon, so we’ll have to see how that goes!</p>

<p>I think your daughter and I have a lot in common. I’m also more into Chucks and jeans (I believe you mentioned this on another thread). I don’t begrudge someone a nice bag or a pair of Uggs, and you’re certainly going to find that everywhere, but I do worry when everyone on a campus is identical. Says something about the students themselves. And you bring up a good point about a potential economic divide, I hadn’t even thought of that. There’s a high school in my area that tends to be that way. I applied there in eighth grade, and I was invited to a short, seemingly informal info session in the school’s library on a school night. My mom and I wore jeans and nice shirts, but all of the kids and parents were wearing suits and dresses/skirts. We didn’t fit in at all, and I knew I couldn’t go there. I don’t want to feel that way in college.</p>

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<p>frutti–I would not worry about parents wearing suits/dresses at a high school evening event—many of them probably went there after work without changing. We do it all the time. It’s the kids…</p>

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<p>JRZMom, I didn’t judge just based on the parents. As you said, it would make complete sense for people to be coming after work. That wasn’t my worry. It was more the overall effect of parents AND kids dressed like that. And it wasn’t just that. This is the kind of school where you literally see girls shrug and say, “Whatever, I’ll buy a new one” when they spill something and ruin their Coach purses. True story. So seeing all of these applicants in fancy clothes was just the last thing in a long string of turn-offs for me.</p>

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<p>Frutti–I saw that “whatever” stuff, too, at the school I swent to for freshman year (transferred elsewhere) and my oldest D saw it at Brown in the late 90s-early 00s.</p>

<p>She told me, she had friends who were flabbergasted that she was upset if she broke or lost something. “Have your parents buy you a new one” they would say. She told me she had to explain to them that her parents were not <em>going</em> to buy her a new one. </p>

<p>She also told me about girls at Brown who would wear very expensive dress shoes in pouring rain, then take them off when ruined & throw them in the trash can in the dorm. I saw the same thing at the place I went to for freshman year.</p>

<p>Brown at least is large enough that there are plenty of people who don’t come from that kind of family, and who don’t wreck their clothes/stuff & think Mummy & Papa should replace.</p>

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<p>I posted this on another thread but I think it would be more appropriate here.</p>

<p>I am currently a sophomore (male) at Loyola. I will try to answer your questions based on my experiences here so far. First and foremost, I love Loyola and can’t picture myself anywhere else. I personally do drink and I tend to go out on Th, Fri, Sat, as I have no class on Friday. A lot of people on this board seem to be concerned with cliques, clothing, and the bar school label so I will try to address these questions. </p>

<p>From my experience, I would not consider Loyola to be a cliquey environment however students tend to make friends with the others students in the residents hall during the first few months at school. These small groups of friends generally end up rooming together as sophomores the following year. While this may seem cliquey at first glance I personally wouldn’t label my group of friends at a clique. The norm here is that this close-knit group of friends are the ones who you will spend a majority of your time with. If you are going to go off campus you will most likely be sharing a cab with these people. Outside of these friends I would say there is a second level of friendship. At this level you typically meet in class, at clubs, at bars, or at other events. These secondary groups eventually all become friends or at least friendly enough to the point where your groups will hang out together, go out off campus together, and perhaps even try to live in the same building/on the same floor the following year. This does not seem to be a unique phenomena to Loyola as most college students have a close circle of friends and a secondary circle of friends.</p>

<p>Clothing for guys is very varied. There tends to be the “preppy” dressed guys wearing polos and oxfords with pastel colored shorts and jeans. I personally wear whatever I’m feeling like that particular day. I dress up once in a while but my standard outfit is t-shirt and khaki shorts when its warm and sweatshirt and jeans when its colder.</p>

<p>Girls have a reputation on these college sites as extremely rich and preppy. This is true, to a degree. Uggs are definitely popular. Some girls wear designer jeans some don’t, to be honest the guys could never tell the difference. In the spring girls frequently wear sun-dresses. Girls who don’t dress like this are not shunned by any means. The carbon copy comment I read about the girls all looking like each other is not accurate. No ones here is going to not be friends with you because you’re not wearing the newest fashion. There are plenty of girls who dress in a short of hipster way. As far as dressing up for class girls tend to dress up more than guys. Where guys are perfectly comfortable wearing pajama pants/sweatpants and a sweat shirt. Girls typically will at least be in jeans and a sweatshirt, of course everyone has days where there not feeling well or are running late.</p>

<p>The bar school label very accurately describes Loyola night life. On any given night there will be students out at the bars. Since there are no Sororities or Fraternities house parties are few and far between. Many seniors will have an off campus house and as your years at Loyola go on you will attend more parties at off campus houses. My freshman year I probably only attended 5 off campus parties. Fake ID’s are necessary for those who are looking to go out to the bars to either drink or socialize there. Not everyone who goes out to the bars drink and for those who do drink not everyone gets drunk, however, there are plenty of people who do go out to the bars to get really drunk. Before heading out to the bars students will pregame in their dorm rooms or the dorm rooms of friends. This is to eliminate spending a lot of money on drinks at the bar. The campus is strict on drinking in the dorms in that if you are loud and obvious you will get caught, be fined, and have to attend alcohol edu classes. Mostly though as long as you are not rowdy there students have no problem avoiding this. Drugs on the other hand are much more of a no-no, if you are caught smoking pot, you will most likely be suspended or expelled. </p>

<p>Besides drinking there are plenty of other activities to do on and off campus. As a previous poster mentioned there is a club called Options that sponsors events that are alcohol free. Some of this years events included a trip to an amusement park, white water rafting, a dance, laser tag, snow tubing, among many others. There are also many concert venues that have shows on the weekends. The Towson movie theater is 10 minutes away from campus, the mall is 15 minutes away. A lot of students who don’t drink go down town to the inner harbor to go to restaurants, museums, and other things. </p>

<p>There are a lot of students who come from wealthy backgrounds but other than their cars you would never know it. No one really flaunts their wealth and if they do its very infrequent and typically unintentional. It would be really hard to pick out the above average wealthy students from the students who have significant need based financial aide. A lot of students also get jobs on campus so doing a work study program is nothing to be ashamed of because no one will know/care.</p>

<p>Sporting events are a fun place to hang out and socialize. The most popular sport is Men’s Lacrosse and the Saturday home games at the new stadium draw a large student crowd. Soccer games are also popular in the fall but not as popular as lacrosse. Unfortunately, the basketball team has not had too much success in recent years and as a result the games typically have poor attendance (which is a shame because they are a great time). Also in the early fall and at the end of the spring going to the Orioles games at Camden Yards is a great time. Student tickets are typically $5 and the attendance at the games are usually not very good allowing you to move to better seats. I personally paid $3 dollars for student tickets to a Yankees game and moved up to the first row on the first base side. This would be unheard of at Yankee Stadium, where those tickets could be in the hundreds of dollars range.</p>

<p>My favorite things about Loyola would be the beautiful campus, the amazing resident halls, small and intimate class rooms, the FAC which is the gym (Michael Phelps practices here), and going out to the bars.</p>

<p>My least favorite things about Loyola would be the fact that if you want to go off campus you have to pay for a cab (they offer a collegetown shuttle to the other universities, mall, and inner harbor, but it can be unreliable at times), the food gets repetitive after a few months, and books are very expensive (I’ve probably paid $3500-$4000 for my four semesters here.</p>

<p>If you have any other questions please ask and I will try to get back on here and give an honest answer.</p>

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<p>Is it difficult to get a fake id? to people often get caught?</p>

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<p>And, the Orioles are having a great year so far!</p>

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<p>loystudent-</p>

<p>You said the books can get expensive—what is your major (ie are you using those really expensive science texts) and have you been able to use Amazon to get used ones?</p>

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<p>fake ids are simple enough to get people either get them before they come down from big cities like NYC or philly or from an older friend/sibling. Lots of freshman will find them once they get down here by asking around.</p>

<p>@JRZmom im an accounting major and I have gone the amazon route and it was cheaper but one of my books never came which was frustrating. This past semester the price difference between the book store and amazon was not significant enough for me to give up the convenience of picking up my books at the school store. I know kids who have saved alot using other websites or even renting them but my savings haven’t been as much. It really depends on the text book and how early you find out what books you will be required to have.</p>

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<p>My daughter’s books have cost ~ $500 this year (she’s a freshman) - $230 of that was for a language course and the bookstore was the ONLY place to find it; the rest we got on half.com or biblio.com (used) and have been very happy with them.</p>

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<p>@loystudent</p>

<p>thanks for all the info bro
the ID i have now doesn’t scan…how often do the bars scan id’s? what happens if it doesn’t scan, like do the call the police?</p>

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<p>From Maryland’s Motor Vehicle Administration : "It’s illegal to misrepresent your age or to help someone else do so for any reason, including to illegally buy or possess alcoholic beverages. Using someone else’s driver’s license, ID card or a fake ID will cost you:</p>

<pre><code>* Maryland laws allow fines of up to $2,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 3 years.

  • The MVA can cancel, suspend or revoke your driver’s license.
  • If under 18, the Maryland Juvenile Services Administration may require you to attend a supervised work or alcohol rehabilitation program.
  • Maryland Juvenile Services Administration may also ask your parents or guardians to withdraw their consent for you to hold a license.
  • Federal penalties can include a fine of up to $25,000 or imprisonment for up to 15 years."
    </code></pre>

<p>And here is the Federal code on the topic:</p>

<p>[United</a> States Code: Title 18,1028. Fraud and related activity in connection with identification documents, authentication features, and information | LII / Legal Information Institute](<a href=“http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00001028----000-.html]United”>18 U.S. Code § 1028 - Fraud and related activity in connection with identification documents, authentication features, and information | U.S. Code | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute)</p>

<p>Since 9/11 the Feds are very interested on people who make or use fake IDs.</p>

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<p>jrzmom - thanks for the reminder. i hope everyone took a long hard look.</p>

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<p>@nafuraha</p>

<p>I’ve never seen a bar scan an id around here because those bars would most likely be avoided. With that said, if the bouncer at the “loyola” bars thinks your id is fake they will just straight up say this is fake and hand it back to you or say nah man not tonight. Occasionally if the bouncer is either a jerk or in a bad mood they might take it and make you pay 20 bucks to get it back but thats rare. Kids have gotten caught using fakes at the baseball stadium and other more legit bars and have gotten citations but most of the cops around here have more important matters to attend to. It would be unlikely that you would get fined $2000 and I’ve never heard anyone having to go to jail. Be smart, no your surroundings and you should be fine. Stay at the bars other loyola kids are going to. If you get your id taken and they won’t give it back don’t be a hero, cut your losses and don’t have them call the cops on you.</p>

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<p>Loyola does have diversity. I am a first year student who is hispanic at loyola and understand why loyola has some trouble with diversity. It cost a lot to attend loyola and the fact is that most minorities at loyola need finical aid. Also most of the diversity comes from commuters that go to Loyola. The truth is that next semester I will be probably be commuting which would mean I would only be on campus for the classes. I lived at loyola for one semester in Butler (the worst place to live at loyola apparently), but personally liked it. Yes the building had a bad reputation, but it was the most diverse building by what I saw. I had never been influenced and went the whole semester being around people who drank, but never drank myself. No matter where you go people will always drink, fact of college.</p>

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<p>Yankeesgirl: Not sure if you still post on this site, but I’m curious if you were able to transfer from Loyola and if so to where? My daughter is a frehman at Loyola and I wish I’d found this thread last year. She really loves most things about the school, except for the fact that it’s such a bar school requiring fake IDs in order to have a social life. What’s frustrating is that we didn’t pick up on this on any of our 3 visits prior to enrollment. Shame on us I guess for not asking the right questions, but the school certainly didn’t make a point of discussing how strict their alcohol policy is relative to most schools. If they had, and knowing that kids will always find ways to drink, I would have put two and two together. Anyway, I hope things worked out for you and that you are happily enrolled at a school that better suits you.</p>

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<p>SueDonem, my D is a freshman at Lyl too & she is not drinking either. She has had some rough spots with her suitemates, several of whom apparently are enjoying their new found freedom a little too much. </p>

<p>She says they recently had a suite meeting to discuss “kicking-out time” & quiet hours. She does her homework elsewhere on campus, I think mostly in the Humanities bldg. She has been having trouble getting enough sleep due to the racket in the rest of the suite. </p>

<p>We knew it is a “bar school” but we also know there is plenty of drinking on just about every other campus in the country. We told her, you are going to see & hear a lot of the consequences of this behavior and there are events you will not want to be at. But you can find plenty of things to do in Baltimore and most other cities that do not involve alcohol, look at what their own populations are doing. Fairs, galleries, sports events, museums, etc.</p>

<p>Would our Ds be upset with us if we “introduced” them? You can pm me.</p>

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<p>My DS is a sophomore at Loyola at loves it. He ran into the same situations as a freshman. He now rooms with his fellow nondrinkers from his suite and from across the hall. I would suggest your D look into the Options program for nondrinkers sponsored by Loyola. Tonight they are hosting a bowling event with pizzas and sodas, all for $5. Also joining a club would be a great help. There are a lot of great things to do in and around Baltimore which do not involve drinking. Your D’s roommate does not need to be a close friend. They just need to be respectful and get along. Your D can develop her best friends outside her roommates. Also, many change roommates their sophomore year as my DS did. Kids will create pressure to go out on nights your D wants to stay in and get work done. My advice to my DS was to let the kids know you have another commitment and LEAVE THE ROOM. Your D can always go the library, study lounge above the Writing Center, or any number of places on campus. DS says drinking is more prevalent at a lot of his hometown friends’ campuses. Father Linane had pointed out during our DS’s freshman orientation that 35% of the freshmen surveyed experienced at least one black out event while in high school. Unfortunately, drinking is a big problem in high school and college. I appreciated Loyola’s honesty about the situation during the parents’ orientation session. My DD is in high school and Loyola is high on her future college list. I would not hesitate to send her to Loyola.</p>

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<p>funfat—I am not at all disappointed my D is at Loyola! In most other respects it seems exactly the right place for her, and she is often saying she loves this or that experience or person she has met or whatever. </p>

<p>She has checked out a couple of clubs and I am sure she will get involved in some of them. She seems to have a lot of homework, which she prefers to get done earlier in the day or evening before she gets too tired. She is more of a morning lark I think. </p>

<p>I too appreciated the honesty Loyola showed-- they are not kicking it under the carpet. What mystifies me is where do h.s. & college kids get the money to buy all this booze? Bars are not cheap. Beer & liquor are not cheap either even if not being consumed in a bar. If it is coming from the parents’ pockets, are they aware the kids are drinking to this extent on that allowance? </p>

<p>My D has been doing exactly that, taking her studying elsewhere & coming home late. But she wants to go to sleep sometimes when the noise level is still high. I think they are getting to the point where the burden of the schoolwork is settling in & are going to wind up making “quiet hour” rules though.</p>