Soon-to-be graduate of Santa Clara University taking questions

For the past six years I’ve been on and off on College Confidential. Now I’m about to be a graduate at Santa Clara University. As I wrap up my 3.5 years here, I’m happy to impart some of my knowledge and experience about school, social life, and extracurricular activities. Like the other alums who have been on here, I don’t know all about SCU.

Here’s to some of my experience:

  • I was a commuter student during my entire college career, and living at home was both great and annoying. It was great because I saved a lot of money, but it also sucked because I lost a lot of the social aspects that college and university provides.
  • I major in Accounting and Information Systems with a minor in Communication, graduating one quarter early (March 2020).
  • I am an officer of one of the Club Sports at Santa Clara University.
  • I studied abroad in Edinburgh, Scotland during the fall quarter/semester of my junior year.

I’m not paid to do this - I’m just a mildly bored soon-to-be college graduate who is currently unemploy-…just kidding. I am grateful that SCU has given me the stepping stone to work in the accounting field beginning in July. That being said, I’ll remain off and on for the next few months!

My D is just starting the college search and is interested in SCU (maybe Business IS/Analytics or CS). Is the school actively involved in helping students find internships? Has job placement been good for graduating seniors? How is the level of school spirit at SCU? She’s also interested in playing a club sport. Are lots of students involved in club sports? Thanks!!!

  1. Is the school actively involved in helping students find internships? By the time students are in college, we are essentially expected to take initiative of our own career. That being said, we do have a college career center who helps students with internships and jobs, and we have many job fairs throughout the year. Some majors have their own specialized career fairs as well (i.e. Engineering career fair, accounting career fair, real estate, to name a few).
  2. Has job placement been good for graduating seniors? It depends on the major, but generally I'd say that the placement's been good. Speaking for accounting, we have had about a 92% job placement.
  3. How is the level of school spirit at SCU? I can't attest to that because I've never gone to a single sports game. I can, however, say that we were competing against Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine for a challenge and we won.
  4. About Club Sports: we have...17 club sports at Santa Clara University - boxing, cycling, equestrian, women's field hockey, women's lacrosse, women's rugby, sailing, karate, swimming, triathlon, woman's ultimate (frisbee), and women's club volleyball are the available sports females can join. I know that swimming, rugby, and possibly volleyball have a decent amount of members. The club sport I'm part of (karate) is not that large compared to some of these other sports, but we develop a close bond with each other.

Hi @athletiger, thanks for offering to do this. Would a kid who is nice, nerdy, and wholesome fit in at SCU? My son is looking for people to play D&D with, humans vs zombies, mafia, etc. He is not a partier, but is an extrovert and loves his strong group of friends and how they have fun in their own way.

@athletiger - Thanks for the info. My D is looking forward to checking out SCU in person!

@athletiger Thanks for offering! My son is a junior and we just toured and really liked SCU. I have these questions - some you might know through other students?

  1. How hard is it for business or arts &sciences majors to get tech related classes?
  2. How is parking for resident and nonresident students?
  3. The tour guide talked about easy access to professors and professors who went the extra mile for their students. Did you have that experience or know others who did?
  4. What do the upper classmen usually do for housing - do they mostly live in the nearby apartments grouped up or are some renting rooms in homes, etc.?

Thanks again.

@quarkpie The most selfish answer is yes, he would fit into SCU. The more honest answer is students don’t necessarily know whether they would fit into a certain culture unless they experience it for a time. That’s the reason why students get into some schools while others don’t. If your son was accepted into SCU, congratulations! Please definitely arrange for him to visit the school, perhaps shadow some classes, or even stay overnight at one of the dorms to see if he’s really a good fit for the school and the culture.

As I said before, I’ve been a commuter student my entire four years of college, so I don’t have the same experience as other students who live on campus. I miss out on a lot of social aspects and social events that happen, especially during the evenings and night. However, since your son is an extrovert, I think he would be able to find people with like-minded interests.

@NateandAllisMom I’m glad your son likes SCU!

  1. Depends on what type of tech classes, and what college you do end up in. If you're talking about computer science classes, here's my two cents of the two different colleges:

Business students have the opportunity to become Information Systems majors - sorry, it’s called Data Analytics now, I forgot they changed names - which have a decent amount of coding. All students in the business school have to learn Python, but Data Analytics majors learn more coding and other programs like SQL, DBMS, and Unix. I personally don’t know anyone who takes classes in the engineering college from the business school.

Those in the Arts&Science college have worse luck because if they want to take CS classes, they would have to essentially fight for a spot. Both the business school and the engineering school would give preference and first choice to their students, and the fact that some of these classes are prerequisites for the students, the chances that an art&science student would be able to get a spot in a lower division prerequisite class is slim to none.

  1. As I said before, I'm not a resident on campus. I do, however, know that first-year students are not allowed to bring their cars to campus. I have a commuter parking pass which I utilize nearly every day parking in the main and side garages, and in all four years of my college career, I have only been able to not find parking in a garage once (which had been taken entirely up by construction workers -_- ).

Students do choose to park on the street, but if a student chooses to do that, they are aware of the time limits in the various parking zones allowed. Some have a 4-hour parking limit, some 2-hours, and some 1-hour.

  1. Our classes are pretty small (with some exception), and our professors are generally available during office hours. Between my friends and I, it's not uncommon to say that we're going to go to so-and-so profressor's office hours because we have a close bond to them. For my friend, they really love their Communication professor; for myself, I hang out at one of my English professor's office hours even though I'm not an English major. I don't know what you're looking for by going the extra mile, but for me, my English Professor let me talk through my personal and family issues in his office when I was going through a really hard time.
  2. Upperclassmen have the choice of living on campus (generally the villas), or living off campus. Those who choose to live off campus usually live in groups where other students live.
1 Like

@athletiger Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions! When touring we felt like the students seemed exceptionally happy and friendly at SCU. My college friend’s daughter is also about to graduate and has been very happy.

3 is golden. My son really wants that kind of access and small classes. The tour guide mentioned that certain professors have helped in the past with job connections, which would be awesome but not required. #1 is what I was expecting after the warnings so I'm hoping that my son can get in to the engineering school. It's a doable target for him in that school I believe but he will apply EA. We might even consider ED.

Good luck to you on your journey.

Thanks for taking the time to answer peoples questions. I am not sure you can answer this but will ask anyway.

My daughter was waitlisted after applying Eary Decision II. She accepted the waitlist request and is now pending. Would you know the average # / % of kids that are accepted off of the waitlist? She applied for Marketing at SCU.

Thanks again and congrats on a great degree at SCU.

Don’t know the percentage, sorry! I do know, however, that students in the business school don’t apply to a specialty until later. Good luck on getting off the waitlist!

@athletiger
I was admitted to Liberal Arts undecided. How difficult is it to transfer into Business? When can you apply? Any help is appreciated.

Thank you for doing this. Very timely during these times. I am a parent of an admitted student to Leavey, and Covid is making it hard to visit campus or meet students and teachers. I have been relying on the internet, and I came across this site called studentsreview that had negative feedback from years ago. Is there any credence to these? The quality of education (learning) is my focus and so was trying to understand how engaged, involved and supportive the teachers are.

Congratulations for being accepted to the College of Arts & Sciences! I’ll be straight with you: it’s harder to transfer into the Business School than it is to be accepted directly into the School. If I recall correctly, there are 75 spots reserved for internal SCU students who can transfer into the B-school and a huge competition for that. I know one person (an old friend) who got in that way, but another friend who didn’t. You apply during the winter or spring quarter of your freshman year, if I remember correctly. However, there are a few loopholes to this: if you’re studying economics, you can study it through the College of Arts & Sciences - I heard that path was easier anyway. You can also minor in business studies like Entrepreneurship or Retail Studies (and maybe Real Estate? I can’t remember).

Let me know if you have any further questions.

No idea. I’ve never used studentsreview myself. Depends on the major that you’re looking into, and the professors themselves. Of course, like any college, there will be good, astounding professors, and professors that truly suck (sorry, I’ve been drinking, so I’m kinda blunt at the moment - don’t worry, I’m of age). Best way to get the information of good professors is to talk to the class above you or peers around you - that’s how most students know which profs to take and which to avoid. I recommend that business students make as many friends as possible to make these connections so that they can find those good professors.

My S has been accepted to Accouning at Leavey. In your opinion, how good is the program there? Are there a lot of internship opportunies? Do the Big 4 firms actively hire from SCU? How about the high tech firms hiring at SCU? Do you mind disclosing if your going to work for a Big 4 firm or which type of company you will be working for in July, just general information? Thanks in advance for doing this…

Thanks for taking the time to do this! I am starting in the fall as a transfer student and will be commuting. Do you have any general advice for commuting and ways to get involved if not living on campus? Do you know anything about the Greek system/its reputation? I am not interested in partying but thinking it might be a good way to get involved and get to know people.

Last time I went to the Accounting adviser session (that is mandatory for every Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior student during the spring quarter), the department said that 92% of all students received a job offer post-graduation. That number is lower for internships because they do have a quota - I don’t know the exact number, but I’ll admit I was one who didn’t get an internship. The Big 4 do actively recruit on our campus. In fact, our curriculum has been created by the Big 4 to ensure that students from our school is prepared for their career.

I personally don’t know anyone who went the private route, but I did apply to one of the largest names in tech and was halfway through the process before I withdrew my application. The reason why is because the Big 4 actively recruits during the Fall Quarter, and some during the Winter, but everyone else starts their process between Winter and Spring Quarter. By the time tech firms start hiring, most of the accountants have jobs already.

I’m not headed off to the Big 4, like most of my friends are. I don’t care for burnout and am not vying for partner. I found a perfect fit working for a midtier firm with clientele in real estate. Feel free to ask me any more questions.

Congratulations for being accepted! I’ll be honest with you, commuting is hard. Being a transfer student at SCU is harder. All year I’ve been hearing a lot of troubles that come from being a transfer student, from the fact that you enter in Sophomore standing, to the struggles that you might have to do an extra one or two quarters. My amazing friend have been trying to vouch for transfer students in our student government, but it’s all an uphill battle.

First thing I recommend doing is joining the Transfer Student Union because they’ve been doing great work to bring transfer students up to speed. We also have a Commuter Student Union - they’re amazing people and they’re my friends. Join other clubs. There is a Fall Involvement Fair the first week of school, attend that. I can’t stress that enough. Many of the clubs happen in the evening, which sucks a bit, but that’s a sacrifice you must make. I recommend avoiding as many 8 ams and 8:30 ams as possible.

I’ve had a friend who was a transfer student and was part of the social sorority. I personally don’t know much about it, but they partied a lot. I have many other friends who are part of the community fraternity (coincidentally, many of them are part of the Commuter Student Union, so you can ask them). In general, the Greek System is a great way to make friends, but it comes with a caveat - it’s exclusive and the reputation can be…not great. Frats are not sponsored by the school, unlike other schools, so join at your own risk. If you’ve been dying to be part of the circle, feel free to rush.

My D is seriously considering SCU. She thinks it looks like a great blend of academically focused students who are also well balanced and enjoy being social. Does this seem accurate? She is also consiering LMU. The two schools seem similar, but obviously different locations. I’d welcome any thoughts you might have.