Would love to hear about University of San Diego student culture if you are familiar with it because helping out my son because who hasn’t had the chance to visit the campus yet. Here is a description of his interests:
*Looking for a welcoming and friendly student environment where there is a good sense of community. Wants to have a little fun during college because high school was a pressure cooker, though is an introvert so also needs some down time to decompress.
*Not Catholic or religious at all, though the religious/ethics class requirements still sounded interesting. How dominated is the campus by a religious feel?
*Not interested in campus culture dominated by Greek life or a major superficial mindset/style. Saw the USD House Parties videos (easy to google) and definitely didn’t feel like those were his people, so that was a concern. Wasn’t sure how representative videos are of the overall culture.
*Enjoys playing with technology (programming, 3D printing, etc.), the arts, discussing ideas and current events, D & D, travel, Spanish, and exploring cities (so location is appealing).’
*Also accepted to LMU, so might that be a better fit than USD? He is most interested in SCU but got the least merit aid there.
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Hi leapful – I’m a parent of a frosh boy at USD. In his words, the school is “pretty ideal.” He is an extrovert, the type likely to go to a house party off campus, but I think some of what he’s shared could apply to your son.
*My son appreciate how “nice” all the kids are at USD. He visits his friends at big state schools and is always relieved to come back to the friendly vibe at USD. He made friends very quickly – and not just from CA, but also from places you wouldn’t expect, like Iowa and South Africa. USD is small enough that it’s easy to join clubs or student organizations. My son was a three sport athlete in HS and wanted the structure and camaraderie of a team sport. So he joined a club sport at USD and loves the community it provided. I would follow USD on Instagram (USD College of Arts and Sciences has its own IG and it’s quite academic). It’s impressive how much is going on on campus and it might give you a sense for where your son could plug in.
*My son is not religious at all and while he has found some of the very religious kids on campus “close minded,” he’s also found lots of kids like himself. He didn’t mind his required theology class – is happy he learned more about Christianity (there are theology classes about other religions, too). They also require philosophy. He said the discussions were so active in his philosophy class last fall, the prof was posting extra readings for everyone, which they’d take up the next class. My son opted to take a second philosophy class because he loved the first one so much. I would say the campus feels religious because it has a big church in the middle but so do schools like Stanford. Much of the religiosity is expressed as a dedication to service. I know there are a lot of service learning opportunities at USD.
*I get the sense there’s a little bit of something for everyone at USD – including social life. E.g., walks in the canyon, movie nights, game nights, etc. My son likes to go out a lot but he says they’re “not SDSU,” which seems out of control to him. I guess they’ve gone over there to check it out.
*I don’t know much about tech at USD. But my son LOVES San Diego the city and the campus.
I’ll just add that my son also thinks the smaller school environment helps him learn.
I hope your son can visit USD and see how it feels to him. Good luck! It sounds like he has some great choices. Congratulations.
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San Diego can be a great city to be young and a student. Big, but not an insane amount of sprawl. The beach is not far away so you can always find your peeps on campus via clubs and then take time off in the weekend to explore with them.
Thanks for your posts on the environment there, much appreciated. Curiousermama, that does sound like the kind of atmosphere he is looking for - not too big, “nice”, a good sense of community. And I have no doubt that the location would be ideal.
I think the biggest question is if there will be enough people who share his interests in areas like technology and hobbies like gaming. I think he will find plenty of people and activities that share his other interests though. Would love to hear from someone who is studying engineering and CS to get a sense of this!
Hello! I have a question about food options for students living on campus. I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask but figured I’d give it a try.
If a student is living in a dorm and feels like ordering food (either due to laziness or it being after all of the dining halls have closed for the night), is it possible to pay for food to be delivered right to the dorm? Are there many options?
Thanks in advance for your help!
You might have to meet the driver at the dorm main entrance, but college kids have been ordering pizzas for decades and it is no difference at USD. With UberEats, Door Dash, Grubhub, etc., almost everything is available. USD is not a locked or gated campus.