University of San Diego

Recently my guidance counselor has suggested that I look at the University of San Diego. I did my research and found it very appealing, but I am from the northeast, so I didn’t get a chance to visit and I am not sure what its reputation is like. If anyone could comment on the reputation of the school and the business school, the atmosphere, the sports and provide insight that you wouldn’t be able to discover through a website, that would be fantastic. I am going to post this in the school sub-forum, but I wanted to post it here as well to reach a larger audience and have some answers that other people were looking for, too.

I am going to tag along here. I was just browsing colleges located in warm climates and noticed this one, that may be a good fit for my daughter. If anyone has any opinion on their offerings in music, theatre, Japanese or biology, I would be most interested. Thanks.

I have 2 sons attending USD (a senior and a junior). Their experience has been superb. Very small class sizes (usually 15-20 students), excellent professors who are very committed to teaching undergraduates and available one-on-one at all times, beautiful campus in a city with so much to do! They have met students from all over the country and world, and the school is constantly expanding in size and reputation. The career services center provide excellent opportunities for undergraduate research, internships and job placement. My senior already has 3 job offers for September 2016! (Accounting). The school of business is well respected and highly ranked for its undergraduate programs and the engineering school has a new dean and a recent 20 million dollar gift to expand the engineering program. The athletic programs are through the West Coast conference, which is highly competitive in many sports like volleyball, soccer, baseball and tennis. The athletic teams are nationally ranked in many of these, especially in baseball. The football program participates in the independent Pioneer league. I don’t have any direct knowledge of the opportunities in music or Japanese, but regarding biology, my son has many friends who are pre-med and USD students have been very competitive in gaining admission to US medical schools (1 of my son’s friends is now attending Stanford medical school and another is at Stanford Law school).
Both of my sons are in fraternities, but USD does not have fraternity houses so the fraternity/sorority experience is mostly social and service-oriented. Their fraternities focus a lot on community service, volunteerism and less on the party/social experiences.
The “happiness” factor of their USD education and experience has been noteworthy. They say that students work very hard, are very bright and motivated, but are all genuinely happy! I think going to school in sunny San Diego, being near the beach, and attending a school with a beautiful campus contributes to having happy students! They have been academically challenged with a rigorous liberal arts curriculum, and they have no regrets about their choice (and they both had a lot of options out of high school including acceptances to Berkeley, UCLA, USC among others-- they chose USD because of the 4 year merit scholarships they both received and the smaller school size and “vibe”).
I would definitely recommend USD as a parent!

@TORERODAD - do you mind sharing where you’re from?

Northern California (south of Sacramento)

I am a parent so keep that in mind for my comments. I have 2 daughters currently attending USD. They chose it over the UCs because of the smaller size. Here are some of my general observations in no particular order. As are most privates - it is very expensive. Make sure and check the Net Price Calculator online to see if you are a candidate for a scholarship. The campus is beautiful, near public transportation, and has lots of housing available both on campus and nearby. You are required to stay on campus the first 2 years. A car is not necessary (the bus/trolley take you to the mall, movies, and even the airport), but most of the kids get rides from someone who does have a car or take Uber.

The class sizes are small - ranging from 15 to 40 max. Sports - pretty good sports teams and are Div 1. But the school spirit is very lacking in this area. I think most kids go to the beach every weekend! The most current best known sports alumni is Kris Bryant - baseball and will probably be named rookie of the year.

Reputation - I think USD has a good reputation but mainly in So Cal as it isn’t well known and is always confused with UCSD and SDSU (Univ of Cal San Diego and San Diego State - both public Calif schools nearby). There seem to be a lot of well connected alumni. USD prides itself on being ‘changemakers’ and encourages the students to be involved locally and globally. They have one of the highest participation rates for study abroad.

While it is a catholic school with lots of traditions and faith based activities, they are not mandatory and everyone is welcome to attend. There are plenty of greek groups of that interests you (no specific housing though). My daughters like the school and the area very much.

USD has been great for my daughter- very supportive and accessible professors, classes not taught by TAs. She is doing research as a sophomore- which is not likely to happen in a bigger University with graduate students. She had a hard time adjusting to the California “attitude?” as it is not as laid back and friendly as our state. She had a very poor roommate experience so that affected her first semester negatively. She received a very generous scholarship which makes the cost comparable to our state schools. It is a beautiful campus, greek life is mainly centered around philanthropy and they do not have their own houses, although I’m told the upperclassmen have houses at the beach that they rent. The school has gained in respect over the years and many describe it as being challenging. Not sure about the whole music department but the choir is not impressive. Lots of California residents go there and some do go home on weekends and long weekends- but I don’t think it would be considered a commuter school. Freshman and Sophomores live on campus- they do not have air conditioning in the dorms and that was a major problem in the hot fall days. Lots of students have cars and the parking situation is very good for SoCal. It has not been a problem to get a ride to Target, for instance and Uber and ride share cars make it easy.

Hey, I’m a current USD student. I am also from the East Coast and my first time coming to the school, and even California, was when I came for move in.
The reputation is pretty much just the Catholic or the private one because there are many colleges/universities in San Diego, the main 3 being USD, UCSD, and San Diego State U. The USD stereotype is that it is the University of Spoiled Daughters, however this is mostly inaccurate, which was a pleasant surprise. The guys are actually worse than the girls, in the sense of their flashiness. The sports teams are okay, none of them are amazing. School spirit is not really a thing. Students occasionally participate in school spirit events, but that’s mainly for free stuff. The classes are small, so the teacher will actually know who you are, and most professors are very helpful with office hours. The classes are challenging, but not too bad. They don’t force Catholicism on you, but it is there if you want it through the Immaculata, Founders Chapel, and an on campus priest available 24/7. It is a Catholic school though, and there are 3 religious study course requirements, but it doesn’t have to be about Catholic/Christian studies.
Random information:
There is an Out of State “club” where you can meet people from your area and any of the other states. Most people take Ubers or Lyfts to get around if they don’t have a car or can’t get a ride from a friend. Finding friends with cars is easy, more than half of the students have one. The public transportation is there, so it is an option. In my opinion it sucks, but I have a really good Metro system where I’m from, so maybe it’s regular. The dorms are normal sized, if you arrange your beds properly you can get a ton of space (I recommend pushing everything you can up against a wall, so the middle area is just empty space, it makes a huge difference). There are shuttles around campus, sometimes there are events around San Diego that they take you to, which is cool. The food here is much better than other campus. In the student cafeteria alone there are Mediterranean, Mexican, American, Italian, and Asian food options available.