As a Bio major who lives a hour away
Fairfield is a great regional school. They have a strong nursing program so I could imagine they are strong in the sciences. The dorms are nice and you are a metro north train ride away from NYC. Our issues with it was the lack of diversity but a strong choice for those that can make it work. Ultimately it depends on your goals and selection criteria.
My daughter is a sophomore accounting major, English minor and she is very happy there. She is very studious but still has time to socialize on the weekends. She received the Magis Scholarship. The roommate match worked great for her last year - she’s rooming with her again now this year in a residential college dorm - Creative Life/Faber Hall. She was in Regis last year. She has many friends who are science and nursing majors. Let me know if you have any specfic questions.
In my view biology is exactly the major to have at Fairfield! You can’t go wrong with the head of the program there–she’s super smart and extremely generous to her students, whom she supports in ample labs, internship opportunities, assistant teaching, and co-writing and research.
Engaged mentors who are serious and thorough in their investment in undergraduates are rare. I doubt you’d find any to offer more than her level of commitment, anywhere.
Her academic credentials are also first-rate.
OK, I reread my sentence about engaged mentors and would like to soften it. Engaged professors of undergrads may not be exactly “rare,” especially among LACs, where undergrad teaching is paramount. However, I was struck by that Fairfield biology professor’s passion for her work and her students’ learning.
The last time I saw that level of fervor was in 1989 at the University of Chicago. That faculty member later won awards for teaching, several times. (Decades later, she now teaches at another famed school.) That level is rare.
As to “cons” at Fairfield–that depends. Fairfield town center is pleasant, with good shopping and access to beaches. If you want Manhatten, then it wouldn’t do. But as for safety and condition, it is one of the nicest college towns I ever saw.
Diversity is better found at Boston U or CUNY–a city; or SUNY or most any state school. Not many schools can be all things to all people, but I agree many ought to do better.
Fairfield does outreach. Their programs include to the needful nearby town of Bridgeport, where there’s a soup kitchen and homeless shelter that some Fairfield U students serve. It’s a Catholic school and takes service seriously, as it should.
The school also invites mission students from all over the world to study, including from the smallest inhabited island, where the currency is still made of stone.
You are not necessarily limited to white, upper-class suburbanites at Fairfield. However you’ll see plenty of those.
^missed the edit window “Manhattan” of course
Thanks for the good info on Fairfield @IvyGrad09 - you addressed many of the questions we had regarding it. It seemed like a good choice for our son who applied EA for Nursing. Now just waiting to hear…
My daughter applied EA for nursing too. 2 more weeks of waiting…
@Momtofourkids You’re welcome. I wish you and your son the best luck!