<p>Hi recently I was accepted into Villianova School of Business as part of the freshmen class of 2018.
I am from New Jersey
I am a non christian
I am a liberal
I am not athletic. </p>
<p>I was told that the party scene at Villanova was low key. Thus students tend to spend time playing sports or doing church related activities. I am worried that based on these factors I will have difficulty making friends and being involved in activities. If anyone with experience at Nova could give me some insight one way or the other I would appreciate it.</p>
<p>I am not sure where you heard that the party scene at Villanova was low key…, :). It’s like any other school, plus there are bar crawls that are famous on the main line. </p>
<p>I believe the school is 80% catholic. I can’t say how you will feel being in a minority although I don’t think students exclude people at all but it’s a fact that many may be going to mass or observing their religion and you may feel in the minority. </p>
<p>I don’t see how being from Nj will make you not fit in. many nova students are from nj.</p>
<p>Being non christian is definitely a negative. I can tell you first hand that there are some who are extremely passionate (almost even fanatic) about Christianity/Catholicism. A lot of students have never met an atheist before. Also, you’ll have to get use to listening to hardcore theology professors giving you assignments and papers on why atheists are considered “stupid” and “fools” for not believing in God. But that said, we need more nonchristian students to promote the diversity here!</p>
<p>Villanova is more conservative than other schools, but I would say that the student population is actually almost evenly split between liberals and conservatives. Perhaps there are more conservatives, but there is still a strong (maybe not “strong”) group of liberals.</p>
<p>Being not athletic is also a huge hindrance. There are other students who you can hang out with who aren’t athletic, but the problem is that a lot of the students here participate in some type of sport. And what really sucks is when your group of friends decides to participate in a sport that you are bad at. Their daily lives start to revolve around that sport and they no longer wish to keep you in their friend circle/don’t even bother to invite you to play with them because you’re not up to their competitive standards. It really sucks and makes you feel incompetent, but you just have to be smart and make sure you find the right group of people to hang out with your first year because once cliques start forming, it’s hard to start being good friends with another group of people.</p>
<p>There are many positive and negatives with villanova and this is something you may find at the other schools you applied to so take what I said with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>But bear in mind that villanova is not very diverse and does have quite a few close minded individuals.</p>
<p>Did you take courses before they revamped the core? I haven’t heard of those particular classes and Christianity and history is definitely not the intro class to theology (thl 1000).</p>
<p>Anyways, I still stand by what I say. The vast majority of theology professors here are devout christians. Some are more open minded than others, but there are many (and even my friends tell me this about their professors) who clearly have an opinion about atheist.</p>
<p>Also, in the new core, 2 semesters of theology is a mandatory requirement. There is no way of getting out of the class. You can’t choose to not take it.</p>
<p>That’s a question that no one besides the admissions officer will know. They are trying to promote diversity, but I don’t know if that necessarily entails religious diversity.</p>
<p>hey thanks @MrInformed, I really appreciate your candid opinion, I hope I can get into a few more schools so as to make better decision about my future in college.</p>
<p>Sure, no problem. But again, every school has it’s strengths and weaknesses. I ask you to visit villanova and see how it feels. You may find that you love it. There are many people that love it here in general and thus the satisfaction rate tends to be relatively high. </p>
<p>The opinions that I express are only from my POV. Also, bear in mind that other universities may not have students who you meet that are as blunt and transparent on the Pos and negs of the university.</p>
<p>I’m a senior @ Nova finishing up my last 9 credits. You will not fit in. I don’t want to go into my reasons for thinking this on a public forum (Villanova administrators check this forum and try to discipline any current students they catch talking down about the school) but you can send me a PM if you want more info on my thoughts.</p>
<p>@knickschick93 I don’t think they actually do that…if they do that is ridiculous</p>
<p>In response to OP:</p>
<p>Seems like half the people here are from New Jersey so that isn’t an issue
I’m non-religious, you’ll have to deal with Christianity through ACS, Philosophy, and Theology but it could be worse, its easy for me to tolerate as I’ve gone to Catholic school my whole life.
I’d say I’m a liberal too, at least on social issues. While the majority of students are probably more conservative / Republican, they’re are some fellow liberal / Democrats and I haven’t run into any issues with it.
While I played sports in high school, and have done a couple intramural sports here, it doesn’t really matter if you’re athletic or not. You can find other clubs that you’re interested in and make friends there.</p>
Don’t know where the hardcore christian comments are coming from, personally I haven’t met an fanatics, profs or students. I’ve taken an Islam course in the theology department from a Muslim professor. Seems to me like the student body is split 50/50 catholic/noncatholic.
Social life is fairly normal, underclassmen mostly go off campus to houses/apartments, upperclassmen have the mainline and Philly bar scene. For non-greeks, since our Greek life is on the smaller side (one in 6 guys, one in 4 girls I think) there are a lot of clubs or teams that have more of a social aspect to them.