Loyola University - Chicago

Date: Apr 28 2012
Major: Philosophy (This Major's Salary over time)
In general, I liked Loyola enough not to give it a "bad" rating, but not so much that it deserves a "good" one either. Loyola is really a mixed bag, and I feel that most of what displeases about this university I could have avoided had I been more involved in my own college-search process four years ago. I really liked the academics and the Jesuit professors I had really were brilliant, but the student atmosphere was depressing both inside and outside the classroom.

First off, I chose Loyola pretty much by throwing a dart at a board. I thought that all colleges were more or less the same (wrong!). Well, I wish I would have looked into schools a bit more. I knew I wanted to go to school in a large city since I'm a huge sports fan, (and the idea of being away from professional sports all semester depressed me)so I applied to Loyola, DePaul, and UIC since Chicago has a nice sports scene. Loyola gave me a healthy amount of money and I'd heard good things about LUC from my Catholic community back home, so per my nature, I signed up for it without visiting.

I was in for a culture shock when I started here. Most of the students are quite nerdy, shy, very introspective, and somewhat unfriendly. For what its worth, I don't think the unfriendliness comes from a true mean-spiritedness so much as from social anxiety and awkwardness. Like I said, there aren't many extroverts at Loyola. If you enjoy large social gatherings, avoid not only Loyola, but avoid any school in any large city. Schools in the middle of nowhere tend to foster better community. Personally, I'm a big fan of community and the everybody-knowing-everybody way of life. You just won't get this in a big city.

What I found even stranger though, it's almost as if Loyola attracted the exact opposite of well-adjusted young adults. Most students here actually hated or completely ignored sports (much to my chagrin) and leaned to the nihilist/relativist/'dark side' view of life. For some reason, people who believe the world is a terrible place come here. Lots of feminists, communists, environmentalists, etc. come here. Why? I do not know. As you can imagine, this made for a bad in-class atmosphere. I'm not for blaming white European males for everything (maybe because I am one) but if you are, your views would be welcome here. And if you're like me, you'll walk around for several years wondering where the hell you went wrong.

But fear not, for all is not lost. I got involved in some student activities I was interested in and made some great friends. I don't know where else anyone would be able to meet friends if it weren't for a fairly sizable network of student organizations.

But my friends and I were bored a lot because there's not much to do nearby. I remember my RA freshman year telling me

It's Chicago. How can you be bored?

- but I was. Face it, if there's not much to do within walking distance, there's not much to do. Most students who stick around on the weekends have to take the shuttle downtown, take the red line to Wrigleyville, or take the purple line to Evanston to have fun. All of this requires planning, which, if you notice, is not a specialty of 18-21 year-old kids. College students generally like to meet up at an apartment, hang out, and then figure out something to do on the spot. This just doesn't happen at Loyola. Most students just wound up going home on the weekends anyway.

ON THE PLUS-SIDE, the administration has taken note of the depressing student atmosphere here and is building a new student union. This is badly needed and I am very happy to see that future students will get to use it. Also, Gentile arena just got a necessary upgrade and it makes Loyola look like a real D1 sports school. Porter Moser, the basketball coach, is a young, charismatic fellow and I'm happy to see him engage students so well. Two new fraternities, a new sorority, and a Catholic student community that is finally fostering a real Catholic atmosphere makes me think that there may be hope for Loyola social life after all.

Overall, Loyola wasn't that bad. I got done in 3 1/2 years to cut down on costs so I avoided that debt trap so many people fall into here. I wish I had a more typical college experience, but oh well.

I met good people at LUC. I have some good memories of this place. I found God here after a few years as an atheist/agnostic. What more can I really ask for?

Maybe complaining online is just therapeutic. Maybe you should ignore all the negative aspects of these reviews since you'll have some kind of problem wherever you attend school. Maybe you should come to Loyola because it will change your life the way it changed mine.