Santa Clara University

Date: Feb 27 2014
Major: Civil Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
Having gone to public schools for all my life, I decided to give private education a shot in hopes that it'll offer a better way of educating than I've experienced so far in my life. Having turn down other highly ranked and less expensive state schools like Cal Poly, I decided to pick Santa Clara mainly because it was close to where I currently live, the private school aspect, and the fact that it was reasonably well ranked for its degree programs. Originally, while still in high school I had high hopes for this school; however, near the end of the second quarter of my freshman year. I feel as if I choosing to come here to be one of the worst life decision that I ever made.

Considering that I did not receive any financial aid, I'm going to base my review of this place for it face value tuition of \(40k+, which doesn't include extras like housing. Is it worth paying all this money just to come here when there are other options out there that are just as good but at a fraction of the cost? My answer to that would be no. Paying this much money, you would expect like 90% of the professors here to be an inspiration to learning as well as some of the best teachers you ever had in your life. This is so far from the truth here as I feel that you would get the same quality of professors at a cheaper state school like San Jose State, even some of my high school teacher could teach the material better than most of the professors I had so far. I completely understand that no matter what college you decide to attend that you might encounter a "bad nut"; however if you're paying four time the amount of money, you expect that there would be far less of these "bad nuts", so far this has not really been the case from what I've experienced. Having a math professor that solely relies on a power point presentation to teach the the material is completely a joke in my opinion . You would be much better off just ditching the class and self study the material on your own. To sum it up so far, paying four times the tuition doesn't ensure you four times better quality professors, it make no difference whatsoever. SRF:ELEMENTS:6xsrfAnother thing that annoys me, which was also stated by another reviewer on this threat is that Santa Clara is really just a money pit where you throw you \)$$ into a pit of fire and watch it burn. On top of paying for the exorbitant tuition, we also have to pay for a lot of trivial thing that you would expect to be included in the tuition, one such thing would be in the Chemistry labs, we are required to purchase our own lab coats and goggles, which I find odd since why don't they just have a class set just like what I had in high school, instead of make everyone fork out more money to buy something that they'll make you use for only one quarter. Another thing that bugs me is the amount of core university education classes that we have to take, especially for a technical major like me. What's even more stupid is how any AP social science class that you migh have taken in high school such as AP World and US History are really meaningless, and only count for elective credit. You still have to take their own social science classes, what they call C&I or Cultures and Ideas classes which are honestly a complete joke. The whole reason for me to do AP Social sciences in high school was for the purpose of getting out of these GE social science classes that they make you take as part of the core requirements. These AP social science classes would made much more sense if I went to a UC or CSU college, since it'll enable me to be done and finished the GE social science classes, therefore allowing me to focus on other things. Not to mention, with Santa Clara being a religiously affiliated school, you are also required to take several religious studies classes as well, no matter if you are an engineering or poly sci. major.

My advice to people thinking about coming here is that Santa Clara is a nice school with nice facilities as well as the California whether. However, I can't really justify having to pay the $40k+ tuition for what I'm getting out of it. I feel that you can get the same quality of education somewhere else for a lot lower price. It's simply not worth the money at all to put it plain in simple. I recommend only coming here if you have a sizable financial aid package, and no Santa Clara doesn't give out financial aid midway through your college career if you're a junior or senior in good standing. If you however, feel that something here does help to justify the $40k+ tuition, then by all means go for it, it's your life. However, the money you save by going somewhere else like at a state college can be used to pay for grad school, graduating with little to no debt, or even a down payment for a house or the dream car you always wanted.

Oh and as for the social scene, this place doesn't have much to offer in terms of that, since the college is located in the heart of the Santa Clara Suburbs, and your literally surrounded by all kinds of random houses. I honestly believe if you guys want a true social college experience, then attend a school located in the middle of an urban center, as there would be more things to do and places to see.

Anyways, I'm considering leaving after my freshman year here and going to the local community college DeAnza and transfer to either a UC or a CSU, save a lot of money by doing that. For all you high schoolers out there, know that college is not fun and games as it's usually advertised to you folks. getting into college is only one third of the battle. So choose wisely where you want to spend you four years and try and think ahead. For me choosing Santa Clara is a regret that I have, mainly for what I'm getting out of paying such a high tuition, which although my parents are fully supportive of my freshman year here, I would later need to find another way of helping to fund my education at Santa Clara if I were to stay, and that mean student loans (:().

Well, wish the best of luck to you guys in your college ventures…