Santa Clara University

This section offers an overview of the SCU experience. For a more detailed picture of SCU, we hope you will explore our website further, talk to recent graduates and parents, attend our information sessions, and if at all possible visit the campus yourself.

The Basics

SCU is a Jesuit, Catholic institution. Our formal mission is to educate the whole person. Student learning is our central focus. SCU promotes excellence in teaching and research, and is committed to coordinating students' learning experiences across disciplines. We seek to educate citizens and leaders of competence, conscience, and compassion who will help to create a more humane, just, and sustainable world.

Coeducational and privately endowed, SCU includes 900 faculty and approximately 5,200 undergraduate and 3,650 graduate students. Our 40+ degree-granting departments are organized into three schools:

• College of Arts and Sciences
• Leavey School of Business
• School of Engineering

Santa Clara's 106-acre campus features beautiful gardens and landscaping, and contains more than 51 buildings, including 12 residence halls, two libraries, a student center, and extensive athletic facilities.

What's the "feel" of SCU?

SCU balances a warm, friendly, California laid-back community with academic and intellectual rigor. Overall, SCU is a community open to new approaches and ideas, deeply committed to collaboration and social justice—a place where people take great pleasure in tackling problems together.

Will my child feel at home in the SCU community?

The admissions process is designed to bring together a group of young people who will find SCU congenial, stimulating, inspiring, and fun. If your son or daughter is admitted, there is a welcoming spot for him or her at SCU.

What's the student body like?

At SCU, we value and celebrate the diversity in our community. Students come from 37 states and more than 16 foreign countries; our diversity is reflected in our broad range of ethnically and culturally oriented clubs and organizations. Students from all backgrounds will find a lively community here, as well as a wide range of support services.

SCU considers each applicant as an individual, with no limit on the number of students admitted from any given background, secondary school, state, or region of the country. Click here to see the demographics of our recently admitted class.

Where will my child live?

Approximately 94% of freshmen live in one of SCU's 8 Residential Learning Communities (RLCs), and half of our students live on campus all four years. The RLC system at Santa Clara is more than a collection of dorm rooms, but helps connect students with their peers and faculty outside the classroom. For more information about RLCs visit www.scu.edu/rlc.

What is SCU's approach to teaching?

Santa Clara stands firmly in the Jesuit tradition of education. In its statement of purpose, the University declares its goal is preparing "students to assume leadership roles in society" through liberal, professional, and pre-professional education. The entire SCU educational experience fosters the cultivation of intellectual, aesthetic, moral, and spiritual values through a disciplined and imaginative engagement with culture in its many manifestations.

Our faculty-to-student ratio is 12 to 1. Naturally, class sizes vary, but our average undergraduate class size is 25. Very few SCU subjects are "closed" by over-enrollment or stringent requirements; most SCU students are able to enroll in most every course that they want every term.

What do SCU students do outside of class?

SCU students are engaged in a wide variety of activities both on and off campus. Follow these links for more information:

• Athletics & Fitness
• Exploring the Area
• Student Activities