Villanova University | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

Steve

Class: Senior
Major: Government
Gender: M

High School: Vestal High
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

The best thing about Villanova is the professors. They're all really knowledgable, intelligent people who are enthusiastic about teaching. I've only had one bad experience, and it turned out the next year she was let go, (or she moved on herself, i'm not sure which). Besides her, every professor I've had has been excellent. The students come in at a close second place. For the most part the students are all very friendly. The third best thing is the basketball team. This year a new excercise facility was finished and it is really great, I envy the incoming freshmen who will get to use it for all 4 of their college years. I feel the school is a perfect size, although they are steadily growing the size of their admitted class. The biggest problem at Villanova is a shortage in housing. I think most freshmen are tripled which is an extremely difficult and annoying way to live for a year. Also Seniors who aren't nurses or presidential scholars can't live on campus. The area surrounding Villanova is a very rich suburban neigborhood and commercial shopping district. The people who live in the surrounding area are sort of hostile in some ways to the University and the students. There are some nice bars frequented by students, but they're located a far walk away from campus. There is a train that goes from campus to stops very near these bars, but the fare is expensive and I believe the last train leaves at around 12:30. The bars are also relatively tough on ID's.

Academic Life

As I mentioned above, the professors are great here. They do make an effort to know everyone's name as soon as they can. One thing that could be seen as a drawback at Villanova is that the there is a fairly extensive core curriculum that all students in the Arts and Science college have to take. This forces students to take classes that they normally wouldn't want to take. On the other hand this could be a good thing for students who don't know what they want to do, because it exposes them to many different kinds of topics. For example, I'm glad that there was a foreign language requirement at Villanova, because it made me take a foreign language, something that I normally wouldn't have considered doing. The quality of the teaching, however, which was so much better than what I got in high school, actually let me learn a little bit of the language (Italian) and eventually led to me spending a summer and a semester abroad in Italy, which were great experiences. Professors are generally available outside of class during their office hours and they say they are available to talk by appointment as well.

Student Body

There is diversity on campus, but it seems that at least 80% of the students are white. I'm not sure what percentage of the student body is Catholic but I would say it may be around 50%. There is a large puerto rican student presence on campus (I believe Villanova has a sister high school in puerto rico). As far as LGBT goes, I know there is a lesbian gay straight coalition (club) on campus but they aren't too vocal. There are a lot of kids from rich families that go to Villanova. In the winter a lot of students wear sweats to class but during the nicer months kids like to dress up, the girls especially. By the way, the girls at Villanova are by and large a very attractive group, who like to look good and do look very good most of the time. Most students at Villanova come from the Northeast, hailing from states like PA, DE, NJ, downstate NY, CT, MA, as well as from the midwest, FL and CA as well. The students are politically pretty mainstream. The kids I know don't talk about how much they will earn upon graduation, but I only know a few business students.