Saint Louis University Top Questions

Great class size, teachers are approachable. Community service projects, and the biliken World Festival in April is always fun! SLU is great for networking with alumni and businesses that work through the university. There is a lot of school pride, but there would be more if our sports teams won more games. Diverse student body of people from around the world. African Americans and Latinos the most underrepresnted on campus which offers close bonding and gossip. Frats and sororities abound, big parties with buses to parties are provided. But there's only one historically black sorority at SLU, and no historically black frats at all. The black frats and sororities are city-wide with members from WashU, UMSL, SLU and other St. Louis univerisities in one chapter. Local universities in illonois offer big campus parties and more interaction with Black frats/sororities in a mixer-style party.

It has a huge pre-med program (lots of Indians). The business school is well renowned, but fairly easy. It's in a dangerous area (you have to be careful at night). Lots of apartment parties when under 21 b/c no frat houses or open space. Most over 21 partying at local bars. SLU kids are well rounded compared to the stuck up Washu stereotype or the overly artistic and expressive Webster stereotype. Biondi thinks he is the king of the world. He runs everything how he wants to. We don't have a big football team to bring the school together. Hopefully the Chaifetz Arena and the addition of Rick Majerus will give us a good basketball team.

SLU committees/boards have decided to further inflate the value of a SLU education by increasing prices by approximately 6{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}, making tuition $30+ k a year. This is outrageous given the low rating of the university and lack of name recognition across the country. Not to mention, there is a huge safety isses evidenced by weekly emails from public safety frequently regarding muggins and assaults. As if this was not enough, the US Bank in our Student Center was robbed in broad day light. Culprits are still at large... It is sad to say, but a SLU education is worthless outside of St. Louis. The decision to raise prices coupled with the current economic downturn has decreased enrollment at SLU for 08 school year. I can only hope that the decision makers have started feeling the woes that they have imposed on students and families for years. BIG PICTURE? Not worth your money! Side note: The SlU campus is quite nice and well kept however, I believe that an excess of $1 million is spent each year on the grounds keeping. This seems rather significant considering the small size of the campus.

The best thing about SLU is that it not only cares about your education but how you develop as a person as well. SLU does in fact look at the big picture and the whole person experience of college. The size of SLU is perfect. People know SLU is a good, well respected institution. I spend most of my time in the business school. Saint Louis is a great city full of excitement for college students. I don't know alot about SLU's administration. The teachers are excellent. Everyone who goes to SLU seems to be proud of where they go, but school spirit is lacking a bit. SLU is a diamond in the rough, and is an amazing secret of the midwest.

I really like the size of SLU. It is small enough that I feel at home there, I feel like I know a lot of people, and I feel like I am part of a community, but not so small that everyone knows each other. You meet new people every day. People don't say much when I say I'm going to SLU- it's not that prestigious, although it is a good school. Some people say: "Oh, you go to Wash U?" No, they're not the same. No one outside of the midwest is likely to know about SLU. I spend a lot of time in the library, it's a really good place to study. They also have a recently renovated rec center that's really nice. St. Louis is a fun city, unless you are from a bigger city, then it might seem boring. SLU is very conservative, and that is the part that I was most shocked and disappointed by. The administration banned the Vagina Monologues from campus, the health center isn't allowed to distribute condoms or birth control. You may not think that is important as a highschooler, but opinions and lifestyles change when you move away from home and things you might not of though about before become more important. Father Biondi, the president of the university, is a money driven man. He does not care about the surrounding community, which is somewhat impoverished, and buys up their relestate and puts them out on the street. He plagerized one of his sermons, then denied it. He fired the supervisor of the newspaper, and is currently suing him because he didn't censor the reporters' stories to Biondi's satisfaction. Now the newspaper is very censored. It's disappointing. If you are liberal, don't come to SLU. You could go to better rated colleges for less money and feel more at home. Another thing Biondi did was fail to grant the student refugees from New Orleans who came to SLU in 2006, even though every other Jesuit university in the country did so. The campus is beautiful, the faculty is nice, as parties go, my friends and I always had fun and had stuff to do. However, freshmen boys don't have many parties to go to unless they are in a fraternity, so if you like to party, are a boy, and don't want to be in a fraternity, don't come here. There are better places for you.

In a nutshell: SLU is a mediocre, medium-sized private Catholic school in the middle of a somewhat rough urban environment. SLU certainly isn't a perfect place --there's a lot about it that really frustrated and dissappointed me-- but there's also a lot to love about it, and, in the end, I don't regret having decided to go here.

Every school has a mission statement that they try to abide by, but at SLU they really mean it. "The pursuit of truth for the greater glory of God and the service of humanity" is a philosophy that SLU incorporates into everyday life on campus. While it may seem corny at first (and it sometimes it really is), it's an integral part of SLU, because it shows that the school's goal is more than just education, it's goal is to prepare future citizens on how to lead the best life possible for themselves and others.

My favorite thing about SLU is its size. It's big enough that you're always meeting new people and small enough that you always run into people you know. It's a happy medium between small schools where everyone knows everyone and large schools where it's rare to pass anyone you know on the way to class. If I could change something about SLU it would be the food system, which is complicated and in my opinion a waste of money. SLU's location is in midtown St. Louis: a short distance from downtown and just a hop from the outlying cities. I love going to school in a city, so it's perfect for me. We don't have the same level of sports-oriented pride that some larger schools have, partly because we don't have a football team, but we also have opportunities to be involved as a fan in a number of clubs. Most students find they don't particularly care for the administration for a number of reasons, but I think that's also a factor of going to a Catholic school that depends on donations to make ends meet. When the donors aren't happy, neither is our administration, and in the past few years that's meant the administration has been more conservative than the students would like.

I love being at SLU, and I know it is the right place for me. However, I am easily frustrated by the administration's decisions. My main complaint is that they don't allow the Vagina Monologues to be performed on campus anymore, after 6 years! We still put the show on off-campus, but it makes me sad to think that the administration values the money from conservative donors (in this case) over the hard work of the students.

Well, up front, one thing I would love to change about SLU is the expensive price that they charge for their education but I always seem to second guess that because the more you stay at SLU the more a person loves it and really appreciates all the goodness of it. I think the education that a person recieves at SLU doesnt compare to any other college in the Saint Louis area, except ofcourse Wash. University. The professors are very smart and educated/prepared to lecture the students, at the same time they are also very close to their students and care about each and every one of them. Most of the classes are 13-90 people at the most. Usually the core classes are larger than the ones that will lead you into your major. The people at SLU are not all necessarily stuck up or too smart, we actually have a large variety of students and I believe that anyone will be able to fit in.