University of San Francisco–an urban, Jesuit college

What is the University of San Francisco known for? I seem to have been visiting quite a few Jesuit colleges lately and like them for a lot of reasons. I need to write a post on Jesuit colleges generally. But first, I offer this bit about what is University of San Francisco known for, which I was fortunate to be able to visit yesterday as part of a tour for college counselors.

What is University of San Francisco known for?

1. The University of San Francisco is different from the other Jesuit college in terms of its location and the composition of the student body. USF is a school of minorities: only 24% are white. There are plenty of students from other ethnic groups, including Asian (26%) and Latino (21%) and Black (8%). But get this: 30% of the students in the Gospel Choir are white. USF is a place where students can get outside of the cultural constricts of their childhood and high school experience. Students can “mix it up,” literally. Thirty percent of students are the first in their families to go to college. Socio-economically speaking, this place is also pretty diverse: forty percent come from families who make $60k or less per year–and who are attending an institution that costs $50k per year.
2. Who are the “majorities” at USF: Catholics 51%, and women 65% (note that the strong School of Nursing pulls this average off because 95% of schools of nursing are women). Also, 75-80% come from the Western states, though there are representatives of most states and a whole bunch of foreign countries (11% of students are international). Just over half (55%) come from California.  But California is a big state!
3. Like most Jesuit institutions, USF is a mission-driven college. They focus on “education the whole person” and learning is considered a “humanizing social activity rather than a competitive exercise.”
4. USF has 5,000 undergraduates, with another 3,800 graduate students. Seventy-five percent of classes have 25 students or fewer.
5. It has a core curriculum, like most Jesuit institutions. But there are still differences. There is a total of 11 core classes, plus a class that includes a service learning component (not just a “bunch of hours”)—service learning is integrated into the classroom, making it an integration of service and learning.
6. Admissions officers at USF encourage phone calls from both students and counselors. They do not have a “wall” between web users and the admissions staff. The admissions office representatives said repeatedly, “Pick up the phone; we’re old-fashioned.” USF also lists all the phone numbers of faculty right on the website. So if you’re interested in how good the biology department is, or what the major’s priorities are, you can just get on the horn with the chair of the department and ask.
7. Twenty-five percent of faculty are “of color;” 45% of faculty are women. One of USF’s core values is diversity.
8. If you are interested in the nursing program, you must apply separately, and the nursing program is very competitive. There are about 600 students in the nursing program.
9. USF offers great scholarships for those it deems to be “high value” students:  those with a high GPA in grades 9-11. While USF is test-optional, a high score certainly wouldn’t hurt and might help you land more merit-based scholarships.
10. Some students may opt for the Saint Ignatius Institute, an interesting Great Books program within both the Jesuit and the liberal arts traditions. SII is also a living and learning program, whereby students in the program also live together. Students read the classics of Western Civilization (Plato, Homer, Augustine, Dante, Göethe, Kafka, Borges, etc.). This program is open to all students, but spaces are limited. For students who want the “Great Books” sort of program offered at St. John’s (but who don’t want the strict focus of St. John’s), this might be a great fit.

All in all, I really enjoyed my time at USF, though I wish the weather had been warmer. It was blowing a gale, despite the fact that the sun was out. I hear that Mark Twain had this to say about this fair city (and I’m not quoting directly): “I spent the coldest winter of my life in San Francisco one summer.”

Mark Montgomery
College Counselor