Villanova University

Boom, the dynamite it goes.
National Champions
And it supports the neighboring restaurant Campus Corner, thus multiplying the awesomeness.
Really one of the prettiest campuses you will find anywhere.

This year the bookstore has revamped it system! All of the books are located downstairs which really gives a lot of space for your shopping! All the apparel is upstairs and has it’s own lines while downstairs you can find help easily and pay for your books separately. Here’s to a great semester!

Maybe I’m a little biased because I went to Villanova, but it’s pretty awesome. Over the last 10 years that I’ve been out of college, they’ve continued to improve the campus with many new buildings and a lot of updated landscaping. Even if you don’t go to Villanova, this is a nice place for a leisurely walk during the summer when they students are out.
As for the food, the dining halls aren’t amazing, but I’ve had much worse.

While a student at Rosemont College a few years ago, I was extended the privilege of cross registering for classes at Villanova thanks to my high GPA. The schools were only a few blocks apart yet sometimes seemed like worlds away from each other.
Rosemont was small, quiet, and everyone knew everyone. It took maybe five minutes to get from one end of the campus to the other, and never at any time did I see more than ten other students walking to class. Villanova was sprawling, at least five times larger than Rosemont, and during my treks between classes, literally thousands of other students could be seen traipsing through the seemingly endless expanse of lawns and buildings. Every hour, the bell at the omnipresent St. Thomas of Villanova Church would sound the hour, reminding me that I was treading on the ground of one of the most prestigious universities on the East Coast, if not in the country. And I would wonder how someone like me, a non-​traditionally-​aged student from the wrong side of the tracks wearing not one designer label, got here. Just like that song from the Talking Heads…
Villanova gets high marks all across the board for every category I can think of: academics, facilities, student life, and of course, sports! Although I only got involved in the academic aspect, so I can’t comment on the others. But, judging from others’ experiences, there seemed to be a healthy social atmosphere on campus, and as for sports, all I have to say is… Wildcats! My teachers were all thorough and taught me well, and I learned so much from just the few classes I took at Nova. It’s a huge school, but because the teachers took the time to get to know me, I felt like a person, not a number.
I don’t know if this counts as a drawback, but the thing about Nova that’s the hardest to adjust to is that it’s made up of mostly rich white kids who look as if they’ve stepped out of a J. Crew catalog. And as I previously mentioned, they are all swathed in designer labels: On one rainy day in particular, I had never seen so many Burberry rain coats and Hunter rain boots in one place at one time. As a poor kid from Southeast Delco/​Southwest Philly, the presence of the rich kids created a certain amount of culture shock for me to process during my first weeks on the campus. Needless to say, Greek life is huge here, with lots of sororities and fraternities. However, I never had to put up any obnoxious sorority girl/​frat boy nonsense, as everyone was very courteous.
Going to Nova was a truly magical time in my life and a privilege I never thought would be mine.

Villanova is a private university in the affluent suburbs of Philadelphia. The campus is full of beautiful trees and appropriately, walking paths too.
Classroom size is write reasonable for most courses, including those core classes every student had to take, regardless of degree program.
The campus is constantly modernizing. Which is great, except for the constant presence of construction work on campus. Plus parking is ridiculous. If you are going to reside here, skip the car of you can. If you commute, like I did, anticipate your parking spot will be as far as physically possible from your first and/​or last class of the day.
How can the school improve? Become a Servicemember Opportunity College (SOC school). The program allows military members to receive some credit for their training and service. It shows you care for veterans and attracts students who have a strong work ethic. I would have come back to finish my degree here if they had been a SOC school.

my son recently graduated from VU. It is impossible to say enough nice things about his experience at this fine school. As an ed. consultant who helps place students in college, I know quite a bit about the top 100 colleges. Everybody who goes to VU loves it, and never regrets their decision. The people are warm, the teachers are very involved and there is a family feel that seems missing these days in both schools and colleges. My son is now is NYC working for a well-​known financial firm and making an excellent salary. I couldn’t be happier. i also know that those important days of his «late-​youth» were filled with friendship and memories, versus jaw clenching, depression and anxiety, which I witness too often with students attending other strong colleges.

I had an event at Driscoll Hall last evening. This is the first time, I believe, I have been to Villanova. Parking was convenient. The campus was beautiful! The facility was clean, spacious, and comfortable. .. very comfortable.
I could not ask for better facilities. I was even offered a ride on a golf cart to the hall (I declined).
Obviously, this one couple-​hour event is not testimony as to the academic program. Nevertheless, I would welcome re-​visiting for other events.

This will sound shallow (because it is) but I’ve never before seen so many attractive people in one place. This goes for both females and males. Villanova is a beautiful peoples catalog. Yes, it is almost all rich, preppy, white Catholics. But I’m a short Jew and I had a fun time and was treated well. Everyone I met at Villanova was perfectly nice and friendly and I made some wonderful friends. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Did i mention how attractive everyone is there?
Academically it has a great reputation. Particularly in engineering and finance. It also has a very supportive alumni network.

I did not go to school here, but I’ve lived within a 5 minutes drive of the school my entire life. All I can say is the campus is beautiful and I have been going to Sunday mass for 20 years here. (turning 23 in April)
Mass at the chapel is so wonderful! The people are so warm and welcoming and the priests are easy to relate to, which is actually uncommon in my experience. The highlight is when Father Peter does the sermon, he’s so funny, likable, intelligent, educated, and easy to relate to.
I applied to Villanova, but wound up choosing Vanderbilt… I think I would have been really happy here and was so thrilled when I was accepted, however, I realized it might be a long 4 years considering my parents lived 5 minutes away and are very much involved in my life. Very, Very much involved. (my mom discussed sleeping on my dorm floor for the first semester so I could get acclimated… yikes!). Even today, my parents keep complaining about how I had my chance to be here… never heard anything bad about the school (aside from housing)

Just finished up my undergrad degree in December, I hated this place with my entire body and soul, the teachers were ok, career services were ok, the worst thing about it? Everyboy else. Almost everyone else acts like entitled little brats, girls are either loose or just plain stupid for the most part, then you got your bros. Also when did college turn into high school, this place is full of cliches, want to make friends after freshman year, good luck, once its winter which is like from october to april, no one is even outside everyone does the same thing, go into their dorms and hibernate. Want to escape the bubble, you better be a junior or a senior because freshman and sophomores can’t have cars, it doesn’t matter anyway since the school, is located on the main line where all the people are stuck up and hate college kids to begin with. The cops are complete _​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​. They have nothing better to do but harass people. I could go on and on with complaints, I literally wrote them down from the time I got there to when I left, 321 to be exact. O well, good riddance.

EVENING CLASSES– ENGLISH DEPT (5 out of 5)
I took several evening classes here to help with my writing. My first class was an American Drama course which was taught by Dr. Gail Ciociola. It was a little challenging me for the beginning. However, I loved the course and we got to see film adaptations of several plays. I also went to NYC to see a play with a classmate to write a paper. My second class was with Dr. Charles Cherry on Literary Experience– Short Stories. Dr. Cherry taught more on writing, grammar, and style as well made it interesting with discussions from a wide range of short stories. My last class was with Dr. Chris Daly on Traditions in Conversations. This was a bit different for me since it’s been a while with history– a bit on European. Also, the course ranged from religion– St. Augustine as well as literature– Shakespeare. Overall, I would have to say the quality is far better than any English course I have taken in undergrad being taught by professors. At UPenn, I took English freshman seminars taught by grad students which was okay. Here at Villanova, you get profs who have taught these courses many years and they have such enthusiasm in class discussions.
LIBRARY– GENERAL COLLECTION, ILL, EZ-​BORROW, & PRINTING (5 out of 5)
Overall, I value this university since it has a decent collection of books on engineering. Plus, the ILL dept is just great on helping me get books and papers. As a student, you forget the little things like this. Once you are post-​grad, library privileges are pretty limited as alumni. UPenn was charging $ 500 for just library borrower’s access ($ 200 for alumni). Since I was taking classes here at Villanova, it’s all covered here. Plus, you can get printing done here as well. When I tried taking a grad course at UPenn a year ago, students were allowed 5 pages of printing a day. How is that reasonable!!! At least Villanova gives you a decent quota for the semester to use.
FITNESS CENTER/​REC CENTER (5 out of 5)
Amazing is all I have to say. Let me preface to talk about UPenn… UPenn is really nice (rock climbing wall, swimming pool, fitness classes, etc.) but they charge an arm and a leg even as a student– that’s also by academic year (around $ 150 – 300 student vs. alumni). Plus, everything is a la carte with recreation trips and fitness classes on top of your membership– no different than your Bally’s, etc. You might as well join a Bally’s/Fitness Planet gym nearby which is alot cheaper– plus it’s month to month vs. academic year rate. With your class registration, Villanova is wonderful with all the perks of a student– library, gym, and printing privileges. Plus, the gym is just plain better than your other gyms. It has all brand new equipment with plenty of TVs to watch while you work out. Swimming pool is next door but you need to check their schedule since swimming teams use it. Tons of weight lifting machines. I also tried soccer intramurals here too and it was well organized. Plus, it was much more reasonable ($ 5 per person) compared to YSC Sports which was around $ 90 per person on a team.
BURSAR’S OFFICE/​BOOKSTORE (3 out of 5)
I have to poo-​poo the Bursar’s office and bookstore on their service. Everything is over-​priced in my opinion. Plus, Bursar made a mistake and charged me as a day-​time student for a course offered at 6PM. The lady at the Bursar’s office told me it was around a difference of $ 200 – 400 which «I don’t know if it’s a big deal to you». My response is «YEAH!!!» I don’t know but I have run into some problems with registration here and people haven’t been the best at handling it. Bookstore also is overpriced but at least you can shop around online for better prices. Try to call head with bookstore or email profs about syllabus with textbook listings. I found the bookstore sometimes did not have this information at their fingertips.
CAREER SERVICES (3 out of 5)
I had some good and bad experiences here. For the most part, the counselors are pretty decent. I think that the fact these counselors do not specialize in different disciplines– Eng, Sci, Nursing, etc. can be a bit limiting. In several instances, counselors have just made cosmetic changes to my resume rather than feedback on content. Also, their website is a bit lacking with tools and databases. For just general advice, I think this place is okay. Alot of students have complained that they just do their career search by themselves– Villanova online job listing from neighboring companies may be a bit lacking here.
VERDICT (5 out of 5)
However, aside from these minor complaints the quality here with English courses is just no comparison if you look at community colleges nearby or even UPenn freshman writing seminar course.

Unlike some posters, I am a RECENT grad and can give a contemporary view of the school. In general, Villanova is an amazing school and I am very glad I chose to go there. The campus is gorgeous and everyone is really nice (you will realize this if you put yourself out there and get to know them). Almost everyone is involved in community service at some point here and the sports teams are historically very good. My two favorite parts were the beautiful campus and the amazing professors. I was a Philosophy & Communication major while I was there. The Philosophy department is a hidden gem in the university and well respected academically. Since Villanova only awards 2 doctoral degrees (Philosophy and Nursing– JD doesn’t count), the school is considered a «Master’s University» in the Carnegie Classification and not a «Doctoral University.» This is why you never see the school in US New and World Report’s general ranking section. Rather, it is in the Master’s section (of which there are 4, North, South, East and West). It has been the number 1 school in it’s category of «Master’s University– North» for over 12 years. (
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Also of note is that though it is a Catholic school, I never felt as though I was being indoctrinated. Yes, they make you take a religion course, but you can take ANY religion course (I took a Taoism course).
I was a commuter but I stayed in the dorms more than I stayed at my place. Drinking rules can be strict, but there are a lot of way to get around it.
Most people are from PA/​NJ/​CA and the Northeast/​Mid-​Atlantic. Even though many people here are privileged, almost everyone is exceedingly nice. People who applied her also applied to Georgetown, Boston College, Providence, Holy Cross and Loyola.
Oh, and the alumni network is GREAT.

What can I say about Villanova… it has its positives and negatives like any other school. I’ve met people that both hated it and loved it.
The Good: I was an engineering major and was for the most part challenged by most of my focused courses — in a positive way. I enjoyed class, and my classmates (all 29 guys + 1 other gal), and the instructors were mostly pretty good or very amusing. Lovely campus, a safe campus, beautiful church — will probably try to get married here when that time comes ;-), and awesome Engineering facility. Housing was OK the first few years, but actually improved drastically if you are able to get into the junior/​senior apartments. And I’ll be honest, the cafeteria food was actually OK, and friends from other schools even complimented it. And oh yes, conveniently located Septa’s for easy access to the city.
The Bad: The lack of diversity — typically, ‘Nova is known for its white, rich, Catholic population… straight out of J. Crew (quoted from Caitlin —
). And really the only true negative I have is the cost of my tuition — $$$!
Bottom line: IMO, you get what you put into it. People may hate the school because of the rich snobs… but hear me out, I came here wearing hand-​me-​downs, never even heard of J Crew or A&F, a completely stereotypical asian nerd, and a total introvert. But somehow found my niche here — met the coolest, nicest, down-​to-​earth people, made great friends for life, and honestly HARDLY noticed the lack of diversity because I threw myself into everything there was to offer here.

You all better have bet for our Wildcats for March Madness!
The first time I visited this school, I was like, «No way am I going here. Everyone looks like they are from a J Crew catalog.» But then I got accepted, and I though, «Well, might as well!» High standards, I know.
Now I am all about it. Let me tell you why:
PEOPLE: Yes, there is an overabundance of «vanilla» and a lot of people are affluent and their parents/​siblings are alum. But don’t be deterred by the orange-​tanned, blond haired, popped-​collared faces. Everyone here is a blast, and besides, that latter group I just described is not everyone. You have to search for the down-​to-​earth people, but they are there.
CAMPUS: Gorgeous. A major reason people come. It is an arboretum, and sometimes families or tree aficionado take trips to the compass to collect leaves, etc. It is pristine, clean and there are tongs of places to tan/​study.
GREEK: There are frats/​sororities, but we aren’t allowed to have Greek housings and there is no drinking on campus (ha). So don’t expect wild and crazy times like you could get at Miami State.
RELIGION: Seriously Catholic, and those who are not will notice, but you can get away with it. The only down fall is that two Theology classes are a requirement no matter what your major.
HOUSING: Junior year apartments are amazing — there are tennis courts, sand volleyball courts, soccer fields, etc. Frosh and Seniors expect to learn how to decorate cinder blocks.
CLOUT: No matter where you go in life, or what job interview you are at, expect to here «Oh I know someone who went to Nova.. . «or «I went to Nova…» or «Let’s go wildcats».