Santa Clara University

Santa Clara University may be the only college at which you can take a class called SLURP:  Sustainable Living Undergraduate Research Project.  Environmental science is one of the largest growing fields of study for California students, and SCU is on the forefront of this discipline.

SCU Solar Decathlon House
SCUs student-made Solar Decathlon House came in third in the national competition in 2007.

Santa Clara is a beautiful suburban campus near San Jose and the Silicon Valley.  SCU is a Jesuit school, on the quarter system, and requires three religion courses during students’ time on campus.  All applicants are automatically considered for merit scholarships.

About 60% of the just over 5,000 undergraduate students are liberal arts majors, 15% are engineers and about 20% study business.  There are 38 majors in the School of Arts & Sciences; communications, psychology and political science are the largest majors.  The pre-law, pre-health studies and performing arts programs are very strong at Santa Clara.  Business minors are very popular; all students can minor in retail management, entrepreneurship or international business, even if they are not business school majors.  While it is the smallest college, engineering is the only area in which SCU offers a Ph.D track.  Only four percent of courses at SCU have over 40 students.

When applying, SCU requires students to designate the school in which they will study, but not their major.  Students who want to study business or engineering should designate these schools in their application; it is very difficult to transfer into them from another division.  SCU’s Admissions office likes to see lots of honors courses from 9th grade through senior year.  The middle 50th percentile of SAT scores for SCU (based only on the Critical Reading and Math sections) is 1170-1370; the middle 50th percentile ACT is 27-31.  They do not look at the science or writing sections of the ACT.

Santa Clara Mission
Santa Clara Mission was originally built in 1822.

About a third of students go abroad, usually during the junior year.  About a quarter of the students are business majors, and SCU’s Engineering school is ranked #21.  Half of the students are from California, the other half from around the country and the world.

Santa Clara’s campus is immediately adjacent to the CalTrain station, and 5 miles from the San Jose Airport.  Newly constructed dining facilities on campus provide a variety of fast and healthy food options for students – Santa Clara has the best college food I’ve ever eaten!  There’s even “Bronco Delivery,” which delivers to the dorms!

Magellan counselors have visited Santa Clara University many times for tours and conferences.  You can see all of our photos from the beautiful Santa Clara University campus here.

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