Loyola University Maryland

I'm a graduating Senior, Economics Major who took alot of business classes and I am regularly involved in the social scene. (Go the bars every weekend, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, occasionally a Tuesday or a Monday in there)

First, You will spend a ton at this school. This is a BAR school. If your parents aren't providing you the bills to pay for alcohol, cab fares, cover fees to bars, expensive bars drinks then DO NOT come here. All that adds up, and other more campus based non-bar party schools are alot cheaper and more fun(but we'll get to that).

Second, The bar scene becomes tiring very quickly. There are only a few bars people go to on each night and you get painfully tired of each of them, since the school is VERY strict with on-campus drinking. Drinking socially on CAMPUS will get you written up, with fines and possibly suspensions very quickly. THIS IS NOT THE "COLLEGE" that you read about/see on TV and they will remind you of that quickly. So you must go to bars off campus, which means you must buy a Fake ID, which will run you about $100, possibly more and won't work all the time at these bars.

Third, The general "social" atmosphere around here is lacking. What do I mean by this? Student bodies around colleges tend to be very "group" oriented. Meaning there are small sub groups of people who hang out and they generally only socialize within their group, but occasionally branch out and socialize with other groups. Well at Loyola this social atmosphere is multiplied by ten. People have their groups and generally stick to them. There is little socializing among groups/people you don't know. Meaning girls are very status conscious when they are at a bar and a guy approaches them who they don't know. I've visited other schools and this "aversion" to meeting people you don't know isn't as intense as it is here at Loyola. Status is everything to among these upper middle class white kids so anxiety about socializing and the Zero school spirit really kills the social atmosphere and the "community"/'we're all in this together" atmosphere you see at different schools.

Fourth, School Spirit is nonexistent. Lacrosse games draw people to the stadium we have but nobody really cares about the sport that much, people are just looking for an excuse to day drink and break up the monotony of going to bars. This year the basketball team is better than usual and is drawing some attention, but still, nobody is really proud to go this school.

Fifth, As other reviewers have stated Loyola is not really located in the city of Baltimore, but on the outskirts. Travel is difficult into the city, No subway, expensive cabs, poor bus service so going on excursions into the nicer parts of baltimore are rare(freshman also can't have cars on campus). The area around Loyola's campus is also very poor, which leads to muggings, sexual assaults...etc. A group of people were actually mugged on campus last year as well, when some of the "locals" from york road made a trip to campus.

Sixth, Parking on Campus is horrendous and will cost you a fortunte.
Seventh, The student body is mostly preppy, yuppie, bro white upper class college kids. There is ZERO diversity. I repeat, ZERO. the only black kids are the ones that play on the basketball team. A few asians, and maybe 5 hispanic kids in the each grade. Thats just a fact. I can get along with these preppy kids so it's not awful for me, but for other people I can see how this would be a nightmare.

Eighth, by Junior year everyone kind of accepts that they would have preferred to go to another school, but people just decide to live with it and make the best of their situation. Many do end up transferring or getting kicked out because of the strict campus rules.

Ninth, the academics are decent. You still have to game the system and many do cheat just to get better grades, but that happens at any school. Surprisingly alot of the professors are actually not that great at teaching. But this is more reflective of college in general. Overall though I had 6-7 Horrible, Bottom of the barrel teachers, 1-2 great teachers and the rest were middle of the road. Because of the small class sizes most will be very available for office hours, how helpful those office hours are is a different story.

So in general, I just want to reinforce the fact that this school is not for everyone. In fact its not for most people. But take this review as an honest assessment of the school from a student who has fun and parties, but who had to make the most of the situation after painstaking effort and alot of trial and error, which would have never happened at a different school.Apply to Loyola with caution

3rd Year Male -- Class 2012

Faculty Accessibility: A+, Collaboration/Competitive: F

Like with all schools, there are two major aspects to consider before enrolling: academics and social life. My experience at Loyola, academically speaking, has been positive. My classes are engaging, my professors (with the exception of a couple) are helpful, kind, knowledgeable, and I?ve learned quite a lot in the short time I?ve been here. I respect the academics, even though I?m not a fan of the core curriculum, and I have no regrets in that respect. All in all, if you come to Loyola, no matter what your major is, you're likely to take away at least something from the classes you take. But then there's the social life. Oh my God, the social life at this school.

I knew before I got to Loyola that the school was going to have a lot of wealthy, preppy assholes, but I remember thinking to myself, ?Well, I?ll just ignore that part of the student body and find the people who are more interesting and independent.? But I didn't know that those rich, preppy kids are not in fact part of the student body, they ARE the student body. I challenge anyone to find a more homogeneous student body than the one at Loyola University Maryland. Seriously. Everyone here is a carbon copy of one another. The word "individual" is meaningless. I can't even step outside my dorm room without seeing another douche bag wearing boat shoes and salmon-colored khaki shorts, stumbling around drunkenly, looking for some retarded blonde girl (an ideal counterpart) to grope. It?s not surprising, however, that these students are so alike. The reason for this is that a LARGE number of the students that go to Loyola came from northeastern prep schools; and they came to this school with 10-15 other students whom they already know, rendering the initial friend-making process of beginning college not a problem for them. For someone like me, however, who came from a public school, not knowing anyone, finding friends has been very difficult. I have, luckily, made some friendships -- but only with people I don't have that much in common with, for the sake of having friends at all. If you're not like the typical Loyola student and you want to make friends, you're going to have to lower your standards a little; otherwise, you'll be alone here.

Loyola is a fairly reputable school, and the kids have to be at least somewhat intelligent to get in, but honestly, I found that they are even less intellectually curious than the kids from my crappy high school. Do not come here if you are looking for a cerebral student body. Do not come here if your idea of bonding with other people does not mean going to some shitty bar on York Road and getting totally wasted together. If you are quiet, creative or introverted, then stay the FUCK away from this school. If you are a guy and you were not a buff, popular stud in high school, then you will be a total loner here. If you are a girl and you are not attractive, egomaniacal (I once had a girl from my hall going around from door to door announcing to everyone that her birthday was in exactly one week) and superficial, don't even bother applying here. You will be bored and alone all the time. Every female at this school is a stupid girly girl. I remember during orientation, we had to write down on a piece of paper what our biggest hope is for our four years at the school, and the girl next to me wrote down ?not to get fat.? This is your typical Loyola chick. Your amount of social life here functions in direct proportion to your level of physical attractiveness, blind conformity, and willingness to continually imbibe large quantities of alcohol at the shittiest, sketchiest bars in all of Baltimore. Going to college, for most students at Loyola, is a means-to-and-end. That is, it's four years to learn just enough to get a well-paying job when you graduate; four years to go wild and have fun, because that's all life is about for these worthless blobs of people. It?s actually funny sometimes to listen to some of them talk. It?s as if there's nothing more important or interesting in the universe to them than a discussion of how hot this or that girl was, or how drunk they were the night before, and how they ?can't remember ANYTHING, bro? because they were ?so TOTALLY wasted, man.? No one cares about their education. No one is passionate. So, that's what it has been like here for me before. Needless to say, I will be transferring, and trying to erase this place from my life. You can dismiss this review and think I was some cynical outcast who blames all of his personal problems on his environment, but I swear this is not the case. I?ve tried to be nice and I?ve tried to meet like-minded people, but I just can't take this place. And it's sad because I really liked my classes and my professors. It?s just the students that ruin it. They just don't give a shit about what they're being taught. But if you do, then I promise you, you will be so stifled by these people, that you will inevitably want to transfer from this Catholic shit-hole. Or kill yourself. Either one.

1st Year Male -- Class 2015

Useful Schoolwork: A-, Innovation: F