Gonzaga University Top Questions

Some of the stereotypes are accurate (I did ask for a fleece for Christmas after my first semester) as there is a vast majority of white, upper middle class students. However, as a personal example, not all students are Catholic. Despite some of the stereotypes, regrettably being true, there is another positive stereotype in the open mindedness and overall acceptance of the Gonzaga Community. There is a great call from the students for a more diverse student body, and the administration is responding to these requests. In addition, there is a great diversity in thought and opinions of the students which constantly manifests itself into interesting dorm room and class room conversations.

Yes and no, half of the student population is from the Seattle area, and most students are from the Northwest. Since so many students are from the same area of the country, it's mainly white upper-class. But there are quite a few international students as well.

For about 90{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the Gonzaga population.

yeah pretty much

Some are accurate. Gonzaga has little diversity amone its students. However, not everyone is Catholic and those that are aren't too pushy about it. I am not Catholic and really enjoy this school. Gonzaga is small, but not everyone knows everyone else. I am always surprised when I meet new people. However, rumors do fly and they travel quickly, very quickly. Spokane is a great city. It is no metropolis, but it is big, about 400,000 people. There is a lot to do in the downtown area, it is growing, and there are some great neighborhoods and shops and coffee places if you are not afraid to venture outside of the campus area.

At times, yes, but on the whole no. Almost everyone I have met has had some serious life experience, and they are truly happy with who they are.

With some students.

Unfortunately, most of them kind of are. A significant portion of the student population is white. There is very little ethnic diversity in that regards. Socio-economically, however, Gonzaga is very diverse, consistently giving out generous need-based scholarships for those whose parents cannot afford to send them to a private university. Also, there are a lot of party people on campus, but no more than any other college campus, and you can avoid that crowd pretty easily if you so choose.

I dont know any

Most GU students are either middle or upper middle class white kids. However, there are plenty of kids who struggle to put themselves through school here and have to take out lots of loans. Others do not have much trouble putting themselves through school because their parents can afford to pay for them. The school is Catholic, but it is more liberal than some Catholic schools because it is Jesuit. It's still not Berkely, though. There's a fair number of both liberals and conservatives, believers and non-believers, Christians and Catholics, on campus. Many of the upper-middle class kids have been privately schooled all their lives. However, there are plenty of kids here who went to public schools. There is a strangely large concentration of kids here from certain private schools around the country. Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon is one. It's hard to see how much kids from these schools stick together when they get to college. From what I can see, they go separate ways. The academics at Gonzaga are not bad, but neither are they VERY RIGOROUS. Finding challenging and good professors can be challenging, but we have them. Our Economics program is very small. There are very few options for which classes to take. Political Science is a large concentration here, but there are few challenging Polisci profs. There are one or two straight-up bad polisci profs. My experience in the English and Philosophy departments have been significantly better. Our men's basketball team IS quite good. So is our women's basketball team. Baseball attracts a lot of fans in the spring, and the same with men's and women's soccer in the fall. There are a lot of intramural teams, however short the intramurals seasons can be in the spring. It can be cold in Spokane. Frequently there will be months on end where the temperature stays between 10 and 20 degrees. It's cold. Spring and Fall are much nicer in terms of weather. Some years we have longer Springs than others. This year it was still snowing (though not sticking) on April 21. Other years, March ushers in an early summer and the whole campus comes out of doors to sunbathe. In the Fall, it usually gets cold and snowy by mid-November.