Gonzaga University Top Questions

It is a great college

As a non-traditional transfer student, I was extremely picky in the selection process for my four-year transfer. In the mix, I had some large state schools in Colorado and a few private schools in California. I ended up settling on Gonzaga because they had the smallest class size and ended up giving me the best financial aid package. I couldn't be happier. Because of the small class sizes, you can be sure that every professor will know who you are, and many of them are world-class. While the business program doesn't receive as much attention as it should, I feel this will change as the school grows in size. I will say that as a non-traditional student, it has been slightly more difficult adjusting to the social scene of the school, since there really are very few true "peers." That is starting to change in my third semester however, so I'm withholding judgment on that for now. Finally, if you weren't a basketball fan when you went in, you will be leaving. You owe it to yourself to go to as many games is possible. all are a blast!

I love going to Gonzaga because of the school size. It is the perfect amount of students. Not too big or too small. You can recognize faces in the cafeteria and have some of the same people in your classes which helps make friendships.

Gonzaga is one of the smaller schools, although it is increasing these days (my freshman class was the largest they've ever had). If you go to Gonzaga, know anything about Gonzaga, or are even remotely aware of Gonzaga, you know that there is a TON of school pride. Our basketball games are always packed and some teams refuse to play at our stadium because of the fans, who are high energy and noisy. The reaction I get when I tell people I go to Gonzaga is either "Whoa! Think you could get me tickets to one of the basketball games?" or "You go to Gonzaga? Wow, you must've really done well in school to go there!" One of Gonzaga's perks is that it's a small school, as mentioned earlier. It's located in the middle of Spokane, but it's most definitely not a college town.

The best thing about Gonzaga is something simple, something that most people will glance over and not really notice. It is the fact that everyone holds the door open for everyone else. Something that takes two seconds that really shows how much we care. Honestly, i have walked around many other campuses and it has felt so cold and unfamiliar, especially when you are carrying a ton of stuff and the door gets slammed in your face. GU is welcoming and i can't walk from one side of the campus to the other without seeing 3-4 people i know and LOVE to talk to. I love GU cause it feels like home, even though it is in the middle of spokompton. School Pride is a must and Basketball games make you realize how incredible GU is!

The best part of the gonzaga experience for me has been the academics. I have been in small classes with teachers who really care if I succeed in their classes. The rigorous Chemistry program has helped me earn a sense of accomplishment in terms of home work and test grades.

Gonzaga's been great the two years that I've been there so far. It's got small class sizes (especially my broadcasting classes) and most of the professors are great. Spokane's an ok city to live in. It's got a pretty nice mall and movie theater, but it can get kinda shady downtown after dark, and the city itself isn't as clean as Boise (my hometown), at least in my opinion. The basketball games are a blast, and it's really easy to meet new people at school. Some of the dorms are pretty rundown, and the school tends to spend too much money on "campus beautification." I'm a broadcast major, and we desperately need more cameras for our department, but instead our school spends over a million dollars on a shitty reflecting pool/statue and a walking path that virtually no one uses. My only other quarrel with GU is the COG. The COG is the cafeteria at Gonzaga. The food is awful. You will rarely eat everything on your plate, you will spend a lot of money at Pita Pit instead of using your block meals, you will constantly look at COG food and ask yourself "What is that?", and you will most certainly get diarrhea. Yes it sounds nasty...because it is. Every student has to get a meal plan for the first two years, so choose the bronze plan or any other plan that gives you more flex and less COG meals. Any other GU student will recommend this.

Gonzaga is a pretty fun school. Most people are pretty chill and there are usually things going on. It feels almost like a big coffee shop. Most people like being here, but Spokane is a pretty weak city and the off-campus activities are lacking.

I am a transfer student. I transferred from the University of Redlands in Southern California and the adjustment from Redlands to Gonzaga was difficult for me, but what made it easier was the generousity of the students and faculty that understood the transition that I was going through. When people hear that I attend Gonzaga they tend to be impressed and ask a lot of questions about the difficulty of my studies and how hard I work. I got those questions when I was at Redlands but the reactions are much more impressive now that I go to Gonzaga. Something that I will always remember about Gonzaga is the openness of the student body and the friendly atmosphere provided by the faculty. My advisor is one of my good friends and a previous professor of mine. I'll never forget that the staff knows your name even if you took a class from a professor a year ago, they still remember you and they are always excited when a students just drops by their office to chat about school or something else. Spokane is not a college town, since Gonzaga is close to downtown you get this city life feeling but campus is quite large and the neighborhood is quiet so you also get a sense of a small town. The business' around Spokane are dedicated to Gonzaga, the students and the basketball team and that is something that makes such a large area feel like a tight-knit community.

Gonzaga is a very welcoming place. It's a very tight-knit society to those who fit in to the typical mold. However, someone just concerned with academic matters will likely find this an unsuitable school. The core curriculum is simply insane and does little to help students, especially science majors, to succeed. We, (as in all students), are required to take four years of philosophy, two of religion and history (a VERY limited selection of courses available), as well as a social justice course (hence the socialism part). The administration has set in place a variety of absurd expectations that are aimed at supporting the school and its various departments. For example, they take a students' obligation to purchase a meal ticket for two years as serious as the student's academic obligations. This is the only way that they can support campus dining (yes, it's terrible).

Some might be turned off to go to school in Spokane, but the whole city loves Gonzaga! It's not too small where you feel like there is nothing to do, but not too big where you feel like you might be lost like New York or LA.

The Gonzaga campus is beautiful and extremely well-kept; even during the harsh Spokane winters. It's a good sized medium school, though it tends to have a rather homogeneous student population. If you like to work out, Gonzaga may be your ideal match; with its two story gym that boasts over 50 cardio machines, the gym is nothing short of spectacular. The Dorms are decent. The city of Spokane, in truth, leaves a lot to be desired. Downtown Spokane is fairly nice, but the rest of Spokane is a city without soul and extremely industrial. All the bars are sports bars and their filled with complete dead-heads (and I don't mean the old hippies who used to follow around the Grateful Dead which would be a lot cooler). One thing that's for certain though, those dead-head Spokies sure love Gonzaga University. Everyone from the local gas station guy to Spokane Policeman proudly proclaim their Bulldog pride. All in all Gonzaga's a good school, unless of course you're looking for an artsy type liberal college...Gonzaga is, in essence, the anti-UC Berkeley.

Gonzaga is a school that prides itself on its commitment to community service, and alot of the students are doing some really good volunteer work. In some cases, however, volunteering and public service become a front for fraternity-like organizations and behavior, as in the case of the Knights and Setons. I would tell a prospective student interested in serving the community that you will find ample opportunity to do just that; however, I would caution you that the altruistic slogans and idealistic rhetoric displayed prominently all over every publication that GU produces are little more than empty words. Your experience at Gonzaga will be what you make it.

The best thing about Gonzaga is the community. It's just the right size where you can have a great group of close friends and still know a lot of other people. It's hard to just blend in on this campus too, professors really try to get to know their students. While I'm on campus I usually spend a lot of time in the library or in the basement of Crosby. Of course, if you live on campus you definitely will spend a lot of time in the dorms, most of which are pretty old, but really? Everyone's outside all of the time and you're with such great people it doesn't really matter if they are that bad. Part of the draw for me to Gonzaga was the pride students have in their school, this can be seen through the two weeks of camping out a lot of students did before one of the big basketball games this past year.

Gonzaga is a place where you will always see someone you know walking through campus. Even people you don't know will say "hello" and throw a smile your way. This is something that is so special about Gonzaga. Where are a commmunity, this is my favorite thing about Gonzaga.

The people and community are great. I just meet so many good people while at school and developed friendships that will last throughout my life. I experienced great personal growth while at Gonzaga. And as corny as it sounds they really do educate the whole person. The school was a great size. You knew everyone but there was still chances to meet more people. As a biology major it sometimes would have been nice to be at a larger campus where more research was being conducted.

The school is too small, the teachers grade like you are in high school. The weather is terrible 6 out of the nine months. GU is located in the worst part of Spokane (which already is bad enough). The weekends there is nothing to do unless there is a basketball game which are fun.

I loved my years at Gonzaga. The school is growing much too rapidly, but the community is really close-knit and amazing. People love the basketball team; I never really cared about it, but it gives you a topic of conversation with most strangers you meet when you tell them you went there. Spokane is awesome -- nobody believes this until their junior or senior year. Make sure you get off campus and you'll love it. The administration is undergoing change right now, so hopefully it will get a bit less conservative. The professors are very liberal. It really was a wonderful school...I loved it.

Gonzaga is a highly unique school for many reasons, but one of the most prominent is it's nestled position as a "Small-Big" school. With only about 5,000 students (including graduate), Gonzaga is by most standard a small university, boasting small class sizes, and great accessibility to research, facilities, extracurriculars and one-on-one attention. On the other hand, Gonzaga has received national recognition and praise by way of its unexpectedly successful basketball team. Now, of course there are those that argue that an excellence in one sport doesn't necessarily define a good school, which may very well be true; however, as an already outstanding institution I believe that Gonzaga has only worked to capitalize on its athletic success to set itself on a national stage. In this way the campus culture and student interest is most certainly athletically oriented. During all four years of my time as a student, several of my friends and classmates were varsity athletes and if not, they were somehow involved in a intermural sport or were planning a camping trip that weekend; often it would be all three. At some universities, academics and philosophical conversation, music, or religion dominates students' time out of the classroom, however, at Gonzaga you'll rarely see an empty gym or a frisbeeless field on a nice day. This is not to say that students are not highly involved in the community or pursuing their own unique interests. Gonzaga students just simply love sports. And for this reason I don't think it will take long to notice that Gonzaga has a lot of pride. A lot.

I LOVE GONZAGA!