St John’s University-New York Top Questions

I think it has a great learning environment and that it has a very good quality of education. The professors are brilliant and they really care about the students. The school itself is also very community oriented and it promotes a lot of events for students to get involved in.

The best thing about St. John’s is our commitment to community service. All aspects of the university supports this commitment, from academic-service learning requirements for classes, Campus Ministry’s weekly service opportunities, and all organizations participating in campus-wide service initiatives, such as University Service Day and Relay for Life. One thing I’d change about St. John’s is it’s criteria for prospective students. One of the main reasons why one of the stereotypes of a St. John’s student is being a dumb minority who has their tuition paid for by the government is that St. John’s is not very selective in its acceptance of students and on a campus that promotes intellectual development, those students stick out like sore thumbs. The average GPA and SAT scores of applicants cover too wide a range to properly represent the caliber of St. John’s students. The size of St. John’s is just right, for the campus is spacious enough to accommodate simultaneous activities and compact enough to give students the atmosphere of a town that contains all one needs. The Residence Village, the array of dining facilities, the library, the D’Angelo Center (the hub of student activity), the buildings with classrooms (whose empty rooms are usually open for independent student usage), the beautiful St. Thomas Moore Church and the sprawling Great Lawn in the middle of campus all provide a premier college-campus experience. People’s first reactions when I tell them I attend St. John’s is, “Oh, that’s a good school!” or “So you want to study Pharmacy?” St. John’s has a fairly good reputation in the Long Island-Queens area, which is where I’m from. Most people congratulate me on choosing a good school to build a foundation of higher learning and networks upon, especially since St. John’s is generous in their scholarship and financial aid offers. I spend most of my time on campus in the Residence Village and the various student centers and classroom-containing buildings, due to my employment as a Resident Assistant, my position as co-Captain of the Mock Trial Team and co-Librarian and co-Chaplain of the Voices of Victory Gospel Choir. Since the choir sings at many campus events, I am seen almost everywhere. Most often, though, I am either in class, helping lead Mock Trial practices in the D’Angelo Center or Marillac Hall or rehearsing with my choir in St. John’s Hall. The town around St. John’s boasts of successful businesses (big and small) and a consistently high level of activity during the school year. St. John’s students are integrated into the already highly populated community by frequenting book stores, local shops, libraries and restaurants. Public transportation cater to St. John’s students by having several stops located around the peripheries of campus and all kinds of services (banks, phone stores, take-out places) are a few minutes away from campus by bus or foot. Since St. John’s is also a Metropolitan university, there are shuttle-buses provided for the students that drive into the city and back several times a day. St. John’s administration is organized, responsible but sometimes unnecessarily strict. Writing from a Resident Assistant’s point of view, I’ve seen the strict side of the administration when it comes to dealing intimately with the students living on campus. However, being a leader of the Mock Trial Team allowed me a closer relationship with the higher administrative officials such as the Provost and Vice Provost. I’ve seen that they are very dedicated to cultivating the best educational atmosphere for their students and supporting the already existing programs that do so. Being a leader of the choir has shown me how dedicated the university is to the arts and creating a lively and social college experience. The biggest recent controversy was a newspaper article that criticized St. John’s students for bad-mouthing a school during a basketball game at Madison Square Garden. The students had held up signs and chanted anti-gay slurs directed at the opposing team. This was done in bad taste and the entire St. John’s community was criticized for the actions of a small portion of students. One of my Mock Trial coaches informed us of this article to remind us to represent the vast majority of St. John’s students in a positive light with our professionalism. St. John’s students have an immense amount lot of school pride. Sporting events are usually filled to the brim with students and St. John’s paraphernalia is worn by many students around campus and the community. Personally, in the organizations that I’m involved in, all the members love St. John’s and show it in all the ways that they can: supporting St. John’s sponsored events, spreading the word to prospective students and wanting to get involved on campus in any way that they can. The most unusual thing about this school is the variety of interests the students have, partly due to their very diverse backgrounds. Each section of the university is thriving with participants and student leaders, from cultural organizations and Greek Life sororities and fraternities, to the performing arts groups and professional honor societies. There is something at St. John’s for everyone! One experience I’ll always remember is my very first Annual Winter Carnival: Tree Lighting and Fireworks Display on the Great Lawn. It was my Freshman year and I was singing with the Voices of Victory Gospel Choir in front of the library, overlooking a magnificent display of lights wrapped around all the trees surrounding the Great Lawn, with swarms of people milling around, drinking their complementary refreshments and chattering excitedly about the impending fireworks. Then night became day as colorful lights exploded in the heavens. Students, community members and children alike “oo-ed” and “ahh-ed” as “All I Want For Christmas Is You” echoed across the wide expanse. It was one of the most magical nights of my life. The most frequent student complaint is that the tuition is too high. However, one way St. John’s tries to remedy this is to award scholarship and financial aid to as many students as possible. Actually, this awarding of aid is one of the most commonly cited reasons why students choose to attend St. John’s.

At the end of the day, I am glad I chose to transfer to St. John's. I have studied at four institutions so far, and St. John's seems to be the most well-rounded out of all of them. There's a combination of academic diligence, social awareness, and strong spirit on campus that is hard to get right; maybe this is owing to the school's location, which gives it both a traditional comfort and a cutting-edge urban feel. The professors are very well-qualified and I have not had one so far who didn't seem at least knowledgeable and approachable, if not very passionate. I have also found the other students to be an engaging and diverse body of people; students from all walks of life end up at St. John's, and the academic requirements put everyone on a level playing-field from the get-go, which gives us all a valuable ability to gain perspective. Of course, the major lump in everyone's throat about St. John's is the tuition cost; I was lucky enough to get an academic scholarship from the school when I transferred, but even with the grant, the tuition cost is huge and sometimes overwhelming. The cost of college is something everyone needs to consider before enrolling; all I can say is that it is obvious that in educating and enriching its students, St. John's doesn't cut corners, so at least the tuition fee comes back to us, in a sense.

St. John's really helps its students with career preparation and provides the fundamentals and coursework needed in order to enter the professional job market. From my experience I have received complaints from students who go out into the real world after graduation and do not receive the career positions they went to school for. The main reason for this is a lack of organization and campus involvement from the students. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved on campus that meet the interest of all students in some way shape or form. Companies want to see that a student is versatile and are doing more with their college experience than just focusing on grades. Although grades are of number one importance, organization and campus involvement makes a student well rounded and readily prepared to work with partners, co-workers, and others in a professional high speed environment.

I think this is a very good school to attend. The professors are very engaging and supportive, the classes are interesting. It has a good reputation in the area, and I've even gotten praise from my family members and peers for being accepted. I generally spend most of my time in the DAC or Marillac Hall, both of which are well equipped for classes and students needs. While it isn't in a college town, the surrounding area has business that prove useful to most college students, and the city is a simple subway or bus ride away if you're looking for fun. The school pride is strong among the students.

St. John's University is located in Jamaica, Queens - a city just 45 minutes (on a good day) outside of Manhattan. Schools located this close to major cities often boast that the city is your campus and playground. At St. John's, we have the best of both worlds. We can take a train into the city to explore, but we also have expansive grounds and a full-size campus to enjoy as well. It makes for exciting experiences everyday and for a unique college experience. While on campus, I spend most of my time in the D'Angelo Center - a student common area that has a large living area with couches for lounging, desks for studying, and a Starbucks to re-caffeinate during particularly grueling study sessions. It is, by far, the most beautiful and comfortable building on campus and is constantly packed with students studying or just hanging out with their friends. St. John's has been the perfect school for me, but I am often upset to hear that not many know about what this school really has to offer. When I tell people about my university, they often give me a blank look as if they have never heard of it - and some really have not. However, thanks to a successful basketball season last year, the opinion of this school is starting to escalate and it is becoming a more prestigious university. This has also helped to boost school pride and morale, as many students on the St. John's campus could care less about sports or the success of our teams. Complaints often heard around campus have to do with overpopulation - which is true. St. John's accepts a great deal of the students who apply and this has made for a crowded campus at times. The good thing about getting accepted to St. John's, however, is their generosity with scholarships and financial aid. St. John's believes in education and wants their students to have the chance to have the best education possible, even if they can not afford it right away. There have been quite a few controversies on campus - including a priest charged with sexual assault and a dean who was charged with embezzlement and fraud. However, this has not changed the standards of the school or the morale of the student body.

St. John's University does not provide your typical college experience. With the campus located in Queens - just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Manhattan - city life is everywhere. If the few bars in Jamaica begin to bore students, take the subway into the city to find something more of your flavor. Rooftop bars galore take your breath away when you realize that you are going to college in the greatest city in the world. Hungry? Talk about literally being able to land your hands on any type of food your little heart desires. Back on campus there is somewhat of a campus life. With the basketball team on the rise again, school spirit is everywhere. The winter carnival where we light our own Christmas tree, Rockefeller Center style, is one of my favorite days of the year. In fact, carnivals and other free events are hosted throughout both semesters for the students. You can never get enough free stuff at St. John's! If there is one complaint that echoes through the halls it will be heard in the sarcastic repetition of "We are St. John's." The administration tends to be ridiculously bureaucratic and many decisions are made at the great confusion of the students and faculty alike. Some days I wish there were less commuter students that stayed around to make Jamaica more of a college town but overall the plethora of activities to do both on campus and throughout NYC make going to St. John's an experience I wouldn't give up for the world.

To be perfectly honest, I find my university quite overrated. This was my dream school, so much so that it was the only school that I applied to; that was how badly I wanted to get in. In my opinion, the best thing about this school is the campus itself. It's beautiful and quite spacious. You can really see where your tuition is going as far as landscaping. But that's about where it stops. Don't get me wrong, I think St. John's is a very good school with wonderful teachers and great programs, but its one downfall in the minds of all the students is its ridiculous tuition. If I had to change one thing, it'd most definitely be the price. We understand that higher education is expensive, but when you're more expensive than most Ivy League schools, there's a problem. Most of us just don't transfer because we feel stuck with many core classes that won't transfer to other schools, such as theology and philosophy. When I tell people I go to St. John's, the sad but honest truth is that the first thing most people ask me is "why?" I hate not having a very good reply to that. It doesn't help that you get virtually no help from the school's administration; financial aid is a nightmare and residence life is even worse (for anyone who dorms, which I have had to two years in a row.) There hasn't been one major controversy amongst the student regarding the school, but our two main issues is the annual tuition increase and the horrible state of the dorms. Every year the price of tuition goes up, and no one told us to combat this, we had to check the 'fixed tuition' box while applying to the school, so most of us were not privy to it. Also, the dorm policies here are ridiculous, such as kicking us out the dorms and not letting us back in for a month during Christmas vacation, unless we pay $1,000 dollars to stay the duration of that month. I've never heard of any other school doing that! None of this is represented during the school tours that so slyly sell you pipe dreams of an extraordinary campus experience, one that I so naively fell for. There seems to be a lot of school pride on campus, but that's just the school's marketing campaign, which includes the Red Storm logo T- shirts we wear simply because they periodically give them out free, not due to some deep- seated pride we have for our school. There's nothing unusual or unique about this school except its uncanny amount of Public Safety officers that unnecessarily harass students, but coincidentally are seen doing little to keep the public safe.

I must say that I was hesitant to come to St. John's when I was a Freshman, but over the last two and a half years I have really come to love this school. The opportunities you find here are really one of a kind and make these four years of my life truly the best I will ever have. Since coming to St. John's I have studied under Harvard graduates, gained valuable job experience within the university, traveled to 6 different countries (and I plan on going abroad again next fall!), lived in downtown Manhattan in one of the nicest neighborhoods in all of New York City, and gained friends that will be with me for the rest of my life. Granted, it is a university and has its faults, one of them being a somewhat disconnect, as it seems, between students and administrators, often resulting in administrators making large changes with little to no input from the student body. However, this has not hampered my education or great experience here. If anything, the somewhat troublesome administration has motivated me to get involved with the student government and work with my peers to make changes for a better future. We are always optimistic in those regards. St. John's has its ups and downs like any university, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else for these four years of my life!

I think that St. John's University has an amazing alumni program that allows us to create a solid foundation for networking in the real world, our professors are awesome and very considerate, they are very eager to help students stay on the right path towards graduation and help meet the students academic goals, i honestly cant say i have one regret about choosing St. John's University as my undergraduate school