Santa Clara University
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Accounting & Information Systems (A&IS)
Minor: None
Student Self Identifies as: Indian/South Asian Straight Female
Summary
I have two on-campus jobs and I’m in a Multicultural Club where we put on a cultural show.
Background
Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Indian/South Asian
Sexual Orientation: Straight
High School Experience: Public high school in Pleasanton, CA with a graduating class of about 650 students. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: No
Major: Accounting & Information Systems (A&IS)
Minor: None
Extracurricular Activities: I have two on-campus jobs and I’m in a Multicultural Club where we put on a cultural show. I went to a couple of Women in Business events such as resume workshops, and they bring in cool speakers.
Academic Experience
Can you describe your weekly coursework for your major?
Because we’re a Jesuit school, every student has to go through a core curriculum which includes diversity, ethics, and writing. You also have a business core and major-specific classes. As an Accounting & Information Systems major, we split everything up so we never have a quarter where it’s all accounting classes or all core classes. The ideal quarter is a diversity class, a business core class, and two major classes. That keeps the coursework manageable.
The bulk of the grade is a cumulative final exam, and then there are midterms, homework, and projects. The reason they do cumulative finals is that once you get to the upper-division accounting levels it’s all information on the CPA exam, so they want to make sure you’re not hearing things for the first time when you go to study for the exam.
Is there anything you feel your major’s department does especially well or poorly?
Accounting & Information Systems is under the Accounting department, it’s just the double major they have here at Santa Clara. What they do well is the process of finding an internship. Since we’re in the Bay Area, we sit in between offices of the Big Four accounting firms, so the Accounting department does an awesome job making sure there’s that relationship there all the time. You can be doing nothing and people will recruit you. It’s easy to get into the process of finding a job, but once you go through the interview process, it gets difficult.
In terms of poorly, sometimes the classes can get heavy in terms of the coursework. I think it’s just because they separate the classes to cover the material needed to take the CPA and sometimes it can be a lot. But, to be honest, I’d rather have that information now than graduating and trying to balance work while learning new things and studying for the CPA.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
It’s super collaborative. There’s a huge emphasis that we’re all in it together. I’ve never felt like I was by myself. There hasn’t been a single class where I haven’t had to rely on or help other people. It’s nice and reassuring that you can reach out to someone who took the class before you so they can retrospectively provide advice. If you do need help you can lean on them.
How accessible are your professors?
I’d say they are pretty accessible. Sometimes it can get tricky. The business school does this thing where they have their professors who are either currently working in industry or coming from a long line of industry. That’s great because they can provide us with a lot of connections and insight, but sometimes their time is limited. They do have mandated office hours but sometimes you might have class during those office hours so you have to schedule an outside meeting, which can be difficult depending on the professor. You just have to be on top of your work and not leave it for the last minute.
Why did you choose your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I came into Santa Clara as a Political Science major. One thing to note is that you can’t freely switch between the arts and science, business, and engineering schools. I took a business class and realized I liked that and it’s more applicable to my style of learning. You have to do an application, and that depends on how many people left the business school the year before. When I switched, I was undeclared business. You have to take a variety of different classes and get a good feel for what business education is before you declare your major. I particularly like math and the challenge that comes with accounting. Accounting is less about math and more about the puzzle of it. Everything is automated so even if you like doing the math you’re not doing that much. Once you go into the actual career, it’s a lot working with people in small teams. You also have to work with people outside of your company that you’re auditing. Being able to adapt all the time and having that challenge of different people is what I loved about it. The information systems part I chose because I wanted a hard skill when I left college.
Reasons to Attend
1) Academically speaking, our student to faculty ratio is 12:1, and our average class size is about 23. If you’re looking for jobs and connections your faculty is a prime place you can go for that.
2) There’s a huge emphasis on having a social culture. You don’t ever feel like you’re only there for class.
3) People here are interested in a ton of different things, so the social life availability is huge.
4) Living in California is a big part of it. If you want to go on spring break down to Los Angeles, San Diego, or northern California, it’s beautiful.
Reasons Not to Attend
1) The lack of diversity. We are a private school with a high price tag, so you do feel a lot of wealth and privilege which isn’t a representation of the area. If you’re not used to dealing with that it’s a hard adjustment. [Socioeconomically, about 44% of students come from the top 5%.]
2) The lack of a college town.
3) We don’t have a football team, which means we don’t have tailgates. We do have a ton of athletic spirit but not having football games mean having a different college experience.
Around Campus
Where have you lived on and around campus?
Freshman & Sophomore: Swig Hall with one roommate
Junior: Off-campus house
How as transitioning from your hometown to Santa Clara, CA in terms of location?
It wasn’t that difficult. There was an adjustment period not living at home. I find it beneficial to be living in a communal-style hall because there were other people and there are distractions if you’re having a bad day. We also have a community facilitator, so if you need help you can rely on them.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
I’ve always felt safe on campus. If there is a moment where I’ve felt unsafe, it’s after I’ve left campus. The campus is well-lit so you’re not walking in the dark and we have the blue light system.
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
It depends on the week. A huge motto here at Santa Clara is “work hard play hard,” and the play hard is suggestive to what you like doing on the weekends. If you want a party life, I have found that here and have had no problem with it. Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum, there is something for you. Some weekends I’m totally about partying and some weekends I want nothing to do with it. I’ve never felt like I can’t get either one here. I will say that things move really fast being on the quarter system, so sometimes you’ll find you have all the time in the world, and some weeks you really have no time because of midterms. Mondays are pretty calm, Tuesdays and Thursdays people will sometimes go out to the few bars around here. If you’re in Greek life, on Wednesdays a lot of mixers will happen. We all love Fridays here, and Saturday nights are pretty quiet because we spend all day outside and by the time the night comes, we’re totally wiped. I can almost guarantee you’ll be in the library or studying on a Sunday.
What is the impact of Greek life on the weekend options?
The impact is noticeable. The date parties and events like that are put on by Greek life, but I wouldn’t say Greek life limits you. About a fourth of our student population is in Greek life, which sounds pretty small, but because we’re a small school you feel the presence a little more than you’d expect. While a lot of weekend activities are put on by Greek life, people beyond it partake in it because our social life is pretty interconnected. It’s not limiting or exclusive at all, I think it’s perfect. [Greek life at Santa Clara is not affiliated with the university so there are no confirmed statistics regarding student involvement.]
How happy are you with the weekend options at Santa Clara? Is there anything you would change about them if you could?
I think it’s perfect for me. If I need to study on the weekend I will, but it’s pretty rare that I’ll spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday studying. That’s not the culture here at all. It’s nice because Friday night I can go out to a party if I want to, and Saturday I can go to the beach or hiking, and then study on Sunday. Within a three-day span, I’m able to do three different things, which is perfect so I don’t tire myself out with partying or being off-campus all the time or studying.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
Through my residence halls. Santa Clara is really big on building community through your residence halls, and not just orientation. One girl from my high school came with me and we were pretty close at orientation. Then we met another girl, and when we got to move-in we had familiar faces. My high school friend and I both had our roommates and we just started hanging out and realized we got along well. The interactive residence halls help facilitate getting to know other people.
How would you describe the overall social scene at Santa Clara?
It’s super active. Having small class-sizes is huge for this because it’s class, but it’s social. Because of that, you get to know people. Because of how supportive and interactive our culture is with academics, you have to do group projects and will ask for help from people. As a junior, I’ll still meet people in my classes and become friends with them.
To what extent do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
They mix socially pretty often, but we don’t have a very diverse student body. For me, I grew up an hour away from here so I don’t think it’s very diverse, but the people from out-of-state might think it’s diverse. It really just depends, but while we aren’t diverse you do see interactions of diverse people. There isn’t exclusivity at all. There are a ton of students on campus actively promoting those things. We have the Rainbow Resource Center and things like that. [The undergraduate population is about 18% Hispanic, 3% Black, 48% White, and 16% Asian.]
How would you describe the South Asian community on campus? How strong is it?
I’d say it’s somewhat prevalent. I know a lot of the community knows each other. At a school that’s [48%] Caucasian, you feel it when you see people from a similar culture. I’m not super involved in that community other than when I do the culture show. If people of color do come here and wish to hang out with people of similar ethnic and cultural backgrounds, a lot of students will do it through the Multicultural Student Union.
To what extent do people in Greek life and not in Greek life mix socially?
Super extensively. I’d say your freshman year you feel it the most, in terms of who belongs to what groups. Every year it incrementally decreases. Your first year you’re rushing and meeting new people and you feel it a lot. Sophomore year you feel a little more normalized and people have friends in other associations. Once you start to move off-campus junior year a lot of people start to drop out of their Greek associations because we are so small you can have that social life without it so you’ll begin asking yourself if it’s worth paying for. I was in a sorority my first year then I dropped by the end of it. The only thing that changes was me having more money in my bank account. I wasn’t ostracized because I wasn’t associated. [There are about 5,500 students at Santa Clara.]
Careers
Has the alumni network helped you find internships or jobs?
It helped me decide what internship I wanted. As a sophomore Accounting major, you interview for the job you’ll have the summer in between junior and senior year. It’s pretty far in advance, but of my 18 interviews, I think 12 were with Santa Clara alumni. It’s nice because it’s easier to connect and I feel like I got a better read at what the culture was at each company. We also have the Alumni Association and they’re super active.
What have you used the career office for? How helpful have they been?
I used them for applying to internships. We use Handshake and needed help setting it up so the appropriate people can reach out to us. I went in to have them look at my resume, and I also had to write a cover letter which they helped me with since I had never written one before.
Have you learned any computer programs or computer languages that will be helpful professionally?
I’ve taken an Excel and a Python class. My class next quarter is on SQL and I know I’ll have to do C++ and some accounting information software.